Tottenham Hotspur finds itself again on the brink of a managerial merry-go-round, as Antonio Conte’s outburst puts the club in a fix, the Tottenham boss did not hold back in the post-match press conference after the 3-3 draw against Southampton in what turned out to be an extraordinary ebullition of disappointment and fury from the Italian coach.  Â
Tottenham suffered a disappointing draw at the Saint Mary’s Stadium against Southampton following which the situation took an even more troublesome turn for Spurs as in the post-match press conference their head coach Antonio Conte went on to dish out an extraordinarily outrageous rant in which Conte claimed that his players lacked the fire and spirit on the pitch, he went on to raise question marks over his player’s attitude and commitment and even went on to the extent of labelling his players as selfish following their dismal performance.
Conte was inflicting criticism on the culture of the club where everyone is blamed for poor results and performances apart from the players, and emphasised that this situation needs to change if Tottenham is to be successful otherwise regardless of how many managers they change their situation will remain the same.
Managers criticising players and club culture is not something unheard of in football, however in this case the situation terribly escalated when Conte called out Tottenham’s inability to win anything in the past 20 years, where he also hammered in the fact that this has been the story of Tottenham and that they are a team which is not used to playing for important things, and further claimed that he had been hiding the situation till now but he can do so no more.
Many would argue that Antonio Conte has crossed the line and has disparaged and sullied the reputation of the club and the ownership, but on the other hand, another perspective can be put forth that Conte has only stated the facts and portrayed the situation as it is.
Conte’s outburst and scathing criticism of the club has left him in an untenable position even if the said criticism was directed towards only the players and not the owner and higher-ups,
matters have also not been helped by the way the team has been playing, their style of football has been a hard watch, the performances have been highly inconsistent and their exits in the FA Cup and the Champions League have also been huge setbacks.Â
Even though Tottenham is still in the race for the top 4 positions, Conte’s time at the club seems to be coming to an end and reports and rumor’s have already started to emerge predicting the same.   Â
With whom does the blame lie:
A pertinent question that does arise is whether it is solely Conte’s fault that Tottenham finds itself in such a situation or does the rot run deeper.
Antonio Conte is a serial winner who has won trophies everywhere he has been, be it Juventus, Chelsea or Inter Milan, and he has a very specific method or play style to achieve this end which may not be very exciting to watch but certainly does deliver trophies in a short period. However, for Conte’s methods to succeed fully he requires players with a very specific mindset and skill set, and whether he has been provided those kind of players is a matter which is up for debate.
This is because, even though Tottenham have spent a lot of money in the transfer market on player signings it is unclear whether those players have been club signings or Conte signings, but the blame lies with Conte as well as it can be argued that he has not fully adapted his style of play according to the players available at his disposal. Also, the way the team has fallen off a positive trajectory they were on last season when they made it into the top 4 of the league and spent big to reinforce the squad in the summer while managing to keep hold of key players surely is something Conte should be answerable for.
What does this mean for Tottenham:
If Conte does get sacked, which is looking very very likely, then it means that the managerial inconsistency continues at Tottenham as Conte would be the third manager to be sacked by Spurs in a relatively short period which would also highlight the fact that another high pedigree manager would have failed to win a trophy at the club.
Uncertainty among the players and fans would be another outcome if such a decision was to be taken by the Tottenham ownership and Directors and that is something that can be detrimental to their top 4 challenge.
