Antonio Conte has said that winning a trophy was his number one ambition when he took over the Tottenham job almost 18 months ago and admitted he sees it as a failure to not have achieved that.
Spurs’ trophy drought is set to extend into his 16th year after the Lilywhites were knocked out of the FA Cup and Champions League in quick succession this month.
There was some hope among the Tottenham faithful that Conte would be the man to end that drought but he appears set to leave emptyhanded, with reports indicating that the Italian is expected to part ways with the North London club at the end of the current season (Daily Mail).
The Spurs head coach stated that while he tried to push the team in the right direction to win silverware, the Lilywhites were not able to cope with the pressure of competing for major honours.
Speaking before the Southampton draw, when asked if he would consider his time at N17 a disappointment if he fails to win a trophy, Conte told Football.London: “For sure in my mind and in my heart there is always the will to lift trophies.
“For this reason, since I arrived in Tottenham I tried to push a lot the total environment in the right direction.
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“But I understood that to reach an important level, to gain a win there is a path you have to go together and to this path it needs that we all work a lot.
“We have to learn to live with pressure and we need to learn to live with stress, to learn to live with fatigue of the situation because I have never seen in my life a team that lifts a trophy without pressure, stress and fatigue – but for sure in my mind and in my heart I have always had this ambition and I have tried to transfer this my feeling to the club.
“But after a year and half, we improved many aspects but we need to continue to work to on this path and sometimes during this path I think we’ve failed.
“We failed because we weren’t ready to face the right pressure and stress and this aspect I think we are working on, but for sure the team and this club I think it’s in the right direction and the work we are doing is important work and the club can see this.
“We can develop a lot in the future but I repeat I understand the fans are frustrated because they don’t see us – we are and this season wasn’t good to lift a trophy but at the same time I can tell them we are working very hard to make them proud and to try to bring this club to be optimistic for the future and be ready to lift trophies.”
Conte remarked that the buck ultimately stops with him and the rest of the coaching staff, reiterating that he has high expectations of himself.
The Italian added: “But it’s normal for big coaches at important clubs to try to win every competition, and we know very well for Pep – one of the most important coaches in the world – the importance of winning the Champions League after seven years with Manchester City.
“During your career, failure is part of the job. The most important thing is to work hard to try and avoid failure. Sometimes failure is part of your job and it pushes you to become stronger and make yourself better.
“For the big coaches, the expectation is to lift a trophy: it’s the same for me here, and if we don’t lift a trophy the first responsibility falls on the coach. I know the expectations of myself are really high.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The FA Cup defeat at the hands of Sheffield United was arguably the most disappointing result of the season so far as the competition was shaping up brilliantly for us.
One wonders if perhaps the result could have been different had Conte been on the touchline for the clash at Bramall Lane.
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