Conte frustrated over Tottenham’s failure to sign dazzling Diaz

ANTONIO CONTE aimed a subtle dig at Tottenham’s hierarchy about the club being beaten by Liverpool to the January signing of Luis Diaz. The winger, who Spurs will face at Anfield today, has had a major impact for Liverpool with five goals and three assists in all competitions. Tottenham instead signed Dejan Kulusevski on loan, who has proved to be a key player with eight assists in the Premier League. But Conte alluded to his frustrations over missing out on Diaz. ‘The player is top, we knew that he was a top player,’ he said. ‘We tried to see the possibility to sign him. In the same way, we signed Kulusevski and to see the capacity of this player to come in our team, like also Rodrigo Bentancur. For us these two signings were very important because the team has improved in quality.’ The Italian added: ‘When there is an important player it’s important to try to sign them because you know that a top player (will) improve your team. ‘If you want to win something you need a player at the top, not a medium or low player.’ Meanwhile, Spurs will be without Sergio Reguilon for tonight’s game and the left back could miss the rest of the season through injury. Conte joked that now is not the right time to give Tottenham’s owners a shopping list for the summer because it would be too long. ‘We are finishing this season with only 15 players and I think in this moment it is not convenient to give them a list because it would be very, very, very big. ‘If you have time and you have a lot of money to invest, you can try to become competitive. ‘I don’t know next season what will happen. In England there are many teams that want to invest a lot of money and fight for something special. ‘Tottenham is not the only team that hope to do this. For this reason it’s not simple, it’s not easy. It’s a difficult path.’