Berti: 'George Graham didn't like foreign players'
The former Italy international spoke about many issues, including the transition from Inter Milan to Tottenham in 1998: “At Inter, I was just another man in the locker room, on the bench there was the imprint of my butt. What cheered me up was Ronaldo’s magic. I have been in London for six months and I had the number 35, I loved it. The fans loved me there because I was gorgeous, cute and crazy. In three weeks I have almost fully settled, in England football is messier which is what I like. I played the Pirlo way; in five months I had 3 goals and 4 assists to my name.”
The coaches of Tottenham: “With Christian Gross everything went really well. David Pleat took me off after 75 minutes in the match against Southampton; I hit the crossbar in this match. I told him that I need more minutes to get in shape, and an hour later he saw me in the Stadium bar drinking a beer with journalists. He told me “You need to play? Go with the reserves” He left me there forever. George Graham took over after him and he didn’t like foreigners. He wanted a team of English players, which doesn’t include me.”
"Now Spurs are more experienced because of the Champions League football they’ve been playing. Inter may be stronger in the Champions League, the draw doesn’t help but our schedule is better than Tottenham’s. First match at home gives us an incentive to win.
Inter-Tottenham preview: predicted line-ups, five things you need to know