#PLStories- Antonio Conte admits ‘this season is making me have an important reflection on my future’ #THFC
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Tottenham boss Antonio Conte has admitted that it has been a tough season for him on a personal level as he deals with grief and being away from his family and that is making him think about his future. Conte has lost three close friends in recent months in Spurs fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone, then former Serie A player and manager Sinisa Mihajlovic and this month ex-Juventus team-mate Gianluca Vialli. The Spurs head coach has had to deal with much of that alone as his wife Elisabetta is currently living in Italy while their teenage daughter Vittoria completes her final years of school and he admitted that the difficulties of juggling his work and personal lives have made him think about the future.
Antonio Conte said: “For sure this season is a difficult season from a personal aspect, because to lose in such a short time three people that I knew very well because before Gian Piero Ventrone, then Sinisa and now Gianluca. It was not simple. For sure when this situation happens it brings you to have important reflections, because many times we think and we give a lot of importance to our work and we forget the family, we forget that we need to have more time for us. This season is a difficult season for me as a personal aspect. For sure this season is making me have an important reflection on my future. When you work and the work is at the top of your mind in your head and maybe, sure, maybe times we forget to stay with the family we forget to stay with the friends, we forget to spend time with friends. But this is our passion and for the passion we lost a lot of things. When this situation happens I think you start to think that maybe sometimes it is also good to give more time to your family and friends and also to yourself. The work is not everything in the life.”
Conte splits his time between England and Italy, often rushing off immediately after matches to fly home for days off while his family do the same to be with him whenever the school days allow.
Antonio Conte said: “Yes for sure to have my family in Italy is not good, not good, but when you have a son or daughter and kids in school then you have to respect them because if every year or two seasons you have to bring your kids to change totally their environment, I don’t want to affect the life of my family. Sometimes it is important to make decisions to sacrifice and stay. I have a family who try to support me and come here at every moment that they can come, but this type of situation becomes more difficult when happen situations like this, no, like Gianluca, Gian Piero and Sinisa.”
When asked whether it was tiring trying to be a Premier League manager in one country and a husband and father in another, Conte admitted that work always makes you tired but said that it’s his work ethic that has made Tottenham want to keep him beyond his current contract.
Antonio Conte said: “You only get tired if you work. I work a lot and for this reason it is normal to be tired. Many people don’t look tired – that’s because they don’t work! I work a lot for this club, believe me. I give everything for the club. Not only for Tottenham – for Inter, for Juventus, for every club where I was the coach. It is normal that when I finish the day I am tired because I work a lot for the club and for this reason the club want me to stay for a long period.”
On some questioning his commitment to Spurs,
Antonio Conte added: “I don’t read and I don’t hear this but the people who know me and you can tell me, I could be not a good coach, but about the commitment and what I give the club where I work, no club was unhappy about this. Usually when I left the club they regret me [leaving] a lot because they knew the way that I work and the commitment I put into the club, what I give for the club. Yes. I think this, but in this aspect I am really happy for the way that I am.”
Spurs travel to Manchester City on Thursday night looking to turn their mood around after Sunday’s disappointing North London Derby defeat at home to Arsenal and Conte says he will not need to lift the players for the match at the Etihad Stadium.
Antonio Conte said: “We are talking about a really difficult game because we are going to face the best team in the world. In this type of game, it’s not important to give extra motivation to your players because they know the importance of the game. They have the motivation in themselves because they know they are going to play against top players. But at the same time, we want to go to play our game and to try to get a good result. We know the difficulty of the game but we are preparing the game to try to have a good result and give a good result to our fans. It has to be always in this way. Sometimes we are good to do it, sometimes we are not good to do it, but the most important thing is you have prepared yourself 100 per cent to try to get a good result. About myself, I put the pressure in every game because I want to win. If my team is going to play with a team at the bottom of the table or in first, I put the same pressure because for me the pressure is a positive. The pressure allows me to give 100 per cent. If I’m relaxed and I don’t have energy, it’s not a good signal for myself. For this reason, in every game I put pressure on myself to try to find a great energy.”
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