Antonio Conte has insisted that he is ready to back the Tottenham hierarchy’s vision of signing up-and-coming players rather than experienced stars who are on the wrong side of 30.
Football.London’s Alasdair Gold revealed on Thursday that Spurs are prioritising signing a right wing-back and an attacking player during the January transfer window.
The journalist explained that the club will look to add quality to their squad in January after having focussed more on adding quantity to increase their player numbers in the summer.
Gold also added that Fabio Paratici is on the lookout for readymade players, who can slot straight into the team, with the Spurs managing director said to be looking for both loan and permanent options.
Conte has now remarked that he is prepared to respect the club’s modus operandi in the transfer market and added that he understands why some fans might be impatient in wanting to see the team compete for major honours.
When asked if he is frustrated at not being able to sign experienced players, the Italian told Sky Sports: “Honestly, I’m not frustrated because when you arrive in a new club to work you have to stay to understand the vision.
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“When you understand the vision then you have to respect [it] because you’ve signed a contract, then try to help the club improve following this vision.
“I understand the frustration of the fans because the fans want to lift trophies. I understand everything and everybody but at the same time, in my opinion, from what I have understood here, we need to have patience and we need to have time and try to improve.
“Don’t make mistakes in the transfer market and also to have patience for the players that you are going to sign, to wait for them to develop. You can sign players with experience at 30 years old with great victories behind them – Casemiro for example.
“But this is not the vision of the club and for this reason, we need to continue to work, to have patience.
“I understand everybody, but at the same time, this frustration cannot become a problem [but] to become a push for me, for the players, for the club to continue to improve, to develop and reduce the gap with other clubs.
“You have to understand that there are different ways to arrive to lift a trophy. If you invest a lot of money, you sign important players.
“You have to sign young players and you need to work and wait for these players to develop and to improve the level and then to become stronger. On one side you can have success quickly [but] on the other side you need time.”
When asked if Tottenham will strengthen their squad in January, the 53-year-old responded: “If there is the opportunity to strengthen the squad, I think the club will go to do it. But you know which type of player we can sign – good players, but young players and also players that have to develop.”
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It is worth remembering that the likes of Cristian Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski were not really experienced players, with the Uruguayan and the Swede also being relatively cheap. So, it is not a prerequisite to spend big money or to sign players with 500 career games and a whole host of trophies under their belt, to improve the squad.
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