Matt Doherty on his Tottenham future and why he loves the man behind brutal training sessions

Matt Doherty has nothing but love for Tottenham's renowned fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone despite the brutal training sessions the Italian has been putting the players through.

Monday's open training session in front of 6,000 fans in Seoul during Spurs' South Korean tour gave a glimpse of exactly what takes place in Antonio Conte's gruelling pre-seasons. The players who had returned to the club first last week had to complete 42 pitch-long runs at pace with only brief pauses after each third run and all of that came after a near two-hour training session.

The international players who returned later had to complete 30 runs and that left Harry Kane throwing up by the side of the pitch after falling to the floor and needing a cold towel placed on the back of neck, while Son Heung-min also dropped down exhausted before both men, who only returned to training at the weekend, continued with their runs.

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Doherty, who came back earlier than most, as he looked to play catch-up following his knee injury that ended last season prematurely for him, has been among the fittest in the group and was able to complete the 42 runs. He made it very clear that the runs were not for show and are a regular feature of the pre-season training.

"Yeah, [they're] pretty normal. Even the week before in London was along those lines so I don’t know if there will be any teams fitter than us. It’s not like anything I’ve done before. This is hard. It’s the hardest pre-season I’ve had," he said. "You get a great satisfaction once the session is over. Your mind has been tortured in the middle of it but when it’s done you feel proud and you got to bed at