‘Difficult’ – Glenn Hoddle opens up on his experience managing under Daniel Levy

Glenn Hoddle has backed Tottenham’s decision to appoint Antonio Conte and has urged Daniel Levy to fully back the Italian through a rebuild.

The arrival of Conte has certainly excited the Spurs fan base, parts of which were up in arms during the final weeks of Nuno Espirito Santo’s reign.

According to reports, the 52-year-old and his coaching staff have made a great impression on the Spurs squad, with the players alleged to have been blown away by the attention to detail during training sessions.

Hoddle insisted that Conte is the best man Spurs could have gone for as the former Inter boss will be clear with his demands.

The legendary Spurs midfielder told The Independent: “I think the appointment was as best as Daniel could have made at that time.

“Out of anyone out there, I don’t think you could have picked anyone better if Daniel’s attitude has slightly changed now. It must have changed from when he went for him in the summer.

“I think there’s a lot of positives here. He is somebody that knows what he wants from a team. He will demand that and he will demand money if it’s not working his way.

“I think they’re in a really strong position if Daniel knows the circumstances and Conte says, ‘Look, if it doesn’t work out with certain players, they’ve got to go. I’ll rebuild. And I’ve done it with other clubs and have been successful’.

“And I think Daniel’s got to buy into that now. If that’s the case, then yes, we’ve got the right jockey on the horse.”

Hoddle knows first-hand what it is like working with Levy, having managed Spurs from 2001 to 2003. The 64-year-old admitted that working with Levy was ‘frustrating’ at times but hailed the Tottenham chairman for transforming the North London club off the pitch.

When asked about his experience of working with Levy, Hoddle said: “He had his way of dealing with negotiations, which I found slightly different to what I would be used to.

“But obviously, as a businessman that was his style. He’s got his own style. And I felt that was sometimes difficult at a football club, it might have been fine in other businesses.

“But what he’s done off the pitch with what he’s done at Tottenham, with a stadium and everything on the business front is second to a miracle. It’s fantastic work he’s done.

“But it has to go hand in hand with building a squad. And I think, just looking at it as a fan, I think it needed to be built on around the [2019] Champions League final time.

“That was an opportunity to build a squad and I think that time was missed.”

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I think Hoddle’s point about Levy not rebuilding under Pochettino is not completely correct. In fact, after reaching the Champions League final, the club spent well over £100m in the summer of 2019 on Ndombele, Lo Celso, Sessegnon and Clarke.

It is also worth pointing out that they were all Pocehettino’s signings as the Argentine was the manager and not just the head coach at that point. Unfortunately, Poch was sacked just a few months later and none of those four players have had the expected impact at Spurs.

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