Terrible three months for Spurs manager after losing Ventrone and Mihajlovic – and now his former Juventus teammate
For the third time in three months, Antonio Conte felt a numbness, an emptiness and there were plenty of other emotions swirling, too. First Gian Piero Ventrone in early October, then Sinisa Mihajlovic in the middle of December, now Gianluca Vialli – three men that Conte has called colleagues but moreover holds dear as friends; each one taken far too soon.
The Tottenham manager heard the news about Vialli as he travelled into work on Friday morning, how his former Juventus teammate had died at 58 after living with pancreatic cancer. Conte’s thoughts about the FA Cup tie at home to Portsmouth on Saturday and the club’s broader situation were suddenly overtaken and he knew one thing.
