Antonio Conte, the manager of Tottenham Hotspur, has hit back at his Brazilian striker Richarlison after the player criticised him in a post-match interview on Wednesday night.
The incident occurred after Spurs were knocked out of the Champions League following their 0-0 draw with AC Milan in the second leg of the tie, with the Italian side winning 1-0 on aggregate.
Conte’s decision to start Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son, and Dejan Kulusevski instead of Richarlison was met with criticism from the player in an explosive interview after the game.
In an explosive interview with TNT Sports, Richarlison called his season “shitty” and expressed confusion as to why he had been dropped to the bench.
However, Conte defended his decision, citing Richarlison’s poor form and injury troubles this season. He stated that the player’s comments about his own performance were accurate, given that he had scored zero goals with Tottenham and only two goals in the Champions League.
He said (via The Telegraph):
“First of all I watched the interview of Richarlison and he didn’t criticise me. He said my season is ‘s—‘ and he is right because his season is no good.”
“Because he had a lot of injuries. He started well with us, he then had injury in the Champions League and then he went to World Cup and he had another serious injury. He came back and stayed one month out. Then another injury. He scored zero goals with us, only two goals in Champions League and I think the guy was really honest to tell that his season is not good. His season and our season has still not finished and he has time to recover. If he deserves to play, I give him opportunity otherwise we will play another player.”
In addition, Conte accused Richarlison of being “selfish” for speaking only about himself in the interview, rather than the team. He emphasized the importance of using “we” instead of “I” when discussing team performance, stating that it showed a lack of concern for the club and his teammates.
He added:
“If you ask me for rest of the interview I think that the guy understood very well that he made a mistake because when you speak with ‘I, I and I’, not with us, it means you are thinking only about yourself and you are selfish,”
“For this reason, I analysed this situation and to repeat to my players that if we want to build something important, if you want to try to fight for something important, if we want to fight to be competitive and to win a trophy, you have to speak with ‘we’ and not with ‘I”. Because if we speak ‘I, I and I’, it means that you are only thinking only about yourself and not the others and club.”
Gabby Agbonlahor was furious at the Brazilian’s comments about his boss and urged Conte to punish him by demoting him to play with the U18s.
However, despite the tension between the two, Conte confirmed that Richarlison has since apologised to him which could mean the matter has been put to rest.
