MY ACCOUNT
Antonio Conte urged Tottenham bosses to heed his transfer advice as Harry Kane declared the club must “take advantage” of having the Italian at the helm.
Since Conte came to Spurs in early November, the team have had five clean sheets in nine Premier League games and prised 21 points from a possible 27 to hurtle up the table.
The improvement has been dramatic compared to the unsteady start to the season under Nuno Espirito Santo, and transfer windows are when Conte can make further modifications to the squad he inherited.
Tanguy Ndombele could be on his way to Paris Saint-Germain on loan, and Conte has identified talent he wants to bring to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“Honestly, I prefer to speak about this topic always with the club,” said Conte on Friday. “For sure, I made an evaluation about the squad, but I have spoken to the club and I hope the club listen to me.”
The former Inter boss delivered a Serie A title after he was backed in the transfer market, being able to sign the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Achraf Hakimi and Christian Eriksen.
“I think it is important for every club to win trophies, and at the same time you have to understand if you are ready to win,” said Conte.
“Every club could say, ‘Yeah, I want to win trophies’, but then you have to understand very well what is your point, where you are and then the path that you have to follow to try to be competitive and win.
“It is too simple to say that this team or another team want to win. One team wins, and the others seek to win. I know this because if you win you write the history and if you don’t win, you played for a team that don’t write the history.”
On Sunday, Tottenham face a Chelsea team who wrote themselves into the history books last season, when winning the Champions League. They also knocked Tottenham out of the EFL Cup after home and away victories in the semi-finals earlier this month.
Spurs go into the game buoyed by news of a new two-year contract for captain and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, described by Conte on Friday as “a point of reference for the whole club and also a point of reference for me”.
Kane unquestionably falls into that category too, with the England captain beginning to find some form this term after a dismally slow start to the campaign.
Since Conte came in on November 2, Kane has scored four Premier League goals in nine outings, although he should probably have more, given his expected goals (xG) tally stands at 6.19 over that period.
That is based on the quality of chances he has had, with Kane having had more shots (41) than any other Premier League player in this time. He has found the target with 15 of those attempts, while two have hit the woodwork.
Kane believes Conte is the boss who can lead Tottenham to the success they crave.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Kane said: “He’s one of the best managers in the world. We’ve not really reached the heights we’ve wanted to as a club over the last couple of years. It’s a big opportunity now to take advantage of what we’ve got.
“He’s a manager that demands a lot. He’s doing everything he can and as players we’ve responded really well to him and everyone’s working as hard as possible to get success. That’s the ultimate goal for everyone here at the club.
“If you don’t get one or two things right then you can really fall behind the pack and that’s kind of happened to us. So we need to be careful that we don’t keep falling.”
Wolves’ Adama Traore and Sevilla’s Diego Carlos are among the players recently linked with Tottenham.
Tottenham face a tall order at Stamford Bridge, having lost five of their last six league games against Chelsea, drawing the other. Indeed, Tottenham have won just one of their last 31 away league games against Chelsea (D10 L20), a 3-1 success in April 2018 when Conte was in charge of the Blues.
Chelsea appear to have Tottenham’s number this season, beating them in their first Premier League meeting of the campaign before the recent cup double.
The last Premier League team to win four games against an opponent in a single campaign were Manchester City against West Ham in 2013-14, while the last to win three games in the same month against an opponent were Aston Villa against Blackburn Rovers in January 2010.
Chelsea could match those feats on Sunday, though of course Conte will be battling to make history.
No manager or head coach to have previously taken charge of Chelsea in the Premier League has won against the Blues at Stamford Bridge in the competition (D7 L13). Conte will be the eighth such boss to try to crack the code.
