The former England and Liverpool star has given his thoughts on Tottenham Hotspur’s warm-weather training trip to Spain this week.
Steven Gerrard has warned Roberto De Zerbi to “be very careful” with Tottenham’s warm-weather training camp in Marbella, which he believes is a risk.
After Saturday’s dramatic draw at Old Trafford showed progress within the 19th-placed team in the top table, Spurs travel to Spain this week looking to get closer and closer to their new-look squad, with De Zerbi’s 10-year summer arrival still dormant.
“We have to build a team. Now the goal is not to build a group of players, but to build a team. We are a great group of players, but we are not a team yet,” De Zerbi said after the game at Old Trafford.
“Working together, staying together, going to dinner together, getting to know each other better, because to be a team you have to know your teammates and stay together,” he said of the purpose of his trip to Marbella.
On this week’s episode of Overlap Daily, Gerrard was asked about Tottenham’s training camp in Spain, and he recalled how Rafa Benitez took his Liverpool players to the Algarve in 2007 just days before their Champions League clash with Barcelona.
After a karaoke night gone wrong, John Arne Riise later claimed in his autobiography that teammate Craig Bellamy lost control and swung a golf club at him that evening in a hotel, leaving bruises on his legs. Bellamy was fined and both players would end up scoring in a 2–1 win against Barcelona, with Bellamy celebrating by swinging his arms with a golf club motion, but the media frenzy surrounding the trip stuck with the team.
FOLLOW OUR TOTTENHAM FB PAGE! The latest Spurs news, analysis and more via our dedicated Facebook page
So when asked about this week’s trip to Spurs, Gerrard nodded: “You’re talking to the wrong person. You’re talking to the wrong person, I’m telling you, because even though they can work and they can be useful, I had that when we went to Dubai with Rangers and we got off the rails for a year, then we did that and we got better a year later.
“So I’ve seen the positives and the negatives and I’ve experienced the positives and the negatives. I’d say Marbella is brave just in terms of the location, the risk, because there’s a lot of other places you can go that are probably safer. Although the players today are a different generation to us and the previous generation.
“But as soon as you mentioned it, it occurred to me and I’m just thinking about the mid-season camps. I’m just thinking, be careful, be very careful, especially if you’re in a position like Spurs, you’re at the bottom of the table. Be very careful. Marbella to me, I just think it’s a risk. I just think it’s a risk.”
Recalling that controversial trip to Liverpool, he added: “The team bond worked in terms of the result, but I’m just talking about the risk. You have to be really careful when you’re away, especially in Marbella.”