‘It is not easy’ – Conte reveals whether Levy set him goals when he joined Spurs

Antonio Conte has admitted the Tottenham job is different to the ones he has had for the majority of his career due to how far away the squad is from competing for major honours.

Tottenham’s trophy drought is set to extend to 14 seasons after the Lilywhites were knocked out of the FA Cup at the hands of Middlesbrough last week.

Spurs also have a mountain to climb to finish in the top four, currently sitting in seventh place in the table, six points behind their North London rivals Arsenal in fourth.

Conte, who is one of the most decorated managers in European football over the last decade, admitted that his side are not currently close to challenging for honours and insisted patience is required to get the club to get to the level he wants them to.

The Italian told The Independent: “Now this is a new challenge for me. For sure you need patience and you know at this moment you can’t fight for something important, for what I am used to doing in my past and I think I deserved to do in the past.

“I deserved to stay and fight to win the league, to win trophies because someone gave me something in my career. Now, this is a new experience.

I repeat, I am enjoying these months, we are fighting a lot because we are trying to change a lot of situations on the pitch and outside of the pitch. But if I get to be honest it is not easy.

“We are fighting, we are fighting to try and improve the situation, also because I think they ask of me this. I am trying to improve and give all of myself to try and change the situation. The situation is here for many, many years, not only at the last moment.”

Conte also explained that winning the league title in two years was outlined as an objective when he took the Inter Milan job but added that he did not speak about similar goals when he took over at Tottenham.

The 52-year-old added: “I think that when Inter came to my house to ask me to go there, they asked me to win in two years and they gave me the possibility to do what I want.

“I can tell you this. With Tottenham, honestly we didn’t speak about this. Maybe the target is different because in Italy there was only Juventus, also Milan and Naples, but Juventus was the first to win nine titles in a row.

“When you know you only have one opponent and also the possibility of the club, you want to win in two years or three years. In two years we won and now Inter Milan is one of the best teams in Italy.

“Now the situation I have found is totally different. We can’t compare the situation with my experience at Inter Milan. For this reason, we have to be focused on finishing the season in the best possible way, then the situation will be much more clear.”

Spurs Web Opinion

It is possible that Conte underestimated how difficult it would be to turn Spurs around. That is perhaps why he has sounded so frustrated in the last month or so. It appears as if cannot wait for the season to end so that he can put his own imprint on the squad in the summer.

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