For about a week, it looked like Tottenham were going to appoint Antonio Conte as their next manager, who had recently walked away from his job at Inter.
The fit didn’t really feel right, what with Daniel Levy being who he is and the Italian manager being incredibly demanding, perhaps even more so than José Mourinho.
That didn’t stop Spurs from trying, though, and there was a point where it all seemed to click before Conte walked away from the talks, clearly not happy about something.
Some said it was down to the amount of his own staff he was allowed to bring, while others pointed at the salary demands, but the bottom line is Tottenham are now faced with appointing Paulo Fonseca, a somewhat less inspiring choice.
Conte, down his end, will happily sit around and wait for a good opportunity to arise, as a manager of his ilk will never not be in demand, because if Mourinho can still get a job based on his former reputation, his counterpart won’t have an issue.
The former Chelsea manager sat down with Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday and discussed various aspects of his time at Inter, as well as what followed, and while he never name checked Tottenham directly, there appears to be a slight dig aimed at the Premier League club in there.
Asked about his earnings, he said: “The market makes the figures, the results achieved, the word done over the years make them, but beyond this let me say that if my problem or my obsession was money, in the past I would have stayed were I was.
“I would have accepted compromised and perhaps obtained renewals, also acting as a golden umbrella, but instead I look at the projects and I’m willing to stay at home if they don’t convince me. It’s a question of vision, seriousness”.
Then asked what some of the proposals he received lacked, he added: “In general, I like challenges and I have shown that I have always accepted a lot of them, because even the big clubs I had never started as favourites when I took them.
“But if there is something that doesn’t convince me, I prefer not to accept or not to continue, regardless of any offered or abandoned salary”.
So, in essence, Tottenham simply didn’t ‘convince’ Conte, and that’s why he walked away.
