Levy must know he has to shop in the luxury section if he really does want to keep Conte

COMPELLING cameo though it may be, Antonio Conte has not gone to Tottenham Hotspur to be in a fight to the death with Arsenal for fourth place in the Premier League every season. He wants to be involved in the main event, not a sub-plot. The Spurs boss is not yet at the stage of his career where he attaches great significance to small baubles. He wants to win football’s biggest prizes.

If Tottenham cannot offer him that prospect, then why should he stay? The growing restlessness of some Spurs fans about his unwillingness to commit himself to the club is understandable but there is a reason why the former Italy boss only signed an 18-month contract in north London when he took over last November. It is hard to blame him for playing the next card in his hand now.

Let’s be honest, this Spurs side has zero chance of making a realistic challenge for the title next season with the players they have now, even with Conte in charge. Like every other team in the division, they are a million miles away from Manchester City and Liverpool in terms of quality and depth and ambition. Third place, a run at the FA Cup, would be the best they could hope for.

THEY have a good side but only Harry Kane and Son Heung-min possess the kind of quality a team need if they are to start thinking about contending for the top honours. Cristian Romero is showing promise and Dejan Kulusevski looks like a good signing but Spurs are probably four or five top-class players away from even being able to think about threatening Liverpool and City.

That was why, when Conte was asked on Friday about whether he would be presenting Spurs chairman Daniel Levy and director of football Fabio Paratici with a shopping list for new recruits to strengthen his team next season, he saw humour in the question. ‘It’s not convenient to give them a list,’ he said, ‘because the list, it would be very, very, very big.’

Recent weeks have been full of speculation that Conte wants to move to Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season and that Spurs will then reappoint Mauricio Pochettino, whose position in Paris is thought to be vulnerable after the club’s humiliating Champions League second-round exit to Real Madrid.

Pochettino called that speculation ‘fake news’ but history tells us that when a club fires a manager, he is often the last to know.

Maybe Pochettino would be a better fit for Spurs and for Levy than Conte. Manchester United were said to have decided against hiring Conte when they parted company with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer because he was too high maintenance. Which was another way of saying they feared his strength of character and did not have the stomach for a fight over the demands he would make over signings.

That is the position Spurs and Levy find themselves in now. They are locked in a Mexican stand-off with a manager who does not back down. The problem is, when you hire a manager like Conte, you are shopping in the luxury goods section and before long you are going to have to pay the bill or make a run for it.

So if Levy and the club hierarchy do not want to — or cannot afford to — spend the money to sate Conte’s desire to make Spurs a contender again, it would be better for everyone if they just thanked him for the improvements he has made this season and let the Italian go.

That is not necessarily a criticism of Levy. Spurs, fresh from building a magnificent new stadium, were hit as hard as anyone by the pandemic and its resulting revenue losses. Unless Spurs sell Kane — and the optimum moment to do that has passed — then it is hard to see them finding the money to provide Conte with the signings he wants to rebuild the team.

When Spurs sacked Nuno Espirito Santo last November, replacing him with Conte was a coup. It was a bold move that exposed the dithering of United, in particular. And with Spurs down to eighth place in the table it bought Levy some time and the promise that Conte was a talented enough manager to lift the club back into the race for the top four.

When Spurs drew with Liverpool at Anfield last night, it was the clearest evidence yet that Conte has delivered on his part of the bargain. For the first time since Pochettino left in November 2019 Spurs feels like a club who are moving forwards again. For the first time since Pochettino left it feels like a club that has the right man in charge. It feels like a club that is looking up again.

But this was the easy part. Levy pulled off a master-stroke when he persuaded Conte to take over but now that it is time for Phase Two, suddenly uncertainty reigns. Levy knew this moment would come, the moment when Conte decided to play hardball.

Now it is here, he either has to wave Conte farewell or put his hand in his pocket and pick up the tab.