RICHARLISON has revealed he told Antonio Conte to punish him during their huge fall-out last season.
The Brazilian struggled for form in his debut season at Spurs, scoring only one Premier League goal.
But that did not prevent Richarlison making a public plea for more game time after Tottenham crashed out of the Champions League, which he now admits was a mistake.
Richarlison, 26, has opened up on his dispute with the since-sacked Conte, revealing the Italian did not hold back when it came to punishing him.
He told the Que Papinho podcast: “I made a mistake in granting an interview in which I asked to play more.
“Later, I apologised and said he could punish me.
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“He replied that he was the boss and he went on to prove it to me. He spent almost two hours scolding me in front of everyone in a team meeting.”
Conte publicly criticised Richarlison after the striker made his request to play more.
He labelled Richarlison selfish, saying: “First of all I watched the interview of Richarlison. He didn’t criticise me. He said his season was s*** and he’s right.
“His season has been not good. He had injuries, played and scored in the Champions League and then went to the World Cup and then had a serious injury.
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“He’s scored no goals for us. I think he was really honest to say his season was not good. His season has not finished yet. If he deserves to play I’ll give him the opportunity.
“For the rest of the interview, I think he made a mistake. When you speak of ‘I’ and not ‘us’ you are being selfish.
“I say to my players if we want to build something important and win a trophy we have to speak with ‘we’ not with ‘I’, because otherwise you’re thinking of yourself.
“He made a mistake and he apologised and it was good for me to clarify with the team again about this. In this aspect we have to improve. We have to be more of a team and show more spirit positive, especially in negative moments.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
