Gillingham’s Luis Binks is preparing for his first Italian Christmas as a player with Serie A side Bologna following his summer move from MLS side CF Montreal, and he’s again been talking with KSN about his own “Italian Job.”

Luis has been in Italy since the summer and we asked him how he thought his first six months had gone – he told us, “It’s been good for me. Italy is a great place to learn for me being a defender and even learning a different culture is good. My Italian is OK, I can understand far more than I can speak out on the pitch, I can speak but off the pitch it’s a little harder.”

“One of the reasons I wanted to come back to Europe was to be nearer home and so people could come out and see me and so I could get home easier especially with everything that’s going on.”

Luis is a regular member of the first team squad on matchdays, but he knows he’s still got a lot of hard work ahead of him as he admitted, “I have a long way to go to get to where I want to get to. I wouldn’t say I’m an “established first team squad member” yet as I haven’t played much yet!”

“This first year was always going to be a year for me to learn as much as I can as it’s a whole new culture and style to what I’m used to. I need to carry on working hard and carry-on learning and being patient.”

“As everyone knows Italy is a league that is very tactical so obviously there is a lot of shape and tactics that we do here, whereas in England when I did train with the first team at Spurs it was different with every manager. Pochettino would do a lot of training that had hidden running in it so 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 always and Mourinho was slightly different as I remember doing a lot of defending work as a unit so similar to Italy!”

Talking of the “Special One” brought us to Bologna’s recent 1-0 win over Roma – we wanted to know if Mourinho, who remember was Spurs boss when Luis began his adventure in Canada, remembered the young man from Gillingham. “Yeah – I saw him before the game in the tunnel and just went over and shook his hand and said, “how are you?” but that was it really as it was just before kick-off and obviously, he was in the “zone”.”

Luis added, “After the game I had a good chat with the assistant of Roma as he was also at Spurs, and he was just asking how I found the MLS and just general chat.” 

Bologna went into this weekend’s game at Torino in ninth place, just three off the European places, but we wondered just how close that they can get to the prized places. “There’s no reason why we can’t finish in a good league position because there is a lot of talent in the squad,” Luis told us. “It’s a cliche but each game is the most important one and each game we want to take something from.”

Being an Englishman abroad, Luis still watches the Premier League regularly and keeps tabs on the goings on at Priestfield, but we wondered what it’s like to watch the Premier League in a foreign language? “It’s taken some getting used to,” Luis laughed.

He went on, “When I was in Montreal – and now here in Bologna – people have actually asked me what’s the biggest thing I miss from home, and I said the commentary from Neville and the others on the football!” 

He went on explaining, “They seem to have a lot of good women commentators here and often have an ex-pro where they are always standing pitch side, it’s not really done in a studio like England.”

We ended by asking THE question at this time of year – after an amazing year personally, what does Luis want for Christmas? He said, “I don’t know, my family always say I’m a nightmare to buy for as I don’t really need anything,” before adding, “I’d be happy with a ball HA HA!”