Roman Pavlyuchenko has expressed his surprise at the rather rigorous training methods in England.
The striker, who Tottenham signed for £14million from Spartak Moscow in the summer, appears to be used to a slightly more relaxed training routine than he is being subjected to at Spurs.
Pavlyuchenko was quoted on the RIA Novosti website: "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."
The Russian went on to express his admiration for the atmosphere at his new home.
"White Hart lane is crazy! I don't even know how to describe it. You go out for a game and you get goosebumps. The field is like a snooker table - it's super! The fans sing, yell, and stand up and applaud. They don't even need goals... running, battling for the ball... that's what the English love."
