24.03.2023

Having lost two points to South Coast Big Club at St. Mary’s, Antonio Conte went on a ten minute tirade in his post-match media conference against everyone …  except himself.  Calling the players “selfish” and branding the owners as not willing to win trophies, his anger built up from dropping points was turned in on the club who brought him in to change the very things he was blasting them for.

In an astonishing rant, Antonio Conte seemingly made it clear that he wants nothing to do with the squad of players or the club, proving that another “serial winner” is only do maintain that reputation if they have millions of pounds to spend on players  … and some of those he has spent millions on are those that he has criticised.  In doing so, Conte puts the spotlight on his own failings, as much as those of the club or the players.

He contradicts himself at times in his blast.

20 years the club has won nothing.  Well it is only 15, but we get the point.  However, during this time, there have been different players in those 15 years and different managers.  It is unquestionable that some of those players have left and won things at the clubs they have moved to, but that is probably more to do with the clubs they joined having different resources (Man City, for example) and being in a successful team.  We have had a range of managers in terms of success coming in at THFC.  Some were winners at other clubs and some came in with hopes that they would win things with Tottenham after not winning too much in England before.  Of those, Martin Jol, Harry Redknapp and Mauricio Pochettino had the greatest effect on the team, although Tim Sherwood (22 games) and Antonio Conte (55 games) have the best winning percentages.  However, Pochettino’s isn’t too far behind them having managed for ten times as many games as Sherwood and four times Conte’s.

The Italian said that every club can beat every other club in the Premier League and that it will soon be like the NBA.  If Conte believes that, then he would do well to approach every game like that.  The lack of pro-active football in the first half of games has been a regular feature of our games and leads have been lost before the game at St, Mary’s, so why the outburst at that time ?  Is it that with only 10 games left, he can foresee the team failing to qualify for the Champions League and that he didn’t want to be part of that ‘failure’.  He has made such a big thing about the progress from playing in the Europa Conference to the Champions League, so if it is a step backwards, is he saying that he is unable to accept this ?  Did he leave Inter because anything after winning the Scudetto in Italy would be a regression ?

Is he saying that he can’t get a tune out of these players, in which case, he was never the right man for the job if he is only able to go into clubs that win things and carry that on under his management.  Managers who are actually able to develop teams are few and far between and Conte is proving himself unable to do so.  I saw on the BBC website that it seems like he is doing Tottenham a favour by managing them and that is how it seems, as surely he has now written his own death warrant.  Daniel Levy has taken against managers for less.  Remember Harry Redknapp demanding a new contract when Levy’s mother passed away and Nuno Espirito Santo being unable to adapt to Spurs when he went into his shell and was emotionless on the touchline.  No chance of Conte following Nuno’s example, but his failure to be a serial winner at Tottenham is now not his fault, but everyone else’s.  It makes you wonder why he took the job in the first place, having seen another manager who supposedly is steeped in success fail as Mourinho did.

Not that all his comments were far off the mark, but he appears to be readying his path out of N17 and laying out what he needs from his next club.  Reports reckon that he spoke to the board after the match and claimed that all of his comments were aimed at the players and not at the directors.  He can only claim that his English isn’t perfect, but it was clear that he believes that the owners are the reason that the club is not among the silverware.  There are two weeks before the next game, so plenty of time for the board to decide what they are going to do about Antonio and to work out how much it will cost to get rid of him and to replace him.

Whoever comes in, it needs to be someone who isn’t past their sell-by date and has some flexibility in how to manage games, because at 3-1, Spurs were cruising before allowing SCBC back into the match, albeit thanks to a dodgy penalty.  Conte’s intransigence in not utilising the whole squad is hard to fathom, so a new manger might give playing time to players that have been brought in, even if they are not your choice.  For example, Arnaut Danjuma came on at Preston (and I know it was a Championship side who were two down and only a few minutes to go) and scored, which is the reason I suppose we brought him in on loan.  But since then, he has rarely got off the bench.  The continental system, where managers have the players to work with that the owners buy, should be one he is accustomed with, but if he cannot have the players he demands (and it is difficult to tempt them without the carrot of Champions League football), he seems to want to ignore them, although not be willing to suffer the consequences.

What it means for Spurs is that we are no further forward than 18 months ago.  And we are no further on than 18 months before that.  Or four months before that.  Time is slipping by and the time is right to make the correct decision in who will take over when Conte leaves … albeit sooner or later

The Funky Phantom