Antonio Conte is known for being an emotional coach that always leaves strong opinions and doesn’t hold back anything when it comes to press conferences and his state of mind.
But even experts that follow the Italian coach since his playing days in Juventus were surprised by the tone of his comments during the post-match interview in the defeat against Burnley. The match ended 1-0 in favor of the home side thanks to a goal by Ben Mee in the 71st minute of the game.
Tottenham Hotspur are currently fighting to reach the top 4 in the Premier League, and have set this as the season objective, but the recent run of games of the team has left them in the 8th place of the competition. They’re 7 points away from the 4th placed team, Manchester United, although with two games in hand, due to postponements in the past few months.
Tottenham’s chances of qualifying for the Champions League are reducing as it can be witnessed in the odds of platforms like https://www.sbo.net/. SBO reunites some of the best betting sites for fans that offer odds for games in the Premier League but also betting markets such as the position at the end of the season of a team in the league table. Fans can also benefit from independent and impartial bookmaker reviews to enhance the betting experience and even dispose of mobile apps to access their bets from anywhere. Spurs fans will surely be disappointed by watching betting sites like 888 Sport or William Hill reduce the chances of their reaching the top 4.
And the disappointment of Conte was surely magnified by the fact that only 4 days before the game against Burnley, his team managed to beat Manchester City at their premises. A team that had only lost one game in the Premier League until then and who seemed to be cruising for another record-breaking title in England.
When Conte was asked about the difference in form between the two games, he said that he preferred not to “comment on the game” and instead referred to Spurs’ general “situation”. He started a monologue where he complained about the “situation not changing” even though he was trying his best to change it. Conte also mentioned on more than one occasion that perhaps he wasn’t as good as a coach because of his inability to change things in the club.
These comments echoed in the heads of fans and experts as there’s a broad consensus that sets Antonio Conte as one of the best coaches in the world like the platform https://www.90min.com/ analyzed. He made Juventus a serial winner in Italy. He carried one of the weakest sides in Italian football history to the quarterfinals in the EURO 2016. He made Chelsea a Premier League champion after ending in the 10th position the season before. And finally, he ended a 10-year trophy drought in Inter in 2021.
Conte has won trophies wherever he has coached. If there’s a guy prepared to coach Spurs and take them to trophy glory, it’s him.
Daniel Levy, the club owner, knew what he was getting when he went to look for Conte. A coach that always puts pressure on the board when transfer windows are nearing and that publicly shows his disagreement if transfer targets aren’t signed.
But he’s also a serial winner, and he hates losing. He once said to https://www.bbc.co.uk/ that he “dies for one day” when his team loses. So, we can imagine his feeling after losing against Burnley, who sits in the relegation zone, and after his team put up the best performance since he arrived at the club just four days before against the table leaders.
One would say that his post-match outburst was a consequence of badly managed emotions, but how will his comments about his squad affect the dressing room? He said: “The players are always the same, the club has changed the coaches, but the players are always the same. And the results don’t change”.
It seems as if Conte could be preparing the club and fans for a failure in the accomplishment of reaching the top 4. Or it could also be that he’s already preparing for an early exit at the end of the season or maybe even before.
As he said, he’s ready to “make an assessment” with the club about his position and his capabilities to take the team where the board of directors is expecting.
Being a coach that always plays politics and calculates his every move, the comments he made don’t seem an accurate strategy to take him to the next level with Spurs, but rather show that he might not be as committed any longer to this team.