Antonio Conte might just be starting to believe that he could turn Harry Winks into something special at Tottenham Hotspur.
That is according to Alasdair Gold on his Youtube channel, after Winks’s Man of the Match performance for Tottenham against Liverpool at the weekend.
Winks to stay at Tottenham?
Things have looked fairly bleak for Winks at Spurs this term, as he has badly struggled for game time.
Oliver Skipp appears to be ahead of him in the Tottenham pecking order at the moment, while Pierre Emile Hojbjerg remains one of the first names on the team sheet.
However, he was selected to start for Spurs against Liverpool, with their numbers depleted.
Winks’ performance in the contest was the England international’s best in recent memory.
He was tenacious in the tackle, but also showed off his fine passing range – which has been a key asset of his before.
It now seems that Conte is very optimistic about the player that Winks could become under his guidance.
And it may be that he is kept around at Tottenham for the long term now, if Gold’s words are anything to go by.
“I’m hearing that this performance was the proof that Conte [needed],” he said. “He felt that there’s something about Winks that he can get more out of him. And I think this performance essentially rubber-stamped that for him.”
Some change of fortunes
If Winks is now kept at Tottenham it would be quite the turnaround.
He was set to depart in the summer had Jose Mourinho remained in charge, the Telegraph say, as the Portuguese boss had wanted to cash in on him.
Conte too, also seemingly had his doubts about Winks when he first took over.
The Daily Mail suggested that Winks was open to leaving Tottenham with Newcastle United interested in snapping him up just last month.
But that transfer may have become more difficult to make now.
Conte has suggested publicly that Winks has impressed him in training recently.
And it seems that the Italian manager might be starting to believe that he has a useful talent on his hands at Spurs now.
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