Tottenham Hotspur manager, Antonio Conte has emphasized his unsatisfied club’s summer signing, claiming that Tottenham are in a disadvantaged position this season for failing to have spent the same amount of money on signings as their rivals and will need three more transfer windows before the club can compete.
Before the September 1st transfer deadline, Tottenham spent £172m buying players; a transfer figure that ranked them as fourth in the Premier League spending table behind Chelsea (£278.4m), Manchester United (£227.4m) and West Ham (£179.2m).
However, despite the huge amount spent on bringing new blood into the team, Conte said Tottenham could have spent £80-£100 million on signing a top player in the wee hours before the transfer window closed on September 1 as this would have given the club a bigger advantage over their contenders in the Premier League and other competitions.
Conte said: “If you sign a player for £80m or £100m on the last day you have a big advantage because it means you are signing a top player.”
He added: “I’m sure that we are going in the right way for the capacity of the club at this moment to invest money. We have to be realistic to understand that there are different clubs who can invest different money and other clubs that can invest normal money. For sure, the path is hard because of this aspect.
“We did the right things, but we have just started, if someone thinks we have completed the situation, we are very far from this.”
Tottenham Hotspurs made a powerful start to the season by winning three of their opening five games and drawing two matches. They are third in the Premier League standings, level on 11 points with Premier League Champions Manchester City and behind current league toppers, Arsenal.
Despite Tottenham’s great start to the Premier League campaign and Conte confessing that Spurs are progressing well, he, however, admitted that not enough fund was invested in proven players compared to their rivals, and now, Tottenham will face an uphill task of keeping up with their rivals in the league race.
Conte noted: “I see the other squads of the top teams and there is too much distance.”
Tottenham have signed seven players this summer, with six of them already enlisted in the squad. The players include Richarlison, and Yves Bissouma; while Ivan Perisic arrived on a free transfer and Clement Lenglet joined on loan from Barcelona, a combined £35m was spent on Djed Spence from Middlesbrough and Destiny Udogie from Udinese.
Conte expressed that it seems Spurs already set a budget for transfers this summer and didn’t want to exceed the already fixed allotment, hence, they limited their spending to £172 million and brought in some players on loan and free deals.
Conte said: “You can sign players also for free or on loan, and it is a different situation. I want to be very clear on that.
“I think we did what we could do and in the right time because the vision was very clear about the money to spend, about getting the free players or on loan because then we spend money on two players, Richarlison and Yves Bissouma, and other players on loan or also for free.”
The Spurs manager, Antonio Conte concluded that in order for Tottenham’s squad to be sturdy enough to compete and win titles this season, the club will need atleast three more new signings.
He said: “To be competitive and to fight to be a title contender and to try to get a place in Champions League you need at least three transfer windows more to improve and to be in the same level as the other clubs.”
The transfer window closed on the 1st of September, 2022 with Spurs manager, Antonio Conte not well pleased with the numbers and quality of players he has in the team, even though he said he discussed it with the club about signing more players before the transfer deadline, he has no other choice than to
manage what he has.
He said: “If we do something or not, it’s okay.”
