“Joy wasn’t there, desire wasn’t there” – Tottenham player on the darkest points of last season

This weekend, we saw Tottenham Hotspur making the purchase of Dejan Kulusevski official.

After 18 months with him loaned from Juventus, the winger finally permanently joined Spurs in a €30m deal.

Now as Kulusevski was interviewed by Aftonbladet, even though he’s currently out with the Swedish national team, he was asked a lot of questions about Tottenham.

The 24-year-old was very honest about how bad things were at Spurs last season, claiming they had a terrible specific period.

“The months during the World Cup were really bad, I must say, it was really, really bad,” Kulusevski told Aftonbladet.

“We trained so hard but there was no energy, it was dark and we were in London. We drove and we drove and really thought we would be prepared when the season started again, but the joy wasn’t there, the desire to play wasn’t there, the energy… everything was down.”

According to Kulusevski, not even the players could understand what was happening with the team under Antonio Conte.

“We started playing matches and were 3-0 down, situations you have never experienced in your entire life. You just think, what is going on? You go home and are shocked. It was difficult to explain to your family and friends what is happening because I didn’t know myself.”

Speaking of the 6-1 defeat to Newcastle, Kulusevski says he’s still affected by that.

“It’s a match you don’t want to remember. It’s the sickest thing that’s happened in my career. Incredibly strange feeling when playing, the match doesn’t even start and it’s 2-0 and then 3-0. It can be like that when an entire arena can create an incredible energy and positivity that helps the team forward and notices that we are completely shaky and weak. They ran over us. I hope it never happens again.”

In his 18 months loaned to Tottenham, Kulusevski scored nine goals and contributed 10 assists in 74 appearances at the club. That was enough to convince Spurs to purchase him, but with the London club negotiating to get the signing for a little less than the buying option.

The winger was rested for Sweden’s friendly against New Zealand at the weekend, and could now have a place in the team which faces Austria in the Euro qualifiers.