‘Really Antonio?: Richard Keys suggests Arsenal ace has made Conte look silly

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Writing in his blog, Richard Keys has been going in on Antonio Conte after the Italian made some rather damning remarks about transfers this week.

Conte made it very clear that he wants to be backed by Daniel Levy in the transfer window going forward, stating that he wants Spurs to add one or two £60/70m players each summer transfer window.

Keys has interpreted this as Conte arguing that there isn’t much value to be added signing players for less than that amount, but he’s rubbished that view by using both Martin Odegaard and Bruno Guimaraes as examples of players who can be signed for lesser amounts who can still make an impact.

Keys argues Conte’s point

The BeIN Sports anchor gave his view of Conte’s comments.

“Conte was arguing that it was daft for any of us to have considered that Spurs could mount a title challenge this season. Why I don’t know. Arsenal are making a pretty good fist of it – having finished 5th last season and Newcastle’s Likely Lads are giving it a good go – having come from further back the year before. So why were we wrong to speculate that Spurs would be in the race? They should be. They really should be. That they aren’t is Conte’s fault. On the face of it they’ve certainly got the tools,” Keys wrote

But let’s stay with his reasoning for the time being. His argument seems to be that a team can only challenge for the title if it’s adding at least two £70/£80m players every season. He added that it’s pointless thinking signings in the £20/30m bracket will add much. At least that was my understanding of his argument. Really, Antonio? How about Martin Odegaard at £35m? Or Bruno Guimaraes at £40m?”

Spot on

As strange as it may be to side with Richard Keys over Antonio Conte on a footballing opinion, the pundit is right here.

Conte wants big money to be spent, but there’s no point splashing the cash if you’re not spending it on the right players.

There are bargains to be had out there. Odegaard and Guimaraes are two greats examples.

It’s not even as if Spurs didn’t spend big in the summer, they laid out big fees for the likes of Yves Bissouma and Richarlison, but Conte hasn’t gotten the best out of them.

Sometimes the answer isn’t to spend more, it’s to be smarter.