Antonio Conte agrees to stay as Spurs manager after crunch meeting
Antonio Conte has agreed to stay as Tottenham’s manager after a meeting on Friday in Turin with Fabio Paratici, the managing director of football.
Conte has a contract to the end of next season, with an option to extend, but wanted to ensure his and the club’s ambitions were aligned before he committed to continuing.
Talks covered issues including transfer targets, prospective sales and new deals for existing squad members. Spurs are keen to give an extension to Harry Kane, who has two years remaining on his contract. The striker will be delighted at the update over Conte and could now be open to considering that offer.
Tottenham were determined to keep Conte and their chances of doing so were increased by Champions League qualification and the majority shareholder, Enic, pledging to invest up to another £150m.
That will significantly bolster the money available for signings, with the Internazionale forward Ivan Perisic, who played there under Conte, among the targets.
Conte is also interested in the Torino centre-half Gleison Bremer but the Brazilian looks set to join Inter, so Spurs could move instead for Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni. The Italy international is 23 and would be an ideal fit in terms of profile for the chairman, Daniel Levy.
Djed Spence, the England Under-21 full-back on loan at Nottingham Forest from Middlesbrough, is another target. Spence is preparing for Sunday’s Championship play-off final against Huddersfield.
Tottenham are obliged to buy Cristian
Romero for €55m (£46.6m) this summer under the terms of last August’s loan from Atalanta and have a decision to make on Dejan Kulusevski. He joined in January from Juventus on an 18-month loan and Spurs have an option to buy this summer for €30m. A mandatory €35m buy clause will come into play at the end of next season if certain conditions are met.
Paratici will try to raise further funds by offloading players such as Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, Bryan Gil, Steven Bergwijn and Joe Rodon. Ndombele, Lo Celso and Gil were sent on loan in January, Conte’s first transfer window with the club.
Fraser Forster is poised to become Tottenham’s first summer signing, the