Tottenham Hotspur have made a U-turn on their intention to sign former Inter Milan coach Antonio Conte after he said he was not convinced about the project of the club.
Recall that the club sacked Jose Mourinho three days to the day he would have led Tottenham Hotspur to play Manchester City in the final of the League Cup. He was replaced by a less experienced Ryan Mason in an interim capacity. He led Spurs to the final and was defeated by Pep Guardiola’s led Manchester City.
Mason finished the 2020-2021 season with Tottenham Hotspur and could not do better than finishing on the 7th spot on the league table. Hence, he was not given a permanent deal at the end of the season.
Tottenham Hotspur continued their search for a new manager until Antonio Conte announced his resignation from Inter Milan who he helped to win the 2020-2021 Italian Serie A title.
Immediately Tottenham Hotspur got to know that Conte was available, they made him the club’s top target to fill the vacant managerial role. It was all looking like a deal that was possible as speculators made a variety of reports on how he might turn things around at Tottenham.
Unfortunately for most fans of the Premier League club, Antonio Conte told Sky Italia that he was not convinced with Tottenham Hotspur’s project and was prepared to turn down an offer from the Premier League club.
In reaction to his statement, Tottenham Hotspur had to call off their plan to bring him back to London where he helped Chelsea to win the 2016-2017 Premier League title and 2017-2018 FA Cup.
Just like how his resignation at Inter Milan resulted in mixed reactions in the football world, the drama between him and Tottenham has been a subject of discussion on mainstream and social media since Friday.
Recall that one of the reasons why the Italian tactician left Inter Milan was due to the financial difficulties the club is facing despite winning last season league title. Reports claimed that Inter are ready to sell some of their best players to raise money to pay the club’s debt.
Hence, Conte believed that if Inter should sell some of the players he used to win the Serie A title, it might be difficult for him to retain the title and do more in the coming 2021-2022 season.
After days of his departure, Inter Milan was able to secure the services of the coach of Lazio, Simone Inzaghi. The Italian club offered the 45-year-old tactician a 2-year deal that would keep him at San Siro until the 2022-2023 season.
Why Tottenham Hotspur and Antonio Conte’s deal collapsed
In the past 10 years, Antonio Conte has proven to be a top coach who can win titles wherever he goes. But he is a coach who is known for spending heavily on signing established players.
When he left Inter Milan, most of his critics described him as a man who loves glory and can spend as much as possible until he gets it.
Besides that, Tottenham Hotspur who are yet to win a Premier League title since the league had a change of name in 1992, have always been described as a club that lacks ambition.
One of the reasons Cote gave when he told Sky Italia that he was not convinced about Tottenham’s project was that the gap between Spurs and other top four teams – Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea, was too much and might be difficult for him to bridge in a short time.
More so, Tottenham Hotspur will play in the Europa League in the coming season and it would be funny that Conte resigned from Inter Milan, a club that will play in the Champions League in 2021-2022 season, for a club that will play in a lower European league.
Agreement reached, matter of details. Fabio Paratici joins Tottenham as new director of football, he’s expected to sign next week. He’ll be involved in the new manager decision – Paratici spoke with Levy and will accept the job despite Conte refused to join Spurs. ⚪️ #THFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 4, 2021
