London (AFP)
After 16 months of chaos, the relationship between Tottenham Hotspur and its coach Antonio Conte ended, after the Italian coach made a new fiery statement in which he criticized the selfishness of his players and the defeatist mentality of the club.
And the North London club announced in a statement: “We can announce that Antonio Conte has left the club by mutual agreement. We succeeded in qualifying for the Champions League in Conte’s first season, and therefore we thank him for that and wish him success in the future.”
The statement added, “Christian Stellini will coach the team until the end of the season, with Ryan Mason assisting him.”
As for the club’s president, Daniel Levy, he said: “We have 10 matches left in the English Premier League, and we must strive to reach the Champions League again. Everyone must make double efforts to achieve this goal.”
Conte leaves the team in fourth place with 10 stages left in the season.
The Italian joined the north London club in November 2021 and his reputation as a solid and successful coach preceded him, at least domestically, but with the downside of not staying in the job for long.
Tottenham put his hopes in Conte, who won the league title with Juventus, Inter, and Chelsea, to end a 15-year period without titles.
Although some considered it difficult for Tottenham to pass the English Premier League barrier, Conte knew last year how to instill in his team the mentality that allowed him to beat Arsenal in the last breath race for the last qualifying card for the Champions League?
However, the deterioration of the results in the local cups and the final exit from the final price of the most ancient continental competition, the most ancient mother, against the Italian Milan (0-1 in the round-robin and zero-zero in the return), with boring performances, led to a cooling of the relationship again between the club and its coach.
While it seemed that the renewal of Conte’s contract at the end of the season was questionable, the Italian decided to go beyond the limits during a press conference held after his team drew with its host Southampton 3-3, after it was ahead until the last quarter of an hour in the last stage of the league before the international window.
“We are not a team,” he said. “We are a team where everyone only thinks of themselves. I don’t see any sense of responsibility in the players.”
He added, “We are retreating, I see a lot of negative attitudes and a lot of selfish attitudes that I do not like in the players.”
Conte did not hesitate to criticize the club’s management either, as he said, “They are used to it here. They do not play for something important. They do not want to play under pressure. They do not want to play with tension.”
And he concluded: “The story of Tottenham is this: the owner has been here for 20 years and they have not won anything (…) If they want to continue in this way, they can change coaches, and a lot of coaches, but the situation cannot change, believe me.”
It is not the first time that Conte has appeared hostile and uttered dramatic and harsh words during a press conference.
In mid-February of last year, he lamented his inability to compete for the Premier League title, “For me, it is difficult to talk about fourth place, because I am used to achieving other goals.”
The new season did not deviate from its predecessor, as the sporting results of Tottenham fluctuated, while the Italian’s adventure was very stressful on a personal level after he had to undergo surgery to remove the gallbladder in early February.
He was also greatly affected by the death of his longtime physical coach, Jean Piero Ventroni, as well as by the death of former Serbian teammates Sinisa Mihajlovic and Gianluca Vialli after a long struggle with cancer.
Conte’s criticism did not come out of nowhere, as he had previously lamented Spurs’ lack of ambition in the transfer market.
Ironically, after the expensive sackings of Argentine Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho and his compatriot Nuno Espirito Santo in the past three and a half seasons, Conte’s sacking will cost the club 4 million pounds (4.5 million euros), while Tottenham could have used this money to strengthen its ranks. with new players.
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