Tottenham’s Son Heng-Min. last season’s Golden Boots co-winner, has offered a most refreshing uptake on this season’s unique, frazzled calendar, saying Premier League players are “living the dream” and that the unceasing schedule should be enjoyed instead of complained about.
Spurs will be hosting Frankfurt in the Champions League on Wednesday amid a run of 13 games in 43 days between last month’s international break and the pause for the World Cup in November.
Among the players to have criticised this season’s truncated calendar is Declan Rice, who labeled the schedule “obscene”.
Before Saturday’s emotionally-charged 1-0 win at Brighton, Spurs drew 0-0 with Frankfurt in Germany last week and speaking ahead of Wednesday’s game, Son offered the refreshing view that players have no right to complain.
“It is hard to be honest, travelling and being away from home, it’s not easy,” Son told Standare Sport. “But we’re born to do this and everyone dreams about it so we don’t have time to complain.
“When you think about, when you were a kid what was your dream? Probably everyone is going to say playing in the Premier League. So we’re living the dream and we can never forget these moments. I know there are tired moments and it’s mentally and physically really, really difficult.
“But we were born to do this, we love to do this and we should enjoy it. And obviously the more you enjoy it, the more happiness will be here. I know it’s tough moments but we should bring more happiness and it will be more enjoyable.”
Son added: “Everyone knows how important the game [on Wednesday] is. To be honest, we were not happy with the result at Frankfurt. It’s a really good point because a point away from home is always difficult in the Champions League and any league game as well.
“But we had a chance to win the game so everybody was really frustrated. We played two really difficult away games in the Champions League, so in the two home games [Frankfurt and Sporting Lisbon] we should show we’re a really strong team like Saturday. It’s a massive game.”
Antonio Conte’s team’s win at the Amex came via emotional circumstances following the sudden demise of popular fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone on Thursday, that totally threw the entire squad off-balance.
Conte subsequently revealed the devastation felt by his players after the loss of the fitness specialist, who was known affectionately as ‘Prof’ at the club.
“It was really tough,” said Son. “Not only for me but every club member because he was such a special man. To prepare for the game was incredibly hard but we did it for him and probably he’s up there looking down and he’ll be very proud of us. I think he was the biggest fan for us on Saturday.”
Son posted on Instagram that Ventrone had helped him through “the hardest times” and asked if he could reveal what advice the Italian gave him, he said: “Look, I don’t want to share this with anybody because it’s just a special moment for me.
“He’s been there for me in tough moments, in good moments. We celebrated some unbelievable moments and some achievements of mine individually last season and some team achievements also. He was keeping me always level and we had a really good relationship. This is not for any other people, this is for me really really special. It just hurts talking about him.”