Antonio Conte should leave Tottenham – Our View

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We’re almost 12 months into Antonio Conte’s reign as Tottenham Hotspur manager, and, well, things aren’t quite going to plan for the Italian.

The former Chelsea boss arrived as Spurs’ saviour after the torrid Nuno Espirito Santo era, and he was supposed to be the answer to all of Tottenham’s prayers.

Indeed, this serial winner was set to bring silverware back to this part of north London for the first time in a decade, but now that seems to be a distant possibility as Spurs revert to the poor form and the poor performances that we were used to seeing towards the end of Jose Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino eras.

Like Marty McFly in Back to the Future, we’ve seen this one before. Spurs are playing like a team that have given up on their manager, and the question has to be asked, is it time for Conte to leave Spurs? In our view, the answer is yes.

Now, we’re not saying that Daniel Levy should go out and sack Conte – Spurs are third in the league for goodness sake, but there is an alternative out there in Italy as Juventus continue to show interest in bringing their former manager back to Turin.

A move back to Juve would appeal for a number of reasons. For a start, and with all due respect, Juventus are a bigger and more successful club than Spurs, and Conte would have a greater chance of winning major honours with The Old Lady.

However, that isn’t the only reason Conte should consider going back to Italy.

According to a recent YouTube video by Alasdair Gold, Conte’s family are still over in their home country and Conte often flies back after games, so there is also the personal factor that should appeal to the Spurs boss.

Then there are the in-house problems at Tottenham.

As mentioned earlier, Spurs are playing in a very similar manner to how they did in the late-stage Pochettino/Mourinho eras. It’s languid, lost football played as though the players don’t truly buy-in or understand what they’re being taught on the training ground.

It’s not only the on-field showings that mirror that late-stage Pochettino and Mourinho vibe either. There are also the first signs of discontentment and leaks to the press.

With both Poch and Mourinho, there were constantly stories being planted in the papers, namely the Daily Mail, that training was too intense and that the players weren’t impressed with the methods being used.

That is already starting again with Conte. The Daily Mail published a piece claiming that Conte’s sessions are being described as ‘repetitive’ stating, in a negative tone, that players were being asked to run up to 2km during a warm-up.

We don’t know how many of you out there are runners, but a 2km run can be done in around 10 minutes by most semi-athletic individuals, never mind professional footballers, and yet, this is still being painted as an issue with Conte’s set-up.

Factor in that the fans are now turning on this current regime – booing the team off at half-time in the Champions League this week, and it’s not ridiculous to say that things are on a downward trend at Spurs – and as has been shown with Conte’s three predecessors, once that rut sets in, you’re only going one way.

Conte may well have an escape route in the shape of the Juventus job in the coming days or weeks, and when you consider the size of the club, his personal connections the issues that are taking hold at Spurs, it’s fair to say that he should be taking that job if he gets the chance.