Tottenham Hotspur's first evening in Marseille was met with a familiar and repeated wake-up call throughout the night.
football.london understands that there were two prolonged periods of fireworks being let off right outside their hotel at around 1am and 4.30am on Monday night as Antonio Conte and his Spurs squad attempted to sleep ahead of their crunch Champions League match against the French side.
The times of the fireworks at such anti-social hours negated any potential of them simply being public displays, while those inside the club suggested there must have been plenty of money spent on them because of the length of each interruption to the evening's rest.
This is a time-old trick on European trips though for Spurs, most famously seen when Ajax ultras let off fireworks outside the team's hotel in the early hours ahead of their Champions League semi-final second leg in 2019. However, the following night it was the sight of Lucas Moura firing home that dramatic third Tottenham goal that ignited the tie and sent the north London side rocketing into the final.
READ MORE: Every word Cristian Stellini said on what Antonio Conte will do with his Spurs stars around ban
The Spurs players had caught up on any lost sleep in the afternoon ahead of that match and they will do the same again in Marseille on Tuesday.
It is not only the team that have faced disruption with Spurs fans not allowed in the city centre ahead of the match on Tuesday. Following serious disorder at the Marseille vs Frankfurt Champions League match earlier this season, a decree from the Marseille police has strictly prohibited "any person claiming to be a Tottenham supporter or behaving as such" from moving around the first, second, sixth and seventh subdivisions of Marseille.
The ban was imposed on Monday afternoon to avoid the possibility of conflicts between both sets of fans and the Spurs supporters will be escorted to the Orange Vélodrome on coaches and buses on Tuesday under the supervision of the local police, while no Tottenham fan is advised to be near the stadium and in an entire sector around the stadium between 10am and midnight on Tuesday.
The club have advised the supporters not to visit the Old Port (Vieux Port) area of Marseille during their stay and when visiting other parts of the city to not wear anything that will identify themselves as Tottenham fans or congregate in large groups. To make things even more difficult, Tuesday is a public holiday in France to celebrate All Saints’ Day, which could make for busier parts of the city with people off work.
As a result of those previous troubles, Marseille will have a reduced stadium capacity, with the Virage Nord stand, which holds 13,000 spectators, closed to take the maximum capacity down to just over 54 ,000, meaning it will still be a raucous atmosphere for Tottenham.
In all this trip has plenty bubbling on behind the scenes with difficulties for Spurs in getting the point they need in the French city.
The main absence will be Conte himself from being around the team thanks to the red card and subsequent ban following his frustration in the aftermath of the VAR decision late against Frankfurt that chalked off Harry Kane's 'winner'.
The Italian cannot communicate with his players once he or they enter the stadium, which means he cannot enter the dressing room, tunnel area, dugout or anywhere his team will be once they arrive at the Orange Velodrome.
Instead Conte will travel with the players and conduct his team talk on the bus, rather than his usual step of taking a separate bus with the coaching staff. The Spurs head coach also normally prepares his tactics and strategies for a match alone ahead of a game before sharing them with his staff to put into place but he will now have ensured they were shared fully well in advance.
Conte is a man who works a lot on impulse and often decides on certain strategies and even times of training sessions late on in the process so this is going to be a different way for him to work ahead of the game.
On top of that, he will sit alongside his brother and technical and analytics coach Gianluca in the stands at the stadium. While Conte cannot speak directly to his players or the bench, no doubt he will be chewing the ear off his bespectacled sibling, who will likely be in contact with his fellow coaches at points throughout the encounter.
That leaves Cristian Stellini as the main face in the dugout. The 47-year-old worked with Conte during his title-winning years at Juventus and Inter and if anyone knows what the Spurs head coach wants then it's Stellini. He has stepped in before when his compatriot's emotions have got the better of him and led to bans and he has a 100% record so far of three matches in charge and three victories in Conte's place.
He will also have alongside him a valuable man to lean on in Ryan Mason, who was caretaker head coach himself for a relatively successful stint at just 29-years-old in the weeks after the departure of Jose Mourinho. The former England international knows the Spurs players well and has their respect, not only as a former team-mate to some but as a talented young coach.
Conte himself was impressed by watching Mason work with the players and with his sessions during the Italian's first days at the club before he was officially allowed to lead training himself, which led to Mason being asked if he would leave behind his academy work and join the first team coaching staff permanently.
Within the guidelines of his ban, Conte chose not to attend Monday's pre-match press conference and instead remained with the players and staff after their walk around the stadium's pitch that night. There would no doubt have also been a concern among some about what he might have said when repeatedly asked about the ban that might have got him into further trouble.
So instead Stellini had to face the cameras and while he does not have the confidence of a manager who has addressed the media thousands of times like Conte, the former Juventus and Genoa defender, who speaks excellent English, has a quiet air of confidence in his own ability and the gospel of Conte, although he admits his boss will struggle up in the stands.
"When Antonio is on the touchline, he lives with passion every game but probably he struggles more when he stays in the crowd and so it explains how Antonio lives his job. He’s very passionate and if he cannot communicate with us he struggles a lot. Only this," he said.
"He will sit next to Gianluca. He will be here at the stadium. He will work with us until we arrive here. Then we have to stop the communication and he will stay close to Gianluca but we are preparing well the game and strategies. Antonio prepared like always the game. Our strategies are clear in every game and we have to play our match the best. Everyone has to do something more to fill the gap."
He added: "We are not allowed to speak to Antonio at half-time. He will stay on the bus with the players. We will use two different buses. We will drive our way and we will go in the dressing room and Antonio will go in another seat. After the game, after 15 minutes, we are allowed to speak again.
"It changes a lot. The presence of a coach like Conte, both before the game and the week leading up to it and during the match, is just indispensable. Especially a tough match like this where it’s going to be intense until the final whistle.
"It’s a change that’s difficult but we have to prepare ourselves altogether before the match. It’s a totally different world because normally the days before the game, Antonio will do all his preparation himself, alone. But now, we have to do this all together so it changes everything. We have to work on the strategy and this can become complex. However, we’ve already gone through this together in our time at Inter so we know what to do when he’s not there.
"Luckily, I’m not there on my own. We’ve got the whole staff, such as Ryan Mason, alongside me so that makes me feel better."
Stellini was also a little more forthcoming than Conte about unavailable players. The head coach does not always like to give much away about his options ahead of European games but his assistant told football.london that he would not have Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison and Cristian Romero to select for the match.
Romero in particular will be a big loss to a Spurs defence looking to ensure Marseille do not score and Davinson Sanchez could be asked to fill in again after a somewhat shaky display at Bournemouth. The Colombian has good Champions League pedigree with Tottenham in the past but after finishing last season well and starting this one in a similar vein with clean sheets aplenty, his recent performances have been more nervous.
Elsewhere Stellini will need to rely on the leaders throughout the spine of his team, in the experienced Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, as well as Harry Kane and Son Heung-min up front.
Hojbjerg sat alongside the Spurs assistant head coach within the bowels of the Orange Velodrome on Monday evening and amid declaring with a laugh that Conte would not do a Mourinho and hide in a laundry basket to get into the dressing room, the Dane spoke with belief about the task ahead and the absence of the boss.
"Your head coach is a massive part of a team. Luckily he has a very good staff and players that are well aware of what he expects from them," he said. "We will all try our best to fill the role. In the end no one can fill his role but we will do our best to be together and make sure that we can get through this together, because we have to get through this together and we will do it.
"Conte is a person and coach who lives the game with great passion, with his heart and we are feeling this in a good way. We have to make sure that we are well prepared, which we are. After we have to go to be successful together. The fact is that he will not be there on the sideline. We have to deal with that.
"Everyone is well aware, the staff is well prepared and we all know that we have to help each other. For me it is not a difficult situation, it is maybe a different situation, but we know what to do, we are well aware of the situation and as well the ambition. I understand your question of course but the focus is on the pitch and what we have to do, what we are preparing. After that we will do the best we can do.
"Our ambition is definitely to go through. This is the number one. The key and ambition is to go to the knock-out stages in the Champions League and this is what we are playing for 100 per cent."
He added with a chuckle: "If [Conte] will hide in a laundry basket, I'm not sure I'm the one to ask. So in this case I don't know. I think no."
Hojbjerg also showcased his multilingual ability to speak to the local reporters, thanks to his mother's French lineage, and he then pointed to the progress he has seen since Conte's arrival in N17.
"It is true that in one year the team has made great progress," he said. "We still have a way to go, but we are in the right direction and we are working really well. It is always up and down and there are always some moments better than others, but the most important thing is that we are working towards our ambition with great work and great focus.
"That is something we really are doing and I think everyone is responding well and the players are showing that they really care for this and they are willing to do everything by the end of this season to always be as successful as possible."
Hojbjerg has also improved and with three goals and four assists so far this season he is enjoying his strongest start to a campaign from an offensive perspective, including a superb assist for Ryan Sessegnon at Bournemouth on Saturday, and he told football.london that his improvement in the final third has come with his confidence and growing comfort in the Conte system.
"We are working intensely for quite a time, working intensely in a system where everyone is well aware what to do with specific roles, but we are always trying to look for improvement and new situations," the midfielder explained. "When you get that confidence and understanding into the bones of the system, you start to come up with your own touch, which everyone is always trying to do. I’m not sure the coaches are telling me specifically to do that but it’s not a bad thing."
Stellini will rely on Hojbjerg's increased attacking output and also that of Bentancur alongside him because while Spurs need a point Marseille must win and that could create the space for the visitors to profit in. Tottenham will face plenty of familiar foes in the opposition side, particularly those who used to play for the likes of Arsenal and West Ham.
The familiar sight and energy of Conte on the touchline will be missing though and that is the biggest hurdle Spurs may just have to overcome. Stellini will point to his 100% record though and suggest that if anyone can fill the void with his knowledge of the Conte way it's him.
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