Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte says he does not have to convince the club of the need to improve his squad with “important players” in January.
After Sunday’s defeat to Newcastle, Conte claimed he did not have the squad depth to compete in the Premier League and Champions League this season, and said the club needs “two to three” more transfer windows to become challengers.
Spurs are set to back Conte in January, although they will need to offload the likes of Bryan Gil, Japhet Tanganga and Pape Matar Sarr on loan or permanently before bringing in new players.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Sporting Lisbon, Conte says managing director Fabio Paratici and chairman Daniel Levy know the importance of signing top players in the New Year.
“I think the club understand very well the importance of bringing in important players, good players in January,” Conte said. “I’m not the person who has to explain this to my club.
“If you ask me in January what happens, when we have to play many other games, we will have to try to do our best. I repeat, we have to take this big achievement of going to the next round [of the Champions League] tomorrow and take this opportunity to do it.
“We want to finish in the best possible way before the World Cup. My priority now is not January but to finish in the best possible way before the World Cup.”
Spurs will again be without Richarlison (calf) and Dejan Kulusevski (hamstring) against Sporting but Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (thigh) and Cristian Romero (calf) will be assessed in the morning after missing the defeat to Newcastle.
