CONTE GONTE?

Spurs boss Antonio refuses to rule out quitting before end of the season and insists he doesn’t care if he upset his players following Burnley shocker

ANTONIO CONTE refused to guarantee that he will not resign before the end of the season and says if

Spurs are destabilised by his “truth” then it is not a “good club”.

He launched an amazing rant after the defeat at Burnley on Wednesday questioning his future at the club.

And before today’s visit to Leeds, the Tottenham boss insisted he did not care if his blunt criticism upset the players, who have lost four of the last five Premier League games.

And the Italian dodged the chance to commit himself to the club he joined on an 18-month contract in November – even until May. “In this moment I guarantee the best commitment that I can give to this club,” he said. “I have another year of contract at this club, but you know well that football is very strange. You can have three, four years, and the club can sack you.

“Sometimes, someone decides to go away. We are starting to build something important here. I have always left every club much better than when I found it.

“It will be the same for this club. If you ask me in four months, one year, two years, three years.

“Now it is difficult to answer this question. But I am working to improve the club in every aspect. I’m sure the club appreciates what we are doing. But the problem is I am a perfectionist.”

It now seems a case of when not if Conte – who walked out on champions Inter Milan last summer – leaves Tottenham.

But chairman Daniel Levy has already fired two managers, Jose Mourinho and Nuno

Espirito Santo, in the last year, and losing a third would go beyond carelessness. So Conte knows even if his squad is weak, his position is strong.

Asked if his honest assessment risked “destabilising” the club and players, he said: “Why? Because I tell the truth? If you tell the truth, you destabilise? My family said to me: ‘With the truth, you grow, with a lie you destabilise people.’ With the truth, you grow, and not destabilise the club or the players.

“If I destabilise someone, not good man, not good club. I want a strong club, strong men, strong players. The truth is the only way that I know to grow. The reaction of the players has to be to work. They have to be angry, same way that I am angry. Then stop.”

Asked if he was mis-sold the job in November, Conte said: “Maybe in my heart, mind and head I thought to find a situation not better but more ready to fight and to win.

“And instead now I found a situation where we have to work. When I arrived here I did not ask anything. But at the same time I know that if I arrive here and they know that you are taking an important coach, not a medium coach.”

Defeat at Burnley hurt Conte – as Spurs beat Manchester City in their previous outing. He said: “When you lose a game, I’m not the person to have dinner with. I don’t like to lose.” LINE-UPS: