Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has applauded chairman Daniel Levy for providing the north London club a “cathedral” of football but has advised him to “rebuild” the Premier League club into one that can fight for trophies.
“There is a fantastic stadium and there is a fantastic training ground and the infrastructure (at) this club is very, very top. But then there is the football aspect,” Conte told beIN Sports.
Since the appointing of Conte as their manager, Spurs turned their season around, but they have now hit a rough patch. Last week, they dropped points, losing to Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers, which puts them in eighth place, seven points off fourth place.
The Italian tactician continued by saying that Tottenham is in a fight to improve, citing clubs like West Ham United, Aston Villa, and Brighton & Hove Albion are all trying to improve.
“The level of this league is very high. Every single team wants to improve, not only Tottenham but Arsenal and Leicester and West Ham and Aston Villa and Newcastle. Also, teams like Brighton and Wolves — they want to improve,” Conte said.
“At this moment, we have to fight with these teams. It’s important not to be scared about this situation now, but we need to have the desire and the will to fight this situation, to try to rebuild again. It’s a totally different situation compared to my past.”
Tottenham will need to go on the road and pull off an upset against Manchester City if they want to continue having hopes of finishing in the top four. However, that will be a tall task considering Pep Guardiola’s squad has scored nine goals in their last two matches.
I suppose it depends how much Kane is really worth..ie what a club will pay.
Agreed, but Kane has had a stinker this year. It might be a better option to sell and buy 3 players. At some time we have to stat again. I’d rather do it with some money to do it rather than get peanuts, like we did with Eriksen, Tobey, Dembele, Verts and Dele. Granted, it didn’t work with Bale and our recruiting has not been stellar, but having some money is better than having none.
I always think that Poch was actually rather inconvenient for Levy because he got us closer to the league title etc – with the potentially added fan pressure then for extra investment – than baldy wanted.
Klopp and Pep wouldn’t in all likelihood win any (meaningful) trophies at this club!
Levy’s too much of a fool, football-wise, to realize that we’re not going to make the top four with this squad, barring freak events (like all our rivals go down with Covid and we don’t!)
NDA’s are the refuge of the scoundrel ie hiding the truth of what is really going on!
Conte at least puts it in the same context the fans think in. I love him shaming that nasty little toad fraudulently claiming he’s a Spurs fan. He’s an incompetent football person but isn’t paid to be one.
He would not attend but still pick up the money. He’s a caaaant, Easty.
Conte is too good for us. Showing Levy’s incompetence makes him a hero in my eyes.
Think how awful we will be once Kane and Son are either sold or are flogged until they are also only fit for the knackers yard. Levy’s Spurs dream…what a nightmare.
I can see the smoke and mirrors illusion that Levy got away with for so long is looking less magical day by day. The sane ones of us on here have learnt nothing from Conte’s words and have seen through the charlatan that is Levy years ago and have been banging the drum circa 2005. Hopefully, the media is seeing things for what they are and Levy wont be hailed as a wonderful chairman as he has been for years. However, it wont stop him or change him.
There is money to be had at Tottenham and Levy has to eek every penny he can so his failure of overpaying for a stadium and then not getting a Stadium sponsor goes unseen. Ashley at Newcastle was hated and yet only a small minority of the media riled against him. I can see the same happening at Spurs with Levy. We, the fans care, no one else does and why should they?
Spurs are not a big cog in the footballing wheel, even Liverpool and Arsenal fell off the top table and still the wheels turned. There is always someone to take your place if you fail to stay at the top. We are in no man’s land. Not enough quality players in midfield or defence to put us back on top. In the short term this is no easy fix, Jose and Conte have proven that and these were managers who know their stuff. For every season Levy penny pinches the bigger teams will keep reinforcing and it will not matter who is at he helm.
As for other clubs, Everton have made a pig’s ear of competing by buying poorly, Leicester have shown that a bigger squad is needed than they can afford and West Ham are one transfer away from becoming mediocre once Rice is snapped up by Chelsea. We are better off than Everton without spending their money, but at least Leicester have had something to show. I heard today that West Ham are serious contenders for the Europa, obviously this was from TalkSport, but this is nonsense. Just because they are still in the cup does not mean they will win it. It is just fanciful journalism.
We can certainly recover, but it will take a while. Levy though has missed the boat so many times when it comes to football. How long have we needed a decent right back now? How long have we needed a better centre half than Sanchez and Dier? How long have we needed a creative midfielder? How long have we needed back up to Kane? How long have we waited to be bought out? How long have we waited to win a cup and one of real meaning?
To put it simply, I am tired of waiting with no respite round the corner. We are better off than a considerable number of clubs, but it has been a truly awful existence being a Spurs fan for the past 30 years.
If he plays Sanchez tomorrow, now that Dier is available, then Conte going isn’t such a bad thing!
Yes. Because they don’t want him talking to them due words being lost or misinterpreted in translation. Even though he was speaking to Sky Italy in Italian. Thats what Conte has said.
Bale Eriksen Poch ..next season…someone section Levy ..I hope all the above have the dignity not to come..if they do they are part of the The Great Tottenham Swindle..
What, that the club have banned him from talking to the Italian media?
I know, it’s unbelievable.
He said it in his press conference fir tomorrow’s game.
Try googling ‘mirror’ and ‘Conte ban’. There may be other sources as well.
Unfortunately there are plenty of flat earthers
The media are lacking a sack race story and trying to get the next best thing.
Conte knew what he was walking into and after Kane’s gentleman’s agreement why would he sign longer than 18 months if he was promised changes over the next few transfer windows and be stuck on a stupid length contract or gardening leave.
Levy has always used managers and Directiors Of Football etc as pawns in the game.
Secondly as many on here have acknowledged, he’d rather spend 15m+ a year on the manager’s salary than the team. Buy in young punts (yes, I said punts!) and hope for the best that the manager ‘do what he’s paid to do’ according to Levy and try and get the mess he’s been handed into a top four league position.
Unless you get in a certain number of players who can play well in this league, you will never be truly competitive. Pochettino told him, Mitchell told him, I suspect Jose told him and Nuno just looked like he been run over by a bus within weeks and was too stunned to say anything of note.
Now it’s Conte’s turn, but hey Daniel knows best you see so he doesn’t need to listen to the experts he himself has employed at great cost. What’s the matter with the man? Is he stubborn, arrogant, thick, naive or all of the above?
I would say in football terms that he’s all of those things, and that he also sees the Super League idea as his way out into a landscape that supports and props up ENIC’s business ‘model’.
Weve all been conned, duped and ripped off by these people. Let’s be absolutely clear about that…
What’s official? Conte being warned about talking to the media? Where did you see that?
Correct, it’s a scam he’s been running for almost 23 years. Difference now is that he’s being found out by even the most dim witted of the club’s fan base. If this carries on I can’t see him attending matches again…
Pochettino’s last few months, Conte has only just completed his FIRST few months and now he’s into his last few?! Could well be right, shocking state of affairs…
Jeez, this is beginning to sound just like how Poch’s last few months went.
He too called out the lack of ambition and the need to decide whether the club want to take the next steps to properly compete.
The difference is, Poch had a decent squad, much better than this rabble; he had taken us to 4 CL place finishes on the trot.
We all know how that turned out.
The most damning thing in all this is that another top level manager is calling out their own club to show ambition.
Massive depression lol not with the payouts these guys get for a few months work, ask Big Sam.
Agree that Levy only cares in the numbers particularly his own but he also hates the spotlight on him as it shows everyone if they didn’t know already the scam they are running pretending to have ambition for the football club so they can charge elite club ticket prices without any intention of investing.
The only thing that will make Levy squirm is the impact on the value of his share of the club. Though targets by chants by the whole stadium does shake him up, maybe replace y word chant with n anti levy chants might sort two birds out with one proverbial stone.
I believe Levy and ENIC decided after the Nuno debacle that the only way to keep the fans from turning against them was to bring in Conte. It was cheaper than investing in the squad. Levy knew that Conte would want backing and made the promise that he would knowing full well he wouldn’t. He therefore calculated that Conte would stay until the summer and then walk. Levy still wants Pooch back so that he can start another 5 year project with the jam tomorrow narrative. I do think that ENIC and Levy know that their tenure is coming to an end as the fans have been spun the lie so many times about the club having ambition and it is a lie of diminishing returns as fans switch off and attendances fall. They may well be banking on attracting a buyer to avoid any pressure on investment in the football business. It is a question of whether ENIC and Levy can keep the fans at bay until then. Conte nailed it with his comments. Everything about the football club is elite class except the team which is the most important aspect of a football club. Levy must be squirming in his dark hole somewhere with increasingly nowhere to turn.
It is official Conte has been told not to talk to Italian media again. Kane told Mr Baldy he won’t sign any new contract until he sees Conte is backed by the next window.Enic/Levy showing their true face of not wanting the truth about them to be told in public I think the game is on between Mr Conte +Kane vs Enic/Levy I say they will be both Conte and Kane gone by the summer and series continues.
Conte is a no lose situation. If Conte wins anything and gets top 4 he shows why he’s won of the best in the world. If he doesn’t and leaves or gets sacked, then his reputation is still intact due to incompetence of our glorious and genius leader.
Like I said before Conte will always speak out and doesn’t care for NDA Levy puts in place. This is the best things Conte can do for himself and Spurs in the long run.
Jose might have won trophies at Spurs… but then was sacked just before a Cup Final. Is against a good business model, for Levy, to actually win anything
It certainly looks like Conte is moving himself into a position where Levy sacks him with a hefty payoff.Levy won’t like the public stating of the obvious which most sensible fans are well aware of.
He doesn’t want a team that is in contention to win silverware,thereby boosting the hopes of the fans,which would then lead to more investment.No,just scraping into top four is enough for him to show that the squad is not in need of more spending.
This is the reality of our situation and until ENIC are gone,things are never going to change.Conte will be gone in the summer if not before and then we are in a very dark place.
This is the time of year big clubs start to plan for the summer transfers windows. Either lining up frees or getting players in early in the summer so the manager has a chance to indoctrinate with a full pre season.
For Conte this is internal politics.
He’s done nothing wrong in regards to his contract and if you step back see he actually wants to deliver at Tottenham.
To recruit the best potential talent you have to be challenging for trophies or the reality is you’re in the pool of clubs trying to attract players like Villa, West Ham, Newcastle.
Even in January we couldn’t get the players we wanted because of the clubs ambition.
Conte is aware of the insanity of doing what you’ve always done and expecting a different result.
Though for Levy and the flat earth levyologists this penny hasn’t dropped yet.
Brought a smile to my face to read these words from Conte. What else matters besides the “football aspect? If he hadn’t brought in Conte Levy would now be in witness protection. And when Conte leaves one way or another, Harry and anyone else worthwhile will go with him and that will be the end of Levy I can feel it!
He’s ex Chelsea so he has a great chance. If he was Portuguese he’d be nailed on.
I see a pattern emerging. Spurs hire an ex Chelsea manager to steady a sinking ship. The team re-group around the new manager and are unbeaten in the run up to Christmas. Everything starts to look positive again. Suddenly the team begins to inexplicably misfire and cannot win a game. They slip down the table, confidence drains, and the manager begins making lots of changes to the team selection and tactics; leading to yet more confidence lost. Spurs pay the manager to leave before the end of his contract and begin ‘searching’ for the next messiah.
“But then there is the football aspect”, that’s the simplest most damning condemnation of ENIC ever. Bravo Conte.
Our dead wood can regenerate and make new deadwood.
If.
Brendan Rogers.
Exactly, Jose won tropies everywhere he went except spurs, why…because every other club Jose went the owners..chairman etc backed him, with spurs this doesn’t exist, you have to make do with what you got, maybe levy will buy one or two cheap players to make it look we are busy in the transfer market, but the end result is always the same , sell a deadbeat and buy more deadwood. When was the last time we bought someone we got excited about…
I agree its just that well this will not have a fairy tale ending… not sure whose left to coach us on the coaches ferris wheel…😏
Why put yourself through hell for 18 months which could cause massive depression(since Levy wont change his stripes) when there is an easy way out by getting yourself fired and getting a massive payout in the process.
Good on Conte for saying it as it is. he has gone about it the right way. He hasnt thrown any players under the bus, he has in fact defended them a lot at times. But he has pointed out what is already known.
Such comments are likely to see Conte fired… Levy doesn’t like to be told in public the issue of quality & the football sqaud
Well considering the trend of Jose winning trophies everywhere stopped when he joined Spurs probably means the same for Conte.
Everyone knows the squad is stale…..Poch’s famous quote 5 years ago saying the lovely house needs new furniture
Danny boy is delusional, narcissistic megalomaniac……good luck Antonio…I fear it will all end in tears!!
Conte won trophies everywhere… will he at Spurs? Maybe, if Levy backs him during the summer.