Matt Doherty: “My kids asked, ‘daddy, is that your friend?’ and I said, ‘yes, he is’”
Mon 10 October 2022, 12:30|
Tottenham Hotspur
Emotions were still raw as Matt Doherty took time to reflect on the news of Gian Piero Ventrone’s sad passing following our 1-0 win at Brighton on Saturday evening.
It had been a good day for Matt and the Club with his return to the side and a big Premier League victory at the Amex, of course, all overshadowed by the news of the sad passing of our well-loved fitness coach on Thursday.
“It has been pretty tough, yes,” Matt told SPURSPLAY. “Gian Piero brought a smile to all of our faces whenever we saw him. No matter what mood you were in, whenever you saw him, you couldn’t help but have a joke with him, or give him a hug, then everything was alright. We’re really going to miss him.
“I said to Eric the other day, my kids came to pick me up from the training ground on the Wednesday before the Arsenal game, and Gian Piero was behind us, and my kids asked, ‘daddy, is that your friend?’ and normally you would say, ‘that’s one of the coaches’, but I said, ‘yes, he is one of my friends’, and that’s what he was to us, more than a coach, he was a friend... he text me when I was away on internationals recently. It has been a pretty tough time for all of us.”
Brighton represented Matt’s first start of the campaign, and he explained much of that was down to a testing recovery period from a serious knee injury sustained at Aston Villa on 9 April, when he was in flying form. The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time…
“The recovery took a bit longer than expected from my point of view,” he explained. “My body just wasn’t feeling the same, I wasn’t moving as well as I was last season. It’s taken a bit longer, but with Emerson’s suspension I got an opportunity today and let’s see what happens.
“It was a serious knee injury, not far off wiping my knee out completely. I’m just happy I didn’t need surgery and it healed naturally. It’s taken a bit longer than I would have liked to get back to how I’m feeling now, but I do feel good.”
As for the 1-0 win at the Amex, Matt added: “I thought in the first half we played really well, controlled them, they had a few shots from threatening areas, but you would take that playing away at Brighton.
“In the second half… we have a lot to work on. We didn’t get out much and invited a lot of pressure, so, happy to get away with a 1-0. I was speaking to the lads, and they all said how emotional they felt during the game. It was just a case of getting the three points, rest on Sunday, and pray for Gian Piero’s family.”
