Russian international striker Roman Pavlyuchenko joined north London club Tottenham Hotspur in the summer from Spartak Moscow for just over 13 million pounds. He is yet to score and has admittedly already been feeling the heat.
Pavlyuchenko has confessed that he is finding it tough during the training sessions at Spurs and says that the coaching methods employed at White Hart Lane are a world away from those adopted in Russia.
Roman Pavlyuchenko explained:
“In England they have a different system of training.
“Right now the games are on Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday. The training is like this – those who played get to recover, and the rest do light training with the ball. It’s not that tough.
“But when there is a week’s gap between games, training is serious. I barely survived it when I’d just arrived.
“I looked at my watch and saw that the training session had gone on for exactly two hours! Then another half an hour in the gym! Two-and-a-half hours! Can you imagine that?
“I trained like never in my life before, I swear! The weights started to get to me, and I stopped and said to the trainer, ‘I can’t do this’. That’s how they work – I’m shocked. I thought it would be a lot easier.”
So there is already some doubt whether the highly rated striker can adapt himself in the Premiership.