"Surprise at Tottenham": Italian journo reveals big development, Conte will be buzzing - opinion

Tottenham Hotspur are closing in on the appointment of set-piece specialist Gianni Vio.

That’s according to a claim made by Marco Conterio, with the TuttoMercatoWeb chief editor revealing in a recent post on Twitter that Antonio Conte is now set to add the 69-year-old coach to his backroom staff at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

In his tweet, the Italian journalist said: “Surprise at Tottenham. Close to joining the staff of Antonio Conte is Gianni Vio. Set-piece wizard, he was one of the secrets of Italy’s victory at the European Championships (Leonardo Bonucci’s goal in the final against England stems from his scheme).”

Considering just how well-regarded Vio is in the professional game, not to mention the success the coach has enjoyed during his career in various different posts, the fact that Spurs look close to appointing the Italian is sure to have left the 52-year-old Spurs manager buzzing.

Indeed, the set-piece specialist claims to have mastered 4,830 different dead-ball routines, having previously worked with sides such as Italy at EURO 2020, Catania, AC Milan, Leeds United, SPAL and Brentford.

One manager particularly enamoured with the coach is Walter Zenga, who, after reading Vio’s book entitled That Extra 30 Per Cent – named as such because “that’s how much set pieces can improve a team’s goal tally” according to the Italian – appointed the 69-year-old as part of his backroom staff at then-Serie A side Catania ahead of the 2008/09 campaign.

That season, I Rossazzurri comfortably secured their status in the Italian top flight, with 17 of their 44 goals (39%) coming from dead balls – leading Zenga to claim:

“A 20-goal-per-season player can get injured, he can get suspended. But there are set pieces in every