Ben Davies reveals what Conte told him when he first arrived at Spurs 

Ben Davies has revealed that Antonio Conte made him feel important when he arrived at the club, telling him that he saw him as someone similar to Chelsea legend Cesar Azpilicueta.

While Davies has been a vital squad player for the last decade, it can be argued that at no time was he more important to the side than during Conte’s spell in charge.

The former Swansea man made the left-sided centre-back position in the Italian’s back three system his own, a role he was quite familiar with in the Wales set-up.

Speaking about his role under Conte, Davies has now told The Gabs and Jules Show: “He told me that he’d like to use me as an Azpilicueta-type player, reliable and doing the job for the team in different ways. I’m pretty sure I ended up playing every game under him that year.”

Conte had a fantastic impact in his first few months in charge at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, taking Spurs to fourth place in the 2021-22 season.

Ben Davies opens up on the Conte era at Tottenham

While the wheels did come off quite spectacularly in the 54-year-old’s second season in charge, Davies admitted that the team felt invincible at times in the early days under Conte, revealing that all the players knew exactly what their roles were in the system.

The defender added about the former Spurs boss: “He came in and changed our team instantly. We were solid, scoring goals, and dominating games, it worked for that period.

“At the end of the season, we played Norwich, and it was like a similar type of feeling to under Pochettino, going on the pitch knowing we were going to win that day. We were so engrained in that system that we knew it would work and were confident at the time.”

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While Conte’s system worked brilliantly in his first six months in charge, teams across the Premier League eventually started learning how to combat it during the subsequent season and the Italian simply failed to adapt his methods.