The seemingly imminent departure of Antonio Conte as Tottenham manager will not have an impact on Dejan Kulusevski joining the club permanently this summer. The Sweden international arrived at Spurs on an initial 18-month loan in the 2022 January transfer window. Speaking while on international duty with Sweden ahead of their Euro 2024 qualifiers against Belgium and Azerbaijan, Kulusevski was asked if he felt personally offended by Conte’s quotes. Instead, he backed his manager and took no offence to the controversial comments.
Dejan Kulusevski replied: “No, because I know what I bring to the team every day. I know I prepare myself to do as good as I can and that’s why I can always look at myself in the mirror. Sometimes I know I don’t play good enough and I can take responsibility for that. But what he said was for him, they were his words and I respect him a lot. He helped me a lot during my career and he’s still a very important man at the club and in my world.”
Tottenham teammate Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg was also pushed on Conte’s words in his post-match press conference when speaking on Denmark duty on Monday and he called on the head coach to be more open with the players.
Dejan Kulusevski said: “I don’t know. He [Conte] was very disappointed as were us players. We have to accept that. We lost all the cups and went out in the Champions League also. I know sometimes we have to be sad and angry and that’s how he took it. Somebody else would take it another way. We have to respect his words.”
