How much will Conte have to spend at Tottenham?
FT Desk
- Updated: 2 Nov 2021 12:26 GMT
- 3 min read
The imminent appointment of Antonio Conte as Tottenham manager has come as a huge surprise to all football fans.
Why has one of the best coaches in world football agreed to take over at a club that has not won the league for 60 years and has struggled for trophies of any kind over the last few decades?
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Why has a manager who is notorious for being against joining clubs during the season in order to be able to prepare from the start of pre-season gone against this principle?
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Why has such an elite coach said yes to a team who are struggling down in ninth place, not in the Champions League or Europa League and that require so much work to compete at the very top?
And why is he signing only an 18-month contract?
🗣 "I prefer to kill him"
A look back at 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 Antonio Conte interview with Thierry Henry 😂
Would you be happy with the Italian coming in, Spurs fans? 🤝— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 1, 2021
Certainly, money comes into the equation as Conte is set to earn around £22.5 million over these 18 months. There may be an option for a further year’s extension also at the end of the 2022-23 season.
How much will Conte spend on transfers?
But most importantly, according to The Sun and other English media outlets, Conte will have a whopping £150m to spend on transfers.
And this transfer warchest will be made available to Conte from as early as January as Spurs get set to rival Newcastle United as the biggest spenders of the winter window.
This is a far cry from what Tottenham promised Conte during negotiations to bring him to north London in the summer.
Conte had been Spurs’ first-choice manager to replace Jose Mourinho, who was sacked back in April.
But the Italian coach was not convinced by Spurs’ project and was said to be unhappy at how much money and control he was being offered by chairman Daniel Levy.
After a chaotic summer, in which Paulo Fonseca and Rino Gattuso were both close to arriving, Spurs eventually hired Nuno Espirito Santo.
The Portuguese had a dismal short spell on the bench, winning five and losing five of his first 10 Premier League games before being sacked on Monday.
Conte will now succeed the ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers boss and have the money to spend that was denied his predecessor.
Read more about: Premier League, Tottenham
