Antonio Conte has hit out at the Tottenham owners, players, and even regular journalists in an angry rant following the club’s 3-3 draw against Southampton.
Not only did the Lilywhites drop three points to the team at the bottom of the Premier League, but they threw the game away from a 3-1 winning position with 20 minutes left on the clock.
After goals from Pedro Porro, Harry Kane, and Ivan Perisic, which looked set to carry Spurs into third place in the table, Southampton fought back thanks to some woeful defending.
First, Theo Walcott found himself completely unmarked in the six-yard box to sidefoot home a simple second ball, before Pape Matar Sarr gave away a soft penalty for Ward-Prowse to make it 3-3.
If not for Fraser Forster, the Saints could have even gone on to win the game at St Mary’s, but it is hard to imagine Conte even angrier than he was already.
Here is what Alasdair Gold had to say about the press conference: ‘One of the most remarkable press conferences I’ve ever been involved in. Imagine every word said in the most furious Italian voice you can think of. He got everything off his chest.’
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Conte hit out at the lack of winning mentality within the club, players, journalists, and owners during his rant.
When asked if the uncertainty around his future is contributing to the poor form, he snapped (Football London): “You are finding an alibi, another alibi. You try to find an excuse for the players. OK, continue to do this, to find an excuse for the players.
“You do only this! You do only this. Excuses for the players. ‘But the players, maybe, my future, then we lost confidence, they lost spirit, they lost being a team’. Excuses. Excuses. Excuse. Try to protect them every time.
“Bah. Come on, come on, come on. We are professional. The club pay us a lot of money. The players receive money, me receive money, you understand?
“Not to find excuse or not show spirit or show a sense of belonging or don’t show a sense of responsibility because we are showing this.
“For me this is unacceptable because for me this is the first time in my career to see a situation like this. Until now I wasn’t able to change, not to change but compare to last season the situation went to become worse.”
On the pattern of not pushing to play for something meaningful under the current ownership, he added: “Why? Because they are used to it here, they are used to it. They don’t play for something important yeah. They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress.
“It is easy in this way. Tottenham’s story is this. 20 years there is the owner and they never won something but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stay here?
“I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench. You risk to disrupt the figure of the manager and to protect the other situation in every moment.
“Until now I try to hide the situation but now no because I repeat I don’t want to see what I have seen today because this is unacceptable and also unacceptable for the fans.
“They follow us, pay the ticket and to see the team another time to have this type of performance is unacceptable. We have to think a lot about this.”
Spurs Web Opinion:
As the old saying goes, insanity is repeating the same thing over and over while expecting different results. If the same players are making the same mistakes in the same areas of the pitch, you have to invest in better players. That’s it.
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