Antonio Conte looked back at his time with Tottenham so far, remembering his initially poor impressions after taking over back in November.
The North London side only need to pick up a point in their final match of the season against Norwich in order to secure a top four finish, with rivals Arsenal two points behind with a worse goal difference. Conte has done a good job turning Spurs around following their incredibly rough start to the season under Nuno Espirito Santo.
Speaking at a press conference today, Conte remembered the start of his time with Tottenham and what his initial impressions were.
“I think in this aspect we improved it a lot from the start until the end of the season. I don’t forget when I arrived my first game was against Vitesse we were winning 2-0 and in 10 minutes 3-2 and a red card for us, 10 men against 11.
“If you remember. I don’t forget! I said in my mind I don’t want to go crazy with this type of situation, for you to show to be so unstable. I don’t like a team that doesn’t show stability. You win and you lose but when you lose you have to be strong and to know what happen during the game.”
He then looked back at the team’s growth across this season and how far they’ve come since November.
“My first game was really emotional but in a bad way, not in a positive way. I think from that we worked a lot.
“We had many steps, sometimes we had bad steps like Burnley if you remember away we lost 1-0 after a win against Manchester City but I think it was part of the process with the players.
“Now I think that we improved a lot in many aspects and for this reason we are fighting for a place in the Champions League. Otherwise our position would have been lower this season.”
Conte has averaged 1.96 points per match in the Premier League this season, winning 16 of the 27 matches he’s overseen with Tottenham. Contracted to the club until 2023, he’ll be hoping for a number of reinforcements to arrive in the summer to make his squad more competitive.
Here's every word Antonio Conte just said on the stomach bug in the Spurs camp, Harry Kane's fitness, Cristian Romero's injury, whether Son will take penalties on Sunday, what he didn't like about his team when he first arrived, the word 'Spursy' and more. https://t.co/uOP6wJBU6h
— Alasdair Gold (@AlasdairGold) May 20, 2022