Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has been trying to get his side to connect with a ‘superior energy’ which he believes will help them win the Champions League.
Much of Spurs’ preparations over the last three weeks for the biggest game in their history against Liverpool in Madrid on Saturday have centred around the mental side of the game.
They had a team bonding day last week where Pochettino had his players walking over hot coals, snapping an arrow that was up against their throat by walking into a wall and going through body language exercises.
The Argentinian, who also designated 45 minutes each day to the mental preparation, is a self-confessed spiritualist and believes in fate, destiny, energies, and auras.
He has tried to translate his message to the players in order to give them the best chance of being successful on Saturday.
‘That is proof of how, with your mind, you can create, you can connect with this energy,’ he said.
‘It’s a superior energy that you can connect with if you are open if you have opened your mind. With some strategies, you can connect with this energy, that is around us, that nearly touches you, but if you are not open to receive this energy, you cannot feel it.
‘I think all these strategies were to try to help us, the team, connect with this energy. This energy that is so powerful. That makes you feel invincible.
‘And one thing that is important that we were talking about the other day is that when the competition arrives… we all have fears, it’s not that you are not going to fear anything, you are still going to have fears but you’re going to be free to work (through them).
‘I feel very positive. They make me feel very positive. The team translates to us a very good energy.
‘That doesn’t mean that we are going to win 3-0, 4-0 or 5-0. We need to go there and do our job. But I think the preparation we are doing is an amazing thing, and is an amazing experience, very positive.”
Pochettino, who says he has always felt that energy, brought in mental coach Xesco Espar to help run the team bonding day, which was hailed as a big success.
Yes, boss! ⚽?#UCLfinal ⚪️ #COYS pic.twitter.com/litusVWZll
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 31, 2019
So, did the Argentinian run over the hot coals?
‘Yes, I was the first. Actually, no, I was the second,’ he said. ‘The first was the coach from Barcelona and then me. It was nice to see the reaction of the players. The character and the personality of them. Sometimes you see them on the pitch, doing some things and then outside, doing some activities, maybe they are more cautious or more brave.
‘You say, ‘Oh, this guy is brave’. He’s ready to work. And maybe another, the one you believe is going to be the first, he isn’t. Actually, to be honest, all of them were unbelievably involved. They enjoyed it a lot. And of course, they were all very brave.
‘When you see the arrows, you think it’s impossible how you are going to break them, you put the sharp tip against your throat and then bang, you break the arrow.
‘Breaking the arrow against my throat? You say, ‘No, come on, I am going to kill myself’. But the most important is to learn how you can prepare your mind. That is the most important thing. To be focused, to be proactive. This is the key in football.
Your mind is powerful and only you settle your limits.’