Antonio Conte has appeared to suggest that Tottenham Hotspur might have weakened their squad in the January transfer window by letting four players leave and bringing just two new signings in.
Spurs loaned out Bryan Gil, Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso to Valencia, Lyon and Villarreal respectively last month while Dele Alli was sold to Everton.
The North London club brought in Juventus duo Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur into the squad.
Conte admitted immediately after the window closed that it was ‘strange’ for a club to let four players leave mid-season and suggested that it pointed to the fact that mistakes had been made in the past (ESPN).
The Italian has now admitted that the club’s squad may be weaker due to four ‘important’ players leaving.
When asked if there are parallels between Inter Milan when he took over and the current Tottenham squad, the Spurs boss told Sky Sport Italia: “Should you find something like this, it is always difficult to make comparisons, but surely when you take the job in a team that hasn’t won for a long time it is inevitable that you will lack confidence.
“I glimpsed situations that could have developed, then when you enter the situation you understand that something anyway … what happened in January is not easy.”
“Four players left in January. Four important players for Tottenham, two have arrived. So even numerically instead of strengthening you you may have, on paper, weakened. Bentancur and Kulusevski are the ideal prospects for Tottenham. Because Tottenham is looking for young players, players to be developed, not ready players. This is the speech.”
Conte added he understands Spurs’ philosophy of buying young, up and coming players but insisted that the club needed to bring in experienced players if they want to close the gap with the best sides in the Premier League.
When asked if it was possible to improve the team with young players, he responded: “Eh but here was the link. The vision, the philosophy of the club is this. It is inevitable that if you want to grow faster and if you want to be competitive more quickly you need players with a lot of experience because then they also lead to increase the experience in your team. But then again, the vision of the club I understand is this.”
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Reading between the lines, it sounds like Kuluseveski and Bentancur might not have been Conte’s first choice targets in January.
However, Jonathan Veal has pointed out that some of what Conte said in this interview has been lost in translation. So, perhaps he will clear up what he meant in his press conference tomorrow at lunchtime.