Dejan Kulusevski has revealed he is a "huge, huge fan" of Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario. Out since the end of November with an ankle injury, the Spurs shot-stopper made his return in Sunday's 1-0 win over Manchester United.

The Italian international was key to the victory with a number of crucial saves across the 90 minutes as he left Rasmus Hojlund and Alejandro Garnacho frustrated. Vicario had been counting down the days to his return to action and his reaction come the full-time whistle said everything as he passionately shouted in the direction of the home fans.

Making such an impact since he joined Tottenham from Empoli in the summer of 2023. he has also made quite an impression on Kulusevski. Speaking in an interview after the game, the Sweden international opened up on his pre-match message to Vicario and what his teammate had to do.

"We wanted to score more of course but it was great to have [James] Maddison back also," explained the 24-year-old, as reported by The Standard. "I'm a huge fan of Vicario. Like a huge, huge fan. His energy is unmatched, he is fantastic.

"I told him, 'When you come back the whole stadium needs to feel it'. That's what he does. He's an unbelievable goalkeeper. He made a couple of saves and, so with him back, it's a big, big player.

"He's a professional, he's in the gym every day. He's every day happy, he wants to get better and he's Italian! So I have a great bond with him and it was good to have him back. The last game he played was the 4-0 [win] at Man City, so we missed him a lot."

A huge boost for Tottenham to have Vicario and Maddison back in the side and Destiny Udogie, Wilson Odobert and Brennan Johnson on the bench, Spurs really could have done with the quintet the previous week for their cup games against Liverpool and Aston Villa. A tough week for the football club after exiting both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, Kulusevski does not have any regrets and he is only looking ahead rather than focusing on the past.

"[Last week] was very rough but you can’t be emotional," the Swede said. "When you give everything you had, when you prepare yourself 100%, you can't look back. It didn't go as I wanted or we wanted but the day after I didn’t care. Because you can’t have regrets when you give everything.

"I think if you don't give everything then you can start looking back, but when you give everything and you know that you did that you can't ask more of yourself."

Victory over Man United, talking about those fan protests & the Vicario and Maddison's triumphant returns. Click here to listen to the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham!

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