MY ACCOUNT
Antonio Conte is relaxed and content at Tottenham, shrugging off the suggestion he felt under pressure.
Spurs have lost their last two Premier League matches, going down 2-0 to Arsenal in the north London derby and 4-2 at Manchester City.
Those defeats have left Tottenham six points off the Champions League places, though they could close that gap by beating Fulham on Monday.
Conte has often bristled over Spurs’ transfer dealings, but he claimed he is not feeling any pressure at the club, though he hinted if Tottenham’s hierarchy are unhappy, then they must make a change.
“The club put pressure on me to make progress? I am here and you can see the club see every day my work, what I do with my staff and I have zero problem,” Conte said in a press conference.
“I have zero problem with this aspect. I am really, really relaxed about this aspect because I know my work here, but also I think on the pitch you can see my work every day and this is my last problem.
“I have zero, zero problems. If the club is happy, I’m happy. If the club is unhappy, I am sorry, it means that I am not so good for them.”
Spurs bolstered Conte’s squad ahead of the season but are yet to make any additions in January.
However, Chelsea, one of the teams who might well be challenging Spurs for a European spot this season, have spent big this month.
It was put to Conte that his old team’s huge expenditure is making it even harder to bring players to Tottenham, but the Italian reiterated his desire for someone above him at the club to discuss the transfer strategy.
“I don’t want to go into this situation because I have a lot of headaches,” he said.
“I think that at the end of the transfer market, probably the club will explain our transfer market, [like] I asked last time, our vision, the way that we are at this moment.
“I think it’ll be good also to have another person to explain to you, otherwise in this type of question the risk to cross a line is easy.
“Now we have to try to be focused, continue to improve, to continue to work.”
Additional issues have been caused at Spurs by their sporting director, Fabio Paratici, having been handed a long ban from Italian football.
Paratici has been punished due to Juventus’ financial irregularities during his time at the club.
The decision whether to expand his suspension across other leagues and competitions now lies with FIFA.
