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Happy Monday, Tottenham Hotspur fans! Half of the squad and almost all of the starting lineup may still be in Russia at the World Cup, but that hasn’t stopped the rest of Spurs’ players from returning to Hotspur Way to begin preseason training for the 2018-19 season.
Tottenham posted a video of a few of the players returning to Spurs’ state-of-the-art training center to begin the grueling progress of getting “Pochettino Fit.”
Welcome back, lads!
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) July 9, 2018
Pre-season starts today. #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/x0lPpP3aDP
The video shows Paulo Gazzaniga, Michel Vorm, Moussa Sissoko, Serge Aurier, Ben Davies, and Erik Lamela walking into the training center. We can also expect a good number of the squad players who weren’t in their countries’ national teams to also report, like Harry Winks, Victor Wanyama, Fernando Llorente, and Kyle Walker-Peters, plus the Development Squad and fringe first team players. These are also the players that are most likely going to be heading to the USA for the preseason tour and participation in the International Champions Cup later this month.
Of course, we won’t be seeing any of the nine (!) Spurs stars who are still in Russia at the World Cup, nor are we likely to see any of the players who were recently eliminated, such as Christian Eriksen, Davinson Sanchez, or Son Heung-Min, all of whom are taking a well-deserved breather (although Sonny will be reporting to South Korea soon to participate in the Asian Games).
This time of year always gets me excited. The promise of the new season never feels quite as optimistic as at the very beginning of the year. With Spurs yet to dip their toes in the transfer market and with a new stadium on the way, this is a season of change for Spurs, and hopefully big things!