Antonio Conte's turbulent time at Tottenham Hotspur
There is an underrated element in football that there are managers and clubs that don't work well together, which is something that a lot of people don't grasp when analyzing the sport. A good example of that was manager Antonio Conte's decision to join Tottenham Hotspur in November of 2021, which proved to be one of the most chaotic moments in the Italian's career.
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Context for club and manager
Tottenham Hotspur is a club that has always struggled in recent years with winning trophies and has always been criticized for a lack of winning mentality. While the Mauricio Pochettino-led era proved to be quite excellent for the club, reaching second place in the 2016/17 season in the English Premier League and a UEFA Champions League final in the 2018/19 season, they didn't win any trophies, which has been a major problem for a lot of fans.While Tottenham CEO Daniel Levy first attempted to instill a winning mentality in legendary manager Jose Mourinho, the manager struggled to make an impact and his short-term influence wasn't felt. There were a lot of claims that Mourinho wasn't good enough since he started to decline as a manager, hence why he was let go.
The idea of Antonio Conte seemed like an interesting prospect, especially considering the context of the time. Portuguese manager Nuno Espirito Santo started the 2021/22 season but didn't deliver and was replaced with Conte in the middle of the season, which was considered a coup by a lot of people.
This was a manager who won league titles with his last three clubs, Juventus, Chelsea, and Inter Milan. He had proven to still be viable in the modern game, unlike Mourinho, and had a ruthless winning mentality, which was what Levy was looking for.
The issues with Tottenham and Conte
A factor that is not always taken into account when analyzing Antonio Conte's teams is the fact that he needs a proper pre-season to prepare the squad's fitness levels. This is something that could also be considered a mistake on the manager's part since he took the club mid-season, especially when adding the element that he had several valid job options if he had waited until the summer.It was a bizarre decision to join Tottenham during the middle of the season, and it showed, with the team starting off well but slowly declining until getting the fourth place during the 2021/22 campaign mostly thanks to Manchester United falling out. There was already a problem with the squad from the get-go, which was only further developed when he struggled with the team's mentality.
It has been reported that club captain and star Harry Kane was quite fond of Conte and liked his ruthless mentality when it came to coaching, but the vast majority of the squad didn't feel that way. This is something that Conte himself voiced during his final moments as Tottenham's manager, which the fans didn't take well and understandably so.
"Because they are used to it here, they are used to it. They don't play for something important, yeah," Conte said in 2023. "They don't want to play under pressure, they don't want to play under stress. It is easy in this way. Tottenham's story is this. 20 years there is the owner and they never won something, but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stays here? I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench. You risk to disrupt the figure of the manager and to protect the other situation in every moment."
The aftermath
While Antonio Conte managed to take Tottenham back to the UEFA Champions League, something they hadn't accomplished since the Mauricio Pochettino days, it is difficult to claim that his time there was a success. This was the first club where Conte didn't win a title since 2011, as of this writing, and the Spurs supporters didn't have a strong connection with him, to the point that a lot of fans voiced their discomfort with his press conferences.When it comes to the results of his coaching, there is an argument to be made that the Italian didn't have a lot of a legacy in the club. No player was further developed, and his signings never truly had an impact in the institution. Brazilian attacker Richarlison cost 60 million euros and has been a considerable flop, coupled with the likes of Croatian veteran Ivan Perisic struggling to be as effective as he was with Conte at Inter Milan.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2024, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris had some words regarding Conte's time at Spurs.
"He told me once that in any given week, his happiness lasted an hour, just after winning, and that was it," Lloris stated. "In training, he oversaw everything, organizing tactical sessions with 10 outfield players against one goalie; but it was hard for the creative players to find their places in his restrictive game-play. The rigidity of the structure and set sequences did us a lot of good at first but, after a few months, teams learned how to play against us and it became tougher to win."
Conte and Tottenham was a mismatch, and it shows.