Alasdair Gold has revealed that Bryan Gil constantly being knocked off the ball really angered Antonio Conte during Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League clash in midweek.
The Spaniard was handed his first minutes of the season on Tuesday night when Tottenham played out a frustrating 0-0 draw away in Germany, which leaves them sitting second in their Champions League group.
Despite joining the club last summer, Gil is still yet to start a competitive first-team game for Spurs, which is highly worrying for his career and future at Tottenham – and it may have become even bleaker after what Gold saw Conte doing on the touchline in Frankfurt.
Gold has claimed on his YouTube channel that Conte kept hitting his hand in the way of Gil after the winger kept getting knocked off the ball.
He explained: “Some of his passing was dreadful. He’d kind of run up to a man, almost beat them and then just whack the ball into them. It wasn’t great in that respect. And I can only go back to the bulking up thing – he was knocked off the ball a lot of times, he really was.
“And there was one moment, I was looking down and Conte was furious with him.
“I can’t remember if he got knocked off the ball or he didn’t go in and challenge to get it back, it was one of the two – but Conte was going like this [smashing his fist against his hand] and he just kept doing it over and over again, really punching his hand at Bryan Gil.
Does Gil have a future at Spurs?
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“I could see Bryan Gil [confused], and whether he said something or not, I don’t know, but Conte had turned away and he whipped back around and was really angry and started again at Bryan Gil. I can only presume he was saying go in harder for the ball, be a bit tougher.
“I can only imagine that was what he was trying to say, he was screaming it. So whether Bryan Gil had said something or Conte thought he was answering back, I don’t know, but the way he whipped his head around and really went at him… it’s such a weird situation.”
TIF Thoughts on Gil’s Spurs situation…
It has been a pretty disastrous time of things for Gil at Tottenham given he’s yet to start a league game for Spurs, despite the club spending £21.6m on him last year, as they sent Erik Lamela off to Sevilla in the opposite direction.
Based on Gold’s comments, it’s unclear whether Gil’s shortcomings are down to attitude issues, but we would imagine it must be tough trying to perform at the highest level with little prior game time having had to settle for a place on the bench after seeing a loan move back to Spain fall through – on top of trying to satisfy the demands of a manager as short-fused as Conte.
Gold later claimed (35:35) that he expects Gil to head out on loan in January as he will need first-team minutes – something that is clearly not forthcoming at Spurs – and after he seemingly angered Conte on Tuesday, his chances may well be even more limited now.