On the face of it, Antonio Conte and Daniel Levy hardly seem a match made in heaven.
Italian whirlwind Conte all fire and Latin passion. Poker-faced Levy the toughest of football negotiators with a reputation for keeping a vice-like grip on the purse-strings. But if the duo work in tandem this summer there might be fewer frustrating days like this at the new White Hart Lane after a brilliant win for bubbly Brighton.
However it pans out, something's got to give before next season if Tottenham truly want to try and bridge the gap to Manchester City and Liverpool. Conte won't duck out of walking away from Spurs if he feels his ambitions aren't being matched by Levy – just ask Inter Milan president Steven Zhang.
The former Chelsea boss, irked by a belief that he and Zhang weren't on the same page, ditched Inter just days after winning the Serie A title last summer. If Levy doesn't want to be hunting for a fourth manager in four seasons a transfer market raid for a world class play-maker is surely a priority. For no-one knows better than Conte that the clock is against Spurs if they want to win big in the next two or three seasons.
Although this wasn't their day with Spurs failing to muster a single shot at goal, crown jewels Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min, still have plenty of sparkle. But the England captain is 29 in July, days before Son turns 30. That should sharpen Levy's urgency to add the missing pieces to the Tottenham puzzle to set up a couple of grandstand season while the deadly pair are still punching like heavyweights.
And that's if Kane is still at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, of course. Kane was way below his best against Graham Potter's superbly set-up side who stifled his threat and defeated Spurs with an expertly executed game plan. Son, hooked after 87 minutes, was similarly starved of proper service too on a day to forget for Conte. It all added up to a missed opportunity at just the wrong time of the campaign for Spurs with two points dropped in the chase for Champions League football.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Who Conte sign in the summer? Let us know in the comments section
After scoring 28 goals in their last 9 league games they came into this clash having won their last four matches. But there wasn't a clear sight of Brighton's goal all afternoon as Potter's men performed their own version of the lockdown to perfection.Brighton's work-rate rattled Tottenham and Dejan Kulusevski was lucky not be red-carded for a deliberate 27th minute elbow aimed at the face of defender Marc Cucurella bizarrely ignored by VAR ref Lee Mason.
Cucurella was lucky to stay on himself later with a revenge stamp that floored the on-loan Juventus midfielder. The game was crying out for a touch of class – and it came from the twinkling feet of Belgian attacker Leandro Trossard. With just seconds of normal time remaining Trossard chopped inside Eric Dier and poked a right footed shot past Hugo Lloris to the delight of travelling Brighton fans who saw their team triumph at Arsenal a week earlier. And there in a flash of Brighton brilliance was all the evidence Conte needs to persuade Levy to back him this summer.
