Wednesday evening saw Sky Italia release snippets of an interview they’d conducted with Antonio Conte.
The Tottenham manager had granted the chat with Sky Italia due to their broadcasting rights, so hadn’t gone out of his way to take part in an interview to cause issues.
Despite that, Conte was typically frank and will have been aware his comments would reach a wide audience and provide plenty of headlines.
Sky Italia have now released more of the interview, and the first question was asking the manager whether he’s currently happy at Spurs, to which the former Chelsea boss said: “I am certainly happy with the way we are working, I am happy with the infrastructure that I have found. We are trying to work in an important way to improve from many points of view: football, character, technical and tactical.
“I think our growth passes through that of every single player. We are doing a lot and I am realising, being inside the situation, that it will take time and patience. There are many young players, even at their first experience in the Premier League, who need to gain experience and increase their level.”
Conte was then asked how he gets his character over to a group of players and implants it in them, to which he said: “The first thing to pass on to the teams I think is football knowledge. If you have football knowledge, it makes you strong. Gives you strength and personality. On a character level this is a team we are working on; daily, psychological work, to try to make each player grow individually. The level of the players must increase, in my opinion there is a lot of work to be done here but we know that there is plenty of room for improvement.”
The manager said Tottenham’s situation “doesn’t scare me at all”, and then answered a question over whether he’s been surprised by what he’s found at Spurs, explaining he simply understands it all better now.
Crucially, when asked if Tottenham missed any January opportunities, Conte told Sky Italia: “No, I think Tottenham did what they could at the time. The club, for what it was, did its best. It is very difficult to get two players like Bentancur and Kulusevski to sign in January who, I repeat, are the ideal prospect for Tottenham. Because Tottenham is looking for young players, to be developed, not ready players.”
Despite his frustration and clear will for quick success, it would appear Antonio Conte isn’t quite as annoyed with his Spurs life as the original snippets suggested.
