Former Spurs manager gives opinion on his time in North London
By Tom Vinall
Speaking to DAZN Sport after Napoli's win over AC Milan, former Spurs manager Antonio Conte has briefly spoken about his tenure at the club, saying: “I think I did very, very well at Spurs. I arrived with the squad in 9th position, and we qualified to [the] Champions League. I’m sure I did the best job possible for Tottenham. I can’t do miracles.”
There is no doubt that Conte did a great job when he came in. That honeymoon period for the first six months was truly something to behold. In that time, Spurs beat Manchester City at the Etihad, beat Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and drew with Liverpool twice – two games that Spurs really should have won, too.
Heung Min-Son won the Premier League golden boot, scoring 23 goals. Harry Kane was going through the worst form of his professional career, seemingly not with his heart in it after not getting a move to Manchester City. He immediately looked sharper under Conte, and soon started finding the net on a consistent basis once again.
In January, Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur came in and made an immediate impact. Two players who still, particularly Kulusevski, are making an impact now – so there is also that to be grateful for. Even Ryan Sessengnon had a really good run towards the end of the season, and assisted Son at Anfield after fantastic work from Kane.
Even Eric Dier and Ben Davies for a few months fitted in seamlessly to his three at the back formation, with Davies having had experience there for Wales. Matt Doherty had a brilliant run of form at both right wing-back and left wing-back, before Matty Cash ended his season in April with a horror tackle.
The season ended with a leapfrog of Arsenal into fourth place, and the mood around the place felt fantastic. It would soon all end in tears, however. The resulting summer, there were consistent murmurs about disagreements over squad planning - with the fact Djed Spence was not a Conte signing very well documented - and soon extremely apparent.
The following season, despite positive results in the first couple of months, the performances were hit and miss at best, and the results began to really spiral after the World Cup in particular. You could tell Conte had checked out by the end of his tenure, and his infamous rant at Southampton was the biggest plea for your own sacking you may ever see.
Now at Napoli, he is currently doing a great job – with 25 points from his first ten games in charge. They have only one game a week this season, which has Conte in his element. It’ll likely go up in flames next season – but for this campaign, they will have a good shot at the Serie A title.