antonio conte happy
Antonio Conte has now publicly confirmed his desire to remain at Tottenham Hotspur next season but only if his ambition is matched. The Italian has swerved questions about next season in recent weeks, maintaining that he is not looking past the end of this campaign.
Antonio Conte said: “For sure at the moment there is only one truth – I am committed to this club for another year. The club wanted this type of situation and I accepted it because it was good to get to know each other. After four months I think the club have understood the way I want to work and I understand the club. We have three more months till the end of the season to continue to improve our knowledge of each other and then to find the best solution for both. I can tell you that I am enjoying working for this club and I would like to fight for something important for this club. For sure it is true that I would like this – to fight for the future, to fight to be competitive, to fight to win and not only to finish fourth in the league, because I repeat, that is not my ambition. My ambition is to be competitive and to fight to win. I want this and I know my heart, my soul, my mind wants these things. I hope myself and the club match each other in this situation.”
Antonio Conte added: “I think it is very important to develop a good vision, because if you have a good vision in football and you have a lot of hope, you can be successful. In January we showed that we have just started to try to improve the situation. For sure, to be competitive and become stronger and win the league and to fight to stay in the top four, we need a big, big improvement. We have started to do this with these players because we are working really well and in my opinion are improving a lot, but for sure, you need in the future to have other important steps and to have ambition. And it needs to be ambition with facts and not only with words to become stronger.”
This Saturday, Spurs travel to take on Manchester United with both teams arriving off the back of big scorelines, Tottenham having beaten Everton 5-0 and their hosts losing 4-1 to rivals Manchester City. When Conte arrived in north London he admitted there was an “important gap” between Spurs and the big sides. However, now he has taken Tottenham to within three points of fourth-placed Arsenal. When asked what size the gap was now to the Premier League’s elite, the Italian said he was hoping to find out in the weeks ahead.
Antonio Conte said: “I am really curious to finish the season and to give you the right answer. At the moment I can tell you that from when I arrived in Tottenham we have improved a lot on many aspects, tactical and technical, physical and mental aspects. I know I was the first to say that I don’t want to see up and down up and down. I want to see a stable team. I think we are improving a lot in many aspects. We are trying to reduce this gap that exists because in this moment in this league in my opinion – and I say my opinion but my opinion is normally true – there is Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea. They are at the top, top, top. At the moment you have to hope that one of the teams fail to finish in the top four. If that situation happens for sure we need to stay very close and in the first position to try to fight until the end for a place in the Champions league. Also I want to put to myself the pressure and also the whole environment and also the players because I think the players deserve this type of pressure because it has to be a good pressure. They are working hard and improving and it is important to know for the players that we can start to be competitive and fight and then we will see what happens at the end of the season. Honestly in this moment I don’t know the way that we can finish the season. What I can tell you and I am sure about this, we are doing a really important job, really important work every day and we are creating a really good team with a good idea of football and I can tell you this. I don’t know if it will be enough to reach the top four in this season but we want to try to fight and for this season I improved our level of ambition as now I am asking to my players to fight for this target but before I asked to my players, I asked myself to do this because I think we need to have this type of ambition.”
Tottenham have improved under Conte and recent matches have shown his philosophy of play and the work he has put in with his squad on the Hotspur Way training pitches. However, it’s notable that Spurs’ two best performances under the Italian have come against the biggest sides in the Premier League in Manchester City and Liverpool, something he was asked to explain.
Antonio Conte said: “I think that we played other good games, honestly. For sure, when you have a good result against a top team, usually you can think that the performance was better or was the best that you had in your time in Tottenham. I think that with Liverpool the situation was that we played after 15 days without a game. It was Covid period. My team was affected with Covid and it was the same for Liverpool, no? I think that this game was good but I have to take into consideration many aspects. Against Manchester City, we played a really good game. No Covid. The last game was not played 15 days ago and I think it was different, no? The situation to make an evaluation. It was better, I think, against City than against Liverpool. Yes [there was less pressure on Spurs in those games] but for sure when you play against a top team, you have a big stimulation to try to play well. It’s important for us to show on Saturday that our level is going to improve because don’t forget that one and a half month [ago], we lost three times against Chelsea and in every game, we didn’t show to stay at that level. I think that since one month ago, we improved a lot, despite ups and downs. In the last period, I think that we improved a lot in many aspects. Now we are ready. We are ready to fight, we are ready to play our cards and to see what happens. It would be outstanding for us to win a Champions League [place], if we reach the top four at the end of the season because don’t forget that this season for Tottenham was very difficult for many, many aspects.”
