Yaya Toure David Silva
Antonio Conte believes that Tottenham’s inability to refresh their team at crucial stages as led to their slide down the table. One man who knows what it takes to win titles is Yaya Toure and the 38-year-old three-time Premier League winner and Champions League and two-time La Liga winner was in a Spurs tracksuit at the club’s Hotspur Way training complex on Wednesday. The former Manchester City midfielder, who currently lives in London, is spending a couple of days this week with Spurs’ academy staff and players as he works towards his UEFA A Licence coaching badge, sponsored by the Welsh FA. The Ivorian is believed to be open to extending his stay with Tottenham’s development groups as he works with academy manager Dean Rastrick and head of academy coaching Chris Powell, and Toure is certainly someone who has been part of a squad built to win titles.
Antonio Conte said: “This is a big challenge for me. This is a big challenge for the club. This is a big challenge for the players, for everybody. The club, in the last years, has been slipping. If I compare Tottenham to when I was in Chelsea, Tottenham was very, very competitive, was a really really strong team and I think that to lose important players or some became old and then to have a change of generation, I think Tottenham now is paying a bit for this. Now we have to create, to start again. To think that we have to create a solid base and then to build, because if we don’t have a solid base, it’s impossible to build something important. I think that now is the right moment to create a solid base and then to start to build. To come back to fight for something important as [in] the past. I think this must be our target but this target has to involve all – the club, the players. I think also our fans. I understand that sometimes they lose their patience but I repeat I am here to put myself totally for Tottenham and to work 24 hours a day for this club because this a big challenge for me – maybe the best, biggest challenge, about the difficulty – about the position that we are starting.”
Antonio Conte added: “My biggest challenge, yes, but as I said in Mura, I’m not scared about this. I have a lot of enthusiasm. When I arrive here, I enjoy the situation. I enjoy to work with the players. I enjoy to speak with the club, I enjoy to create a good base. Now the most important thing is this – to create a good base and then to build something important. We need a bit of time but I’m sure we can improve a lot and give satisfaction to our fans.”
Conte did not mince his words following the embarrassing defeat in Slovenia to NS Mura last week and he said that was a key step in the process. for Tottenham, who welcome Brentford in the Premier League on Thursday night.
Antonio Conte said: “I think that in football it’s important to be honest and very clear in every moment. We know that in this moment the level of the team is medium,” he said. We all know. Not only me, also the players. The players are conscious about the situation, but especially for this reason, this reason could not become an alibi or an excuse. No, we have to take this situation to push ourselves to improve and to look up. To improve in every situation, in many aspects. I think that we must be honest but it doesn’t mean that we don’t want to think great. We need to think great but in this moment we have to know that we are here and where do we have to go? There.”
Conte is well aware that he has plenty of work on his hands, particularly with the news that key defender Cristian Romero will be out until early 2022 with a high-grade hamstring strain. The former Inter Milan and Chelsea boss is used to fighting it out at the top but he believes he needs time to recreate that at Tottenham.
Antonio Conte explained: “The situation is not simple because in this moment you know that there at least four clubs stronger than you. This is the situation that is not simple. If you ask me if we can fight for the Premier League title, this situation is not simple. If you can fight for a place in the Champions League, it’s not simple. The situation is not simple for this reason. I’m used to fighting to win something, to be competitive. After four weeks I can tell you I have found a fantastic environment, people who like to work and they’re helping me but we need to create a base and a solid foundation. Only this way, in my experience, can you think to be something important, to be competitive, to fight for a place in the Champions League, and to fight for the title in the Premier League. Our fans have this type of expectation but at the same time I want to be honest and say that we are here and we want to do the best for Tottenham, and to give Tottenham 24 hours of our day, to improve the club, improve the football situation, improve the players, but I can tell that there is only one way. I don’t know another way.”
Some people might have expected Conte, as a serial winner, to come in and transform Tottenham in an instant after others have failed but he believes nobody can do that.
Antonio Conte said: “In the past, the only thing I can assure a club when it decides to take me is my knowledge, my experience, my mentality, my honesty in every aspect. I can assure this. Then also in my previous experience when I arrive at a club, I didn’t spend a lot of money – Inter, with Chelsea, with Juventus. I’m not a manager who arrives and says ‘I want this, this and this’ or ‘I want top, top, top’. I’m a person who believes a lot in my work. I know that to improve and be competitive and fight for something important you need also quality in the players, but we need a little time also to have a vision. We need to have a vision in the football aspect. The vision outside has been amazing, to build the stadium and the training ground. Now we need to start to think we need a vision of football to try to bring Tottenham into the place where they want to stay and to be competitive. To do it like this (clicks fingers) I can tell you it’s impossible. We need time and we need to work, but I think I’m the right person for this project.”
