RichmondSpur
Vital Football Hero
Sissoko has had to step up and attempt the role he's not equipped for, as players with the foresight (Alli, continuing & Eriksen, for 15 months) chose to be absent without leave.
Sergio Regulion - Player Thread
- Thread starter Spursex
- Start date
Sissoko has had to step up and attempt the role he's not equipped for, as players with the foresight (Alli, continuing & Eriksen, for 15 months) chose to be absent without leave.
Spursex
Alert Team
I've always thought that if he sticks to KISS the team would be better off for it, but I think he actually believes he has skills!
RichmondSpur
Vital Football Hero
With N'dombele and Lo Celso here we now have options, that bridge the skills gap between our midfield and class forward trio.
Spesh-Spur
Vital 1st Team Regular
Love this guy, he brings a good personality, is already a popular cheeky chappy with the squad whilst giving great depth and good attacking possibilities down our left hand side - but could we really lose him as soon as next Summer with the buy back clause in the RM transfer!? - Would be a real blow!!
Pompey Yid
Vital Champions League
Spesh, correct me if I am wrong, but regards the buy back clause, it only means RM have first refusal, and have to match any offers we may get, but that only comes in if Reggie wants to leave and we want to sell him.
Spesh-Spur
Vital 1st Team Regular
I read (and I know that means nothing) that if they bid the 45mil or whatever the (buy back) figure is, then we have to sell back should he want to leave, I may be and hope I'm wrong!
Spursex
Alert Team
Sergio Reguilon hints at reason for Tottenham exit after 'strange' Ange Postecoglou U-turn
Spurs boss ‘had assured Spaniard of his place’ before summer moveMarc Mayo2 hours ago
Sergio Reguilon has revealed his disappointment at being moved on by Tottenham despite being told he was in Ange Postecoglou‘s plans.
The Australian manager assured Reguilon, according to the full-back, that he would survive the club’s summer transfer cull - only days before he was sent out on loan to Manchester United.
Spurs shifted several players ahead of the season with Djed Spence, Tanguy Ndombele and Davinson Sanchez among those to leave as Postecoglou was handed a fresh set of players for his debut campaign.
Spanish defender Reguilon, 27, had been a regular fixture in pre-season but was ultimately let go after falling behind Ben Davies and Destiny Udogie in the race to be Tottenham’s starting left-back.
But he was left upset by the circumstances of his move.
“During pre-season I was very happy and he was happy with me, [as were] the staff,” he told The Times.
“I was playing like a normal player, all the games. The week before, I went to see him. ‘You want me at the club?’, ‘Yes, I have to do a list and you are in my squad’.
“It was strange. The next day I was out of training and I didn’t know what happened.
“I know I can play for Spurs, but in many aspects in football the player doesn’t have control. And I don’t want to stay to sit in the stadium watching. I am 27, I have too much football to live.
“I don’t understand why one day is ‘yes’ and next day is ‘no’ but ... I don’t think it [was for a] performance reason, I think it’s another reason; this is football, this is business.”
Reguilon has stated that he harbours no ill will to Manchester United after his loan was terminated early, which prompted a move to Brentford. His temporary stint in west London does not include a purchase option, meaning he will return to Tottenham ahead of the last year of his contract in the summer.
“Who knows?” he said of his future. “I think I’m a top player but you have to show it.”
Sockspurs
Vital 1st Team Regular
I do find it an odd one, he's much more suited to the attacking full back role than Davies.
Maybe it was a financial decision?
Spursex
Alert Team
I very much doubt that, Ange seemed to have a love in of Davies ..
Sockspurs
Vital 1st Team Regular
I guess he can do both CB and LB, wonder if we had gotten that extra CB in it would have meant Davies going instead?
I can't recall when Reggy went out, was fairly late in the window from memory
How about you focus on your new team and shut the hell up. When players say stupid shit like this, they sound like weak willed morons.
Hate to say it Reggie...you simply are not in AP's plan....so move on already.
Porro and Udogie are massive upgrades from him.
Hate to say it Reggie...you simply are not in AP's plan....so move on already.
Porro and Udogie are massive upgrades from him.
It's very easy to dismiss it but without knowing what conversations took place we'll never know and its no different to how many a player before him as said.
My guess is that it was a decision based on home grown quotas rules.
His last quote seems quite professional and level headed
“Who knows?” he said of his future. “I think I’m a top player but you have to show it.”
Spursex
Alert Team
In full: unbelievable what managers make some players play through'
Reguilón has had a whirlwind season that has taken him from Spurs to Manchester United and then Brentford
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
Matt Dickinson
, Senior Sports Writer
Thursday March 07 2024, 8.00am, The Times
As Sergio Reguilón reflects on the coaches he has played under — Zinédine Zidane, Antonio Conte, José Mourinho, Erik ten Hag and Diego Simeone among them — it feels like a Who’s Who of European managerial big beasts. The Spain defender has insightful words about them all, and happily explains why Thomas Frank fits in that company.
It is perhaps only with mention of Ange Postecoglou that his perma-smile wanes, because Reguilón is still mystified by being frozen out at Tottenham Hotspur. “One day is ‘yes’, next day is ‘no’,” he says of finding out that he was no longer part of the club’s plans. “I didn’t understand and still don’t understand the situation.”
That exile is how the 27-year-old left back has come to have a whirlwind season in which he was loaned out by Spurs, fell in love with Manchester United for four months and now gives his all for Brentford, reflecting with remarkable candour on a turbulent period.
By his own admission a man of lurching emotions, Reguilón reveals that he went into Frank’s office last week to apologise for a “shit performance” away to West Ham United in the 4-2 defeat. “Not my level,” he told his head coach. “I’m so sorry, I feel so bad.”
Noting my surprise at his honesty, he says: “I have the experience to know when I play well or bad. I put it in the top three of the worst of my career. The game started strange, two goals conceded in the first ten minutes, strange decisions from the referee. I was angry and I shouldn’t get frustrated.
“It’s my problem, I am too emotional. I feel everything in football, just like my life. I have to control that more but it’s always been part of me, since I was a kid.”
To illustrate his high emotions, Reguilón reveals that when Manchester United lost 3-0 at home to Newcastle United in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup in November, he was in tears in the dressing room afterwards.
“We were defending the title and we were out,” he says. “I don’t care if I am here for six months, I was upset. I don’t know how long I was crying like a kid. Bruno [Fernandes] comes to tell me to relax and I still have the same shit face.”
He smiles as he recalls it. “It’s good and it’s bad. Maybe I am too passionate, too emotional in some moments but I can’t control.”
Reguilón has had this passion since he was a child, driven on to become a professional by his father. A Madrileño from birth, he was spotted by Real at five, in the academy at seven and became the only one of his age-group to graduate to the first team, making his debut in the famous white shirt at 21.
Living a boyhood dream — not least in experiencing the peerless touch of Zidane first-hand whenever he joined in training — he played 23 times for Real in 2018-19, including El Clásico. He chuckles as he tells how his Dad demanded that he do some shuttle runs on the eve of that contest, just as they had done on Fridays ever since he was a boy.
“I would train Monday to Thursday and then with my Dad on Friday, high-speed running, then a game on Saturday,” he says. “My dad on the Friday [before the Clásico] said, ‘Let’s go, we do some sprints.’ I said, ‘What? Are you serious?’
“We lived in an apartment, a very humble area. We went into the street and I was running up and down, people looking at me thinking, ‘This guy plays against Messi tomorrow’. That was crazy. Always my dad was strict like this.”
I say that it does not sound like ideal preparation for the toughest defensive job in football. “Unbelievable game, my best for Real Madrid for sure,” he says. “We lost but I played really well.”
However, not for the last time, there was a little emotional drama. Reguilón mentions, a little sheepishly, that a clip became much-watched on YouTube because of his clash with Messi. According to lip-readers, he called the maestro a “flea”, and told Luis Suárez he was ugly. “I was young, too emotional, my first Clásico,” he says, smiling. There were tears after that one too.
He went to Sevilla on loan, winning the Europa League under Julen Lopetegui in 2020, and then came the chance to join Spurs and Mourinho for £32 million. “Mourinho? I love him,” he says.
Reguilón talks of a “tactical monster” but mostly focuses on the little personal details, such as Mourinho finding out that he was spending Christmas alone and bringing him a meal, and messaging to check up.
“He told me one day, ‘If we beat [Manchester] City and you put [Riyad] Mahrez in your pocket I will buy you a nice Spanish ham’. The next day it’s there. He made me feel welcome and as a coach I can only say good things. He’s world class. He convinces you that you are the best.”
Conte would soon come to Spurs, and there would be no presents or texts at home from the intense Italian. “More strong, more tactically focused on this winning mentality, pom, pom, pom,” Reguilon says, banging his fist. “A top professional, very intense, very emotional and for sure you get too tired training with him. So tired. Oh my God, very hard.”
Was he emotional like you? “More angry,” he says, laughing.
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Reguilón found a role at left wingback, utilising his mobility and attacking intent, but it was under Conte that he suffered an ankle injury and tried to play on in intense pain because the team was competing for the top four. It is alarming to hear the efforts he made to keep playing.
“We were playing for the Champions League and Conte wanted me,” he says. “I was taking an injection for training, taking an injection for playing, even to start on the bench for three, four weeks. I was on my bed crying from the pain.
“I remember we played against Brighton, my last game for Spurs, and I took many injections. At home seven hours after and my ankle is like a balloon and I couldn’t feel anything, not my ankle or my legs. The next day I wake up and I couldn’t move and I say, ‘It’s time to stop.’ It’s time to stop because maybe now I destroy my body.”
Reguilón was worried he may not be able to play football again after trying to play through an ankle injury under Conte
Is this what elite sport demands? “Of course, when you are at a top club, fighting for things, you are under pressure to play, the manager wants you, you feel important,” he says. “If I don’t do this, [do they think] ‘Is it that this guy doesn’t want to play football?’ It’s a shit feeling. It’s not right. For one game, maybe a final, but not like this.”
Reguilón ended up having two operations, travelling to the United States for the second, but it took more than six months to be able to run without pain. He turned to a sports psychologist.
“When I was young I didn’t need it, but when I had my injury I needed someone. I couldn’t go up the stairs, move from my bed, seven or eight months of frustration,” he says. “I didn’t know if I could play football again.”
A tough road back included a difficult year at Atletico Madrid on loan trying to rebuild his game, struggling with injury. Simeone was not the hard man he anticipated.
“I was thinking he would be very strict, but when I was injured when I arrived he took good care of me,” he says. “It was a difficult season but I can only say good things. He lives the game, every minute not only of games but training. Football is in his blood. To stay 11, 12 years at one club and have the passion, ambition, it’s an unbelievable job.”
Reguilón says he had received assurances from Postecoglou shortly before being frozen out
Reguilón came back to Spurs last summer and there was hope of re-establishing himself under the new management of Postecoglou. Destiny Udogie had arrived from Udinese but Reguilón was initially confident.
“During pre-season I was very happy and he [Postecoglou] was happy with me, also the staff. I was playing like a normal player, all the games,” he says. “The week before, I went to see him. ‘You want me at the club?’ ‘Yes, I have to do a list and you are in my squad’. It was strange. The next day I was out of the training and I didn’t know what happened.
Sergio Reguilón: I was in Ange Postecoglou’s plans, then I wasn’t
Brentford full back discusses his Tottenham exit, calling Messi a “flea”, his battle to control his emotions and why he rates Thomas Frank as highly as Zidane, Mourinho and Simeone
Reguilón has had a whirlwind season that has taken him from Spurs to Manchester United and then Brentford
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
Matt Dickinson
, Senior Sports Writer
Thursday March 07 2024, 8.00am, The Times
As Sergio Reguilón reflects on the coaches he has played under — Zinédine Zidane, Antonio Conte, José Mourinho, Erik ten Hag and Diego Simeone among them — it feels like a Who’s Who of European managerial big beasts. The Spain defender has insightful words about them all, and happily explains why Thomas Frank fits in that company.
It is perhaps only with mention of Ange Postecoglou that his perma-smile wanes, because Reguilón is still mystified by being frozen out at Tottenham Hotspur. “One day is ‘yes’, next day is ‘no’,” he says of finding out that he was no longer part of the club’s plans. “I didn’t understand and still don’t understand the situation.”
That exile is how the 27-year-old left back has come to have a whirlwind season in which he was loaned out by Spurs, fell in love with Manchester United for four months and now gives his all for Brentford, reflecting with remarkable candour on a turbulent period.
By his own admission a man of lurching emotions, Reguilón reveals that he went into Frank’s office last week to apologise for a “shit performance” away to West Ham United in the 4-2 defeat. “Not my level,” he told his head coach. “I’m so sorry, I feel so bad.”
Noting my surprise at his honesty, he says: “I have the experience to know when I play well or bad. I put it in the top three of the worst of my career. The game started strange, two goals conceded in the first ten minutes, strange decisions from the referee. I was angry and I shouldn’t get frustrated.
“It’s my problem, I am too emotional. I feel everything in football, just like my life. I have to control that more but it’s always been part of me, since I was a kid.”
To illustrate his high emotions, Reguilón reveals that when Manchester United lost 3-0 at home to Newcastle United in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup in November, he was in tears in the dressing room afterwards.
“We were defending the title and we were out,” he says. “I don’t care if I am here for six months, I was upset. I don’t know how long I was crying like a kid. Bruno [Fernandes] comes to tell me to relax and I still have the same shit face.”
He smiles as he recalls it. “It’s good and it’s bad. Maybe I am too passionate, too emotional in some moments but I can’t control.”
Reguilón has had this passion since he was a child, driven on to become a professional by his father. A Madrileño from birth, he was spotted by Real at five, in the academy at seven and became the only one of his age-group to graduate to the first team, making his debut in the famous white shirt at 21.
Living a boyhood dream — not least in experiencing the peerless touch of Zidane first-hand whenever he joined in training — he played 23 times for Real in 2018-19, including El Clásico. He chuckles as he tells how his Dad demanded that he do some shuttle runs on the eve of that contest, just as they had done on Fridays ever since he was a boy.
“I would train Monday to Thursday and then with my Dad on Friday, high-speed running, then a game on Saturday,” he says. “My dad on the Friday [before the Clásico] said, ‘Let’s go, we do some sprints.’ I said, ‘What? Are you serious?’
“We lived in an apartment, a very humble area. We went into the street and I was running up and down, people looking at me thinking, ‘This guy plays against Messi tomorrow’. That was crazy. Always my dad was strict like this.”
I say that it does not sound like ideal preparation for the toughest defensive job in football. “Unbelievable game, my best for Real Madrid for sure,” he says. “We lost but I played really well.”
However, not for the last time, there was a little emotional drama. Reguilón mentions, a little sheepishly, that a clip became much-watched on YouTube because of his clash with Messi. According to lip-readers, he called the maestro a “flea”, and told Luis Suárez he was ugly. “I was young, too emotional, my first Clásico,” he says, smiling. There were tears after that one too.
He went to Sevilla on loan, winning the Europa League under Julen Lopetegui in 2020, and then came the chance to join Spurs and Mourinho for £32 million. “Mourinho? I love him,” he says.
Reguilón talks of a “tactical monster” but mostly focuses on the little personal details, such as Mourinho finding out that he was spending Christmas alone and bringing him a meal, and messaging to check up.
“He told me one day, ‘If we beat [Manchester] City and you put [Riyad] Mahrez in your pocket I will buy you a nice Spanish ham’. The next day it’s there. He made me feel welcome and as a coach I can only say good things. He’s world class. He convinces you that you are the best.”
Conte would soon come to Spurs, and there would be no presents or texts at home from the intense Italian. “More strong, more tactically focused on this winning mentality, pom, pom, pom,” Reguilon says, banging his fist. “A top professional, very intense, very emotional and for sure you get too tired training with him. So tired. Oh my God, very hard.”
Was he emotional like you? “More angry,” he says, laughing.
ADVERTISING
Reguilón found a role at left wingback, utilising his mobility and attacking intent, but it was under Conte that he suffered an ankle injury and tried to play on in intense pain because the team was competing for the top four. It is alarming to hear the efforts he made to keep playing.
“We were playing for the Champions League and Conte wanted me,” he says. “I was taking an injection for training, taking an injection for playing, even to start on the bench for three, four weeks. I was on my bed crying from the pain.
“I remember we played against Brighton, my last game for Spurs, and I took many injections. At home seven hours after and my ankle is like a balloon and I couldn’t feel anything, not my ankle or my legs. The next day I wake up and I couldn’t move and I say, ‘It’s time to stop.’ It’s time to stop because maybe now I destroy my body.”
Reguilón was worried he may not be able to play football again after trying to play through an ankle injury under Conte
Is this what elite sport demands? “Of course, when you are at a top club, fighting for things, you are under pressure to play, the manager wants you, you feel important,” he says. “If I don’t do this, [do they think] ‘Is it that this guy doesn’t want to play football?’ It’s a shit feeling. It’s not right. For one game, maybe a final, but not like this.”
Reguilón ended up having two operations, travelling to the United States for the second, but it took more than six months to be able to run without pain. He turned to a sports psychologist.
“When I was young I didn’t need it, but when I had my injury I needed someone. I couldn’t go up the stairs, move from my bed, seven or eight months of frustration,” he says. “I didn’t know if I could play football again.”
A tough road back included a difficult year at Atletico Madrid on loan trying to rebuild his game, struggling with injury. Simeone was not the hard man he anticipated.
“I was thinking he would be very strict, but when I was injured when I arrived he took good care of me,” he says. “It was a difficult season but I can only say good things. He lives the game, every minute not only of games but training. Football is in his blood. To stay 11, 12 years at one club and have the passion, ambition, it’s an unbelievable job.”
Reguilón says he had received assurances from Postecoglou shortly before being frozen out
Reguilón came back to Spurs last summer and there was hope of re-establishing himself under the new management of Postecoglou. Destiny Udogie had arrived from Udinese but Reguilón was initially confident.
“During pre-season I was very happy and he [Postecoglou] was happy with me, also the staff. I was playing like a normal player, all the games,” he says. “The week before, I went to see him. ‘You want me at the club?’ ‘Yes, I have to do a list and you are in my squad’. It was strange. The next day I was out of the training and I didn’t know what happened.
Spursex
Alert Team
Part II
“I know I can play in Spurs, but in many aspects in football the player doesn’t have control. And I don’t want to stay to sit in the stadium watching. I am 27, I have too much football to live. I don’t understand why one day is ‘yes’ and next day is ‘no’ but . . . I don’t think it’s performance reason, I think it’s another reason, this is football, this is business.
“When one window closes, another door opens. Karma was good for me. I went to United. The people there are unbelievable. I don’t know why but I still receive a lot of messages. I love them because from the first moment they gave me so much love. Maybe the way I play, always giving everything, and they love that.”
Reguilón says he will remember his short loan spell with United “with a smile on
Indeed, there was surprise among many United fans when Reguilón was released in January, given that their injury problems have continued at left back. He says it was not easy for Ten Hag because Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia both appeared to be recovering in January.
“You can’t control this. I told the manager thanks for everything,” he says. “When I remember Manchester it will be with a smile on my face. I hope they can win the FA Cup. I still support them. It was a difficult moment in my life and they gave me the love.”
Reguilón says that he had plenty of options in January, including outside England and a return to Spain, but was keen to stay in the Premier League.
The priority was a manager who believed in him, and regular matches. He was promised both by Frank.
“Thomas is a very honest person. I love the way he talks to everyone, to you, the players,” he says. “I love him. He told me, ‘It’s a win-win. We love you, we need you and at the same time you need a manager who trusts you, believes in you, puts you on the pitch every weekend. It’s a moment in your career you need that stability’. I was thinking that myself. I could go to a team with more amazing names but it would not be the same.”
He credits Frank with knowing how to handle different personalities. So when Reguilón went to see him after the West Ham defeat, full of self-reproach, the head coach already had a tape ready to rebuild his confidence.
“He showed me clips and said, ‘I know you are a top player and I also know you are emotional. It’s just one game. You made mistakes but every player does.’ It means a lot. Two words can change everything.”
A much-improved display, collectively and individually, earned a draw against Chelsea on Saturday, though this weekend brings a daunting challenge against in-form Arsenal, who have scored 24 goals in their past five league games.
Reguilón says that he will fight to keep Brentford, who are six points above the relegation zone, in the top division, hoping to use all his varied experience. And then, what next? “Who knows?” he says. He has one year left on his contract at Spurs and a wish to prove how he won six caps for his country. “I think I’m a top player,” he says. “But you have to show it.”
“I know I can play in Spurs, but in many aspects in football the player doesn’t have control. And I don’t want to stay to sit in the stadium watching. I am 27, I have too much football to live. I don’t understand why one day is ‘yes’ and next day is ‘no’ but . . . I don’t think it’s performance reason, I think it’s another reason, this is football, this is business.
“When one window closes, another door opens. Karma was good for me. I went to United. The people there are unbelievable. I don’t know why but I still receive a lot of messages. I love them because from the first moment they gave me so much love. Maybe the way I play, always giving everything, and they love that.”
Reguilón says he will remember his short loan spell with United “with a smile on
Indeed, there was surprise among many United fans when Reguilón was released in January, given that their injury problems have continued at left back. He says it was not easy for Ten Hag because Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia both appeared to be recovering in January.
“You can’t control this. I told the manager thanks for everything,” he says. “When I remember Manchester it will be with a smile on my face. I hope they can win the FA Cup. I still support them. It was a difficult moment in my life and they gave me the love.”
Reguilón says that he had plenty of options in January, including outside England and a return to Spain, but was keen to stay in the Premier League.
The priority was a manager who believed in him, and regular matches. He was promised both by Frank.
“Thomas is a very honest person. I love the way he talks to everyone, to you, the players,” he says. “I love him. He told me, ‘It’s a win-win. We love you, we need you and at the same time you need a manager who trusts you, believes in you, puts you on the pitch every weekend. It’s a moment in your career you need that stability’. I was thinking that myself. I could go to a team with more amazing names but it would not be the same.”
He credits Frank with knowing how to handle different personalities. So when Reguilón went to see him after the West Ham defeat, full of self-reproach, the head coach already had a tape ready to rebuild his confidence.
“He showed me clips and said, ‘I know you are a top player and I also know you are emotional. It’s just one game. You made mistakes but every player does.’ It means a lot. Two words can change everything.”
A much-improved display, collectively and individually, earned a draw against Chelsea on Saturday, though this weekend brings a daunting challenge against in-form Arsenal, who have scored 24 goals in their past five league games.
Reguilón says that he will fight to keep Brentford, who are six points above the relegation zone, in the top division, hoping to use all his varied experience. And then, what next? “Who knows?” he says. He has one year left on his contract at Spurs and a wish to prove how he won six caps for his country. “I think I’m a top player,” he says. “But you have to show it.”
TQ2Spurs
Vital Champions League
World class at what, sniffing out kebab shops?
muttley
Alert Team
It's a very good Reggie interview. Likeable guy.
I'm hoping Rico Henry's injury will help Reggie get back on track. It's not as if he's a bad player. He's just not elite.
Saying that, Udogie still needs to stay focused on his defensive game. He's also guilty of committing fouls that make us lose momentum and play into the opposition tactics. Reggie was as well when he played for us.
I'm hoping Rico Henry's injury will help Reggie get back on track. It's not as if he's a bad player. He's just not elite.
Saying that, Udogie still needs to stay focused on his defensive game. He's also guilty of committing fouls that make us lose momentum and play into the opposition tactics. Reggie was as well when he played for us.
