The ongoing internal tension at Tottenham Hotspur is perhaps best exemplified by manager Antonio Conte publicly calling for togetherness while also refusing to commit his future to the club beyond this summer. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the 53-year-old’s career will know he is no stranger to this sort of equivocation, as he’s known for manipulating his reputation as a proven winner to keep his employers honest. It usually ends acrimoniously.
Conte has never spent more than three years at any club since beginning his managerial career at Arezzo in 2006. In more recent times, he has delivered great success at Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan — until disagreements with senior figures over future strategy contributed to an abrupt departure.
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Spurs knew what they were signing up for — anticipating anything different from Conte would be like getting a cat and expecting it to bark. But the club felt the drama was a price worth paying if he delivered the one thing missing from modern-day Tottenham: trophies. After all, the other pieces have already been there for Tottenham — a stunning £1 billion stadium, state-of-the-art training ground and, in Harry Kane, the talismanic England captain on course to break individual goal scoring records for club and country.
Tottenham hired Conte not to win any trophy — although that would be a start since their last silverware came in 2008 — but to make a serious tilt at the Premier League, and maybe even the Champions League on the basis that they reached the final less than four years ago. Given the lack of public comment from owners ENIC Group and chairman Daniel Levy, it’s difficult to know how close the Tottenham hierarchy believed they were to becoming challengers when appointing Conte in November 2021. But in all probability, the Italian has made it clear there is more to do than they first anticipated when hiring him.
Conte has repeatedly talked about the gap between Spurs and the top clubs and the need for significant, widespread investment in the squad. After losing to Aston Villa last weekend, Conte described securing Champions League qualification on the final day of last season as a “miracle” — a view with some truth given it required a late collapse from Arsenal to help them over the line.
