The divorce is started. After a week of tension with his club, the Tottenham coach ended up being dismissed. “We can announce that head coach Antonio Conte has left the club by mutual agreement,” Spurs wrote in a statement late Sunday night.
The London club specifies that Cristian Stellini, who had taken over on the bench during Conte’s recent health problems, “will be the interim coach until the end of the season”.
“There are still 10 Premier League games left and a fight awaits us for a place in the Champions League. We must all pull in the same direction. Everyone will have to show themselves at the level to ensure that the club finishes as high as possible, ”commented the president Daniel Levy, quoted in the press release.
Currently 4th and last virtual qualifier for the C1, Tottenham is only two points ahead of Newcastle (5th), which has two games less, just like Liverpool, in ambush in 6th place with 7 lengths behind.
Conte had arrived in November 2021 with a flattering reputation as a tough and successful coach domestically but one that never stays in place for long.
Champion with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan as a coach, the 53-year-old technician was to allow Spurs to end 15 years without trophies.
Last year, he had straightened out a badly engaged team which, thanks to the mental strength he had instilled in them, had beaten Arsenal to the post for qualification in the Champions League.
Conte crosses the Rubicon
This season, the early eliminations in national cups and in the round of 16 of C1 against AC Milan (1-0, 0-0), with two very lackluster performances, had considerably cooled the atmosphere.
The renewal of his contract at the end of the season already seemed badly started but Conte had crossed the Rubicon in a press conference a week ago after a 3-3 draw at bottom side Southampton while his team led 3-1 at the 75th.
“We are not a team. We are a team where everyone thinks only of themselves. I don’t see any sense of responsibility in the players,” he said.
“We are regressing, I see a lot of negative situations and a lot of selfish situations in the players that I don’t like,” the coach said.
The management of the club had also taken for his rank.
“They are used to that here, not playing for something important,” he said.
“The story of Tottenham is this: the owner has been there for 20 years and they have never won anything (…) If they want to continue like this, they can change coaches, lots of coaches, but the situation cannot change, believe me,” he concluded.
Tried by sickness and death
It was not the first time that Conte took dramatic or brittle accents in a press conference.
“For me, it’s difficult to talk about fourth place, because I’m used to aiming for other goals”, he had, for example, dropped in mid-February 2022, frustrated at not being able to play for the title.
Full of ups and downs on the sporting level, the current season had also been very trying on a personal level, with an operation to have his gallbladder removed in early February.
Conte had also been very affected by the recent deaths of his longtime physical trainer Gian Piero Ventrone, but also of former teammates, Sinisa Mihajlovic and Gianluca Vialli.
Conte’s criticisms are not without merit, especially on Spurs’ lack of ambition in the transfer market.
After the costly dismissals of Mauricio Pochettino – one of the possible replacements, with Julian Nagelsmann, recently dismissed at Bayern Munich -, José Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo in the last three and a half years, parting ways with Conte will cost them another 4 million pounds. (EUR 4.5m). So much money that will not be put into recruitment this summer.