“I wasn’t surprised,” the 46-year-old replied, speaking in his native Italian which was translated by The Athletic. “I was a bit sad and sorry it happened, because I’m sorry if somebody took offence.

“I must repeat what I said the other time. This topic is very close to me, I’m very sensitive about this topic, because of the person I am and because I have a daughter.

“And so I must repeat what I said the other time. I have always been against — always — any type of violence, especially against women. But not only violence, even just sexist jokes or other sexist behaviour. I have a daughter and I’m directly affected by it.

“I know who I am, I know the type of person I am, so I wasn’t annoyed by the questions — I’m just sad about them.”

De Zerbi was then asked whether he hopes Spurs fans will accept his apology.

“Yes, also because I’m not going to go back over this topic,” he said, again in Italian. “I spoke about it in my first interview, I spoke about it today, and it wouldn’t be right to go back over this topic again.”