Guglielmo Vicario knew deep down that he had gone too far. He was lost in the heat of the battle, where emotions run high and tempers can flare, but the Tottenham goalkeeper was forced to admit that he was wrong.
Lucas Bergvall, the 18-year-old Swede making his debut, gave the ball away in injury time of the second half of Spurs’ opening match against Leicester, forcing the Italian to make a late save to keep the score level.
Vicario exploded. He jumped up and yelled at the teenager, running toward him and punching the air with his fists, his eyes wide and manic. The blond-haired Bergvall could only shrug his shoulders and puff out his cheeks.
“I’m not sure he deserved that kind of punishment,” Alan Smith commented on Sky Sports. Social media, as usual, went into an uproar.
“I was too aggressive with him,” admits Vicario, speaking about it for the first time. “I apologized. Maybe at that moment it was because we had dominated a game and then conceded a goal.
Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has apologised for shouting at a young team-mate
Vicario hits out at Spurs debutant Lucas Bergvall (right) during their 1-1 draw at Leicester City
“It wasn’t the right way to shout at him, so I apologize. He will understand, he’s a good guy. And it’s part of football. I went through this when I was a teenager. We’re good friends. We’re men. We’re moving forward.
“It was the first game after the game and the fans were pushing. Maybe I wasn’t playing that well at that moment, but the message was for the right reasons and in the right place.”
After all, it was this fiery temperament that earned Vicario the nickname Venom during his stay in Italy, after the often angry character from Marvel comic books.
A 4-0 win over Everton the following week made a similar outburst unnecessary.
The hope is that this will also be the case when they play Newcastle on Sunday, although it was at St James’ Park last season that Tottenham suffered their heaviest defeat of the season – a 4-0 defeat.
“I think we’re a different team now,” Vicario says.
When Vicario was the same age as Bergvall, he spent his Friday evenings with club mates during his first season at senior level with Fontanafredda in the Italian fourth division.
He has come a long way since then.
Vicario’s fiery temperament earned him the nickname ‘Venom’ during his time in Italy
The goalkeeper only made his Serie A debut in 2021, but is now in his second season at Spurs
Although he only made his Serie A debut in April 2021, he is now in his second season at Tottenham after joining from Empoli for £17million last summer. While his tirade against a young team-mate crossed a line, he is ready to embrace the new role handed to him by Ange Postecoglou: being a leader in the Spurs dressing room.
“We’ve talked about it and I’m very happy,” added Vicario, now 27. “I think it comes with age. I’m one of the older players so I take responsibility, especially with the young guys, to make sure we work well and are the best we can.
‘As a goalkeeper you have to make your voice heard, because at the back you sometimes see things in a different way and you have a clearer picture of everything.
“I have to have this role, to try to steer all these things in a good direction. That’s important. Maybe we don’t give in to a counterattack or a situation where we can suffer.”
Ange is crazy about him. ‘As soon as I spoke to him I knew he was the right man for us,’ said the Spurs manager. ‘As well as being a great goalkeeper, he is also a great person. When you get someone like that in your dressing room, you get more than just a goalkeeper.’
After all, this is the man who housed a Ukrainian mother and her son in his family home in Udine after the Russian invasion. He calls Milan, the son, “my little brother.”
Ange Postecoglou raved about Vicario’s personality and ‘outstanding’ talent
Vicario exudes class on the pitch and has established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the competition
Vicario also exuded class on the pitch for Spurs last season, neat with the ball at his feet and quickly establishing himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League with a series of acrobatic saves.
However, it was in set-piece situations that Spurs and Vicario struggled. Only Nottingham Forest conceded a higher percentage of goals from set-pieces than Tottenham, as teams began to target Vicario and block him from corners.
Ben White was the main villain in Arsenal’s North London derby win last season, as Tottenham conceded two corners. White pulled Vicario’s gloves on the goal line just before Pierre-Emile Højbjerg headed the ball into his own net.
“I didn’t realize it at the time,” Vicario said. “I saw later that he tried to grab my gloves, but we move on. We didn’t give away a goal for that reason. Every week, teams and goalkeepers give away a goal from set pieces… that’s part of football. Sometimes I do it, sometimes other goalkeepers do it. I think everyone gets attacked by every team. You just have to deal with it.
“You can always improve. My first season in a new league, the best league in the world. Sometimes you have to adapt and sometimes you have to struggle so you can say: OK, you can do better. My summary is that I am doing well, I am happy and I am looking forward to doing better.”
For Spurs, performing better this season means two things: qualifying for the Champions League, after finishing fifth last season, and – as ever – ending the long wait for a trophy.
Spurs and Vicario have been the target of set-pieces, with Ben White being a nuisance last season
Vicario now focuses on ending Spurs’ long drought of being ‘remembered for life’
Vicario knows that the latter will make you a legend at Tottenham.
“Maybe one day you’ll come back to the stadium, walk through the tunnel, walk through the hallway, and see some pictures of yourself. You can say, ‘Forty years ago I did this,'” Vicario says.
‘We were born to try and win things, to be remembered by our fans, because we know that if we do that at Tottenham we will be remembered forever.’