'Maybe Conte shouldn't have gone to Spurs'

Martin Macdonald

• 24 Feb 2022 15:18 GMT
• 3 min read

Former Inter and Lazio goalkeeper Fernando Orsi has questioned why Antonio Conte decided to join Tottenham earlier in the season.

Following the underwhelming tenure of Nuno Espirito Santo, Tottenham successfully appointed the Italian as his replacement, having tried and failed to bring him to North London the previous summer.

Conte has took charge of Tottenham on 21 occasions now, winning 11, losing seven and drawing three.

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It has often been one step forward and two steps back at Spurs under him, as the team followed up a superb victory over Manchester City at the weekend with a defeat against bottom side, Burnley.

After the loss against Burnley, Conte admitted that his position as manager would need to be assessed by the club.

“I think Tottenham called me to improve the situation, but I’m too honest. I’m too honest to close my eyes, you understand, and to continue to say ‘ok I want to finish the season in this way and ok my salary is good’,” he said.

“But I’m not this type of person. I have ambition, I’m a person who has ambition, I hate to lose and we lost, I repeat, four games in the last five games. And for me, I repeat, this is unacceptable.

“I won’t accept this. I want to try to improve the situation and also to make assessment with the club because if we continue in this way, maybe we have to pay great attention because in this league we can finish 10th, 12th, 13th the same way that when I arrive here, the same position.”

Why did Conte join Spurs?

Orsi, now an Italian football pundit, believes Conte was convinced to join Tottenham due to the wages on offer as well as the esteem of the Premier League, rather than the actual project at Spurs.

“Maybe Conte was wrong to go there,” Orsi told Radio Radio.

“He was attracted by money and by the league. Maybe he went there a little too fast, thinking that Tottenham were on a higher level.

“We know Conte. He shoots when things don’t work out. Maybe he can have a bigger impact when he starts the season than when he arrives in the middle of the campaign.”

Conte has previously left roles at both Juventus and Inter after falling out with directors due to a clash of visions.