Richarlison has revealed that Antonio Conte did not take kindly to the forward voicing his discontent with his selection decisions to the press, with the Italian alleged to have let loose on the 25-year-old in front of all his teammates.
Following Tottenham’s elimination from the Champions League back in March, Richarlison was not happy with his non-selection, and the Brazilian did not mince his words after the second-leg loss to AC Milan.
He told ESPN at the time: “Let’s see what [Conte] will say tomorrow, but there are no fools here either, I’m a professional, I work every day and I want to play. There are minutes left, time left.
“This season, excuse the word, it’s been s***, because I don’t have minutes, I suffered a little with the injury. But, when I enter the field, I give my life. I came from two games well, I think that’s it, I think I should have played and I don’t have to cry about it.”
As one would expect, Conte was far from pleased with the forward’s words and hit back in his next press conference a couple of days later, labelling Richarlison as ‘selfish’ and pointing to the fact that he had not scored a goal in the Premier League until that point.
The former Spurs head coach said (via Sky Sports): “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.
“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 understood he made a mistake. When you speak of ‘I’ and not ‘us’ you are being selfish.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 27: Richarlisonu of Tottenham Hotspur in the tunnel prior to the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 27, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
Richarlison got a long telling-off from Conte
Richarlison has now opened up on what happened behind the scenes after his comments, revealing that he was quick to apologise to Conte, who berated him in front of all of his teammates to demonstrate that he was still in charge of the dressing room.
The former Everton man has now said on the YouTube channel Que Papinho (as relayed by ESPN Brazil): “No, we sorted it out in the locker room.
“Of course, I was wrong to have said in the interview that I needed time and everything, it was after the elimination in the Champions League, but later I apologized to him.
“I even told him that if you wanted to punish me, you could. We resolved it there, then I tried to get a sequence again and another injury came. Like it or not, it ends up affecting the head too.
“He was tough, he has to show firmness to the group too, to say he’s there, that he’s still in charge.
“It’s his way of dealing with people, with the group, and he stayed for almost two hours just scolding me at the meeting, in front of everyone (laughs).
“Then the players even said ‘Richi, don’t do that anymore. Wait two hours (laughs)’.
“After they sacked him, I sent him a message. I apologized because he was the guy who asked for my signing and I couldn’t help him as much as he thought.
“The least I could do was apologize for what happened there.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I think this is the sort of thing most managers would have done when a player publicly criticises their selection decisions.
Conte had to demonstrate to the rest of the squad that this sort of behaviour would not be tolerated, which is probably why he berated Richarlison in front of his teammates.
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