WE BE SPURSY ANY MORE
New boss Conte vows to turn Tottenham into winners but warns his players they will need to suffer and sacrifice to achieve success
ANTONIO CONTE has warned Tottenham players they will have to make sacrifices as he pledged to rid the club of its ‘Spursy’ tag.
The former Italy coach was more than an hour late for his first pre-match press conference yesterday because a video training session over-ran following his first chaotic match in charge.
Former Chelsea boss Conte saw his new team hang on for a 3-2 win over nine-man Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa Conference League after leading 3-0.
Tottenham’s ability to lose their nerve has seen the word ‘Spursy’ enter the English language. And a question about the club’s traditional mental weakness needed no translation for the Italian.
Conte, who has won nine Serie A titles, as well as the Premier League with Chelsea, smiled in recognition and said: “For sure, this aspect we have to improve. It’s not easy because you have to work every day, you have to breathe a winning mentality every day, and you don’t invent that winning mentality.
“It’s impossible to invent. It’s impossible to pay for. It doesn’t cost any money for a winning mentality. It’s about bringing the right people in.
“You have to start every day with this type of mentality. You have to start to think about football for many hours of your life to improve results. To start to think that: ‘Ok, I want to win but I know that it means sacrifice, it means suffering. It means hard work.’
“You have to dedicate yourself to football. And if you start to think in this way, it means that you want to become a winner. Otherwise you continue to stay at your medium level.
“On the pitch we need to change. We need to change many, many things. It can‘t happen in a short time. It needs organisation on the pitch, tactics, physical conditioning.”
The 52-year-old, who guided Inter Milan to the Serie A title last season, promised Spurs fans that the fallow years are over.
“This is a big, big challenge,” he said. “I know very well that this club has not won anything for many years. But I am here to win.”
Conte, supervising training yesterday (above), won the Premier League title in his first season in English football, in 2016-17, guiding Chelsea to 30 wins in 38 games. They had finished 10th the previous season This time he takes over at Tottenham on an 18-month contract following the firing of Nuno Espirito Santo with the London side in ninth spot.
“I can’t tell you that this team is ready to fight for the title,” he said. “I need time but I’m not scared about this because in my life I always work very, very hard to reach the target and to enjoy a title with my club.”