FA Cup exit compounds Tottenham’s woes and Antonio Conte’s uninspiring words are making things worse
Antonio Conte and Tottenham Hotspur can’t catch a break at the moment. The Italian manager was appointed last November and tasked with transforming the team. However, things haven’t gone according to plan so far.
Rather, it’s been the same old Spurs: playing well one week, being disastrous the next and never finding the consistency to compete with their rivals.
Tottenham are currently seventh in the Premier League after making a tough start to 2022. The North London outfit has won just two of their last six matches in all competitions.
Even more worrying is the fact that the players and the manager don’t seem to be on the same page. Conte has been in the job for just three months but his utterances suggest he’s already a frustrated man.
Full-time after extra time. https://t.co/gFjS1wnp2K
FA Cup exit deepens Spurs’ woes
With Spurs’ top-four hopes quickly fading away, the FA Cup would have provided an opportunity for them to challenge for a trophy. However, they were knocked out of the competition by Middlesbrough in midweek.
The team’s performance hasn’t been encouraging in recent months but they exhibited one of their worst performances against the Championship outfit. There was no urgency to their play, their cohesion was non-existent and the individual attitudes of the players on the pitch wasn’t the best either.
This is a team that is on a sharp decline and Conte’s arrival hasn’t had the desired effect yet. Very little has changed so far and Tottenham now faces another trophyless season.
🎙 “There is only one way, to continue to work very hard with the players.”
Antonio Conte reflects on tonight's defeat. https://t.co/of3AsDwrLu
Conte’s uninspiring rants are not helping matters
Despite all of Tottenham’s challenges, Conte’s hasn’t helped much with his uninspiring utterances. The Italian manager appears to have underestimated the task at hand. Now that he has realized how difficult the job is, he is finding excuses.
Make no mistake, Conte is a serial winner and his record at Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan proves this. However, no manager thrives by throwing his players under the bus and that is exactly what Conte has been doing in recent weeks. The Spurs boss said after the FA Cup defeat to Middlesbrough, as quoted by Football London.
“My reaction was that I was disappointed and frustrated for the result. For sure, to have this up and down I don't like. I always said this from my first day when I arrived. Tottenham’s story is this, many ups and downs, but to be competitive, to try to win something, to try to fight for something important and become a strong team, the first thing that has to happen is to be stable and avoid these ups and downs."
He continued:
“Especially when this club for 20 years has this type of situation. For sure, sometimes you have to be upset. I think it’s normal to be angry when we lost. One thing is to be angry when we lose and another thing is to speak about my reaction and emotion. They are two different situations.”
Conte has every right to air his frustrations but it’s disappointing for him to behave as if he’s bigger or better than the club. Tottenham may not have won anything in close to a decade but it’s a club with history.
Even if the current players are not good enough, was Conte expecting Daniel Levy to go out and spend £100 million in the January transfer window? Two players he personally requested for - Dejan Kulusevski and Weston McKennie – were brought in.
However, Conte continues to only complain after every disappointing result. Such behavior, certainly, doesn’t inspire confidence in a team that is currently lacking morale.