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Former England striker Gary Lineker revealed he once tried to avoid pre-season training at Tottenham Hotspur – only to get a telling off from Terry Venables.
Venables, who played for Tottenham Hotspur before coaching them and England after hanging up his boots, has died aged 80. His family said: "We are totally devastated by the loss of a wonderful husband and father who passed away peacefully yesterday after a long illness."
The legendary coach was Spurs manager during England's Italia 90 World Cup campaign, which saw Lineker and co knocked out in the semi-finals on penalties by Germany. The Three Lions star striker and now Match of the Day presenter then returned to Mill Hill for pre-season training with Spurs.
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With the World Cup in the rearview mirror, Lineker enjoyed a couple of weeks off prior to his Spurs return, where he was put through his paces by Venables and his staff. But he clearly wasn't in the best of shape at the time.
Part of Tottenham's pre-season conditioning involved them taking part in some long distance running, something which Lineker was less than pleased about. And he came up with a clever plan to avoid the hard yards.
What do you make of Gary Lineker's pre-season trick? Let us know in the comments section below
Speaking on his podcast, The Rest is Football, alongside Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, Lineker revealed how he went about trying to cheat the pre-season system – only to be found out and sent to Venables' office.
"It's the one thing I felt quite bad about during my career," said Lineker. "We played at, when I was playing at Tottenham, after the World Cup in Italia 90, I was kind of shot.
"And we only had like a couple of weeks off and we started again and we used to run this…we used to train at Mill Hill and we used have this big area we'd run around, the outer perimeter [which was] a couple of miles.
"We had to do two laps and on the first lap we'd started, and I was already kind of behind everyone else, I just couldn't do that long distance stuff, and I actually hid behind a bush."
"You didn't," said Richards. Lineker continued: "I hid behind a bush on the first lap, and when they joined me again, just as they went past me, I jumped out and I was still last!"
"Shut up," interjected Shearer, before Lineker added again: "I was still last! And it's true, but Terry Venables got wind of it and he pulled me into his office and he went 'Gary, that's not good enough'.
"And actually, I went 'Terry, I know, I'm sorry, honestly I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that'. I had my worst season that year."
- Gary Lineker
- Tottenham Hotspur FC
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