December 24, 2024
Coming into the 2022/23 season, Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur was one of the busiest Premier League clubs in the transfer window — arguably the busiest, bar newly-promoted Nottingham Forest who signed more than 20 players in their quest to stay afloat.
Barely six months into his reign at Spurs, Conte did the unthinkable by qualifying the club for Champions League against all odds after grabbing a sound 5-0 win over Norwich to seal the feat.
The management of the club led by footballing director Fabio Paratici aligned with the Italian manager, as they gave him the near-perfect summer backing they didn’t give their immediate past managers — Nuno Espirito Santo & José Mourinho.
After making the CL qualification with the pedigree of players at their disposal, Paratici said “We need to improve a lot. Next season the league will be very difficult for all the teams.
“With five subs you can change a game. If the bench is strong like a top team, like City, Chelsea, United and Liverpool, you need to improve your squad a lot in quality and numerical aspects. You have to face in England three national competitions and one in the Champions League.”
True to his words, Spurs did witness an unfathomable increment that saw the club splash about £172m on recruits.
The North London side raided both Everton & Brighton, grabbing an Integral player of both teams in Richarlison and Yves Bissouma for £60m and £35m respectively.
They also bought Djed Spence (Middlesbrough) Destiny Udogie (Udinese) and Christian Romero(Atlanta) with the trio costing them £77m in total.
Spurs didn’t just procure players with fees only, Antonio Conte also made sure his side took advantage of other club’s reluctance to lure Croatia star Ivan Perisic away from Inter Milan on a free transfer, while they also grabbed Fraser Forster from Southampton in the same mode, and Clement Lenglet on loan from Barcelona.
And even further than this, Spurs backed the Italian manager as he sanctioned the loan of Tanguy Ndombele( their record signing) to Napoli.
Giovani Lo Celso, Steven Bergwin, and Harry Winks were also among the first-team players Antonio Conte shipped out of Spurs one way or the other.
Tottenham Hotspur started the season strongly by taking 10 points from their first 5 matches, dropping two points only in their draw to Chelsea.
When the London club sat third, level on points with Manchester City and only two behind their bitter rivals Arsenal, Conte said in a press conference: “If you compare to last season, we are more complete.
“But to reach other teams at the top level we need time, patience and transfer markets, at least two transfer markets to reach the same level.”
Maybe those were signs that the Italian manager had no intention of boiling oceans this season, seeing his call for new players just five games into the season, after receiving such robust backing in the transfer window.
Tottenham Hotspur’s first loss of the season then came immediately after the international break, as they lost to their fiercest rival & table toppers at the Emirates in a match where Arteta clearly outwitted Conte.
Perhaps, the defeat to the Gunners can be waved off as business as usual, putting into consideration Spurs’ terrible record at the Emirates stadium.
But then, the second loss to Manchester United who seems to be the unsettled club amongst the top six came as a shocker, as they were completely outplayed by a United team that’s undergoing visible turbulent moments.
Undoubtedly, Tottenham Hotspur had the capability of shutting down United or even forcing a draw at the barest minimum, but how they were defeated inflicted a big question mark on Conte’s project in London.
Perhaps it can be written off as one of those games, or an obvious indication of the long road ahead, but their latest defeat to Newcastle United is probably the most surreal thing to happen over the weekend.
Even more surreal was the Italian post-match press conference after the back-to-back defeat where he said: “We are doing our best in every moment. Today the commitment was high. We have to face a difficult situation for us. When you don’t have three or four players in the squad you’re in trouble
“We have to manage very well this situation and overcome it together.
“When you play every three days you need to have a deep, strong squad. We have only just started our process. We are playing in the Champions League. We’re trying to improve our situation step by step.
“You need time and patience. I want to be honest. From my experience, we are doing well but we need time and patience.
“If we played one game every six or seven days, we could fight for something important.
“To play every three days we have to continue to build our path and have patience. If someone thinks we can invent the win and do a miracle, we need to continue to work.
“If someone doesn’t want to listen it’s not my problem. Fingers crossed we don’t have many injuries. Many injuries can affect our season.
“… The club knows us very well. I was very clear in the summer. If we want to play in the Premier League and Champions League you need to improve the squad.
“When you play, play, play, injuries happen. When three to five players are out it becomes a problem for a team like Tottenham,” said Conte.
The fixtures aren’t slowing down any time soon for Conte’s men and football as a whole, with the World Cup less than a month away, and no amount of whining from him will reduce the matches influx.
Though still sitting precariously on the third position in the log, fourth-placed & fifth-placed Newcastle United and Chelsea are just two points adrift of Spurs, while Conte’s side is five and three points behind Arsenal and City, with all four teams having a game in hand except Chelsea & Spurs.
To be fair on Conte, they aren’t expected to win the PL, especially when you have an ever-increasing Manchester City squad, but if there’s any team that should be doing what Arsenal is doing, wouldn’t you agree it got to be Spurs?
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