Here is the full transcript of Antonio Conte’s explosive interview with Sky Italia.
The Tottenham boss never shies away from airing his views as he talks about how his squad was “weakened” after the January transfer window.
But also how Conte knew what he was getting into before he took the job, the need for fans to be patient and why the club want to buy younger players.
There is a dose of reality as he says Tottenham have been mid-table for “many years” and it will take a big job to turn things around.
The interview in full does offer some interesting context.
Here is the full Q&A…
*Is Antonio Conte happy with this Tottenham at the moment?*
I am certainly happy with the way we are working.
I think we are doing a lot but I am realising being inside the situation that it will take time and patience because there are many young players even at their first experience in the Premier League who need to grow, gain experience and raise their level.
*How character is transmitted to a team, she is a master at this. How you do it?*
I think the first thing to pass on to the team is knowledge, football knowledge. If you have football knowledge, knowledge makes you strong.
It gives you strength and personality: Surely on a character level this is a team we are working on, there is daily, psychological work to try to make each player grow individually.
HAVE YOUR SAY! What do you make of Antonio Conte's comments? Comment below
*Is there something similar between your first Inter and this Tottenham?*
Should you find something like this, it is always difficult to make comparisons, but surely when you take the job in a team that hasn't won for a long time it is inevitable that you will lack confidence.
The confidence is down and many times at the first obstacle you throw yourself down and many times the negativity increases even more, sometimes you grant goals that you struggle to accept. This has been happening to us in the last period.
This is part of a process of a team that has to grow a lot to try to be competitive. Right now we are one of the many teams that are in the middle, they need to work a lot and this does not scare me at all.
It is inevitable that certainly the situation compared to the past for me is very different in terms of perspectives, ambitions, in terms of fighting to win. I realized that it's a totally different situation anyway.
*Did you realise it now or at the beginning?*
When you are outside you can never make certain assessments. So from the outside it may seem something different when you take over a situation it is inevitable that taking over in the current year is never easy.
I promised myself not to do it because I only did it once and I promised myself not to do it.
Then there is the desire, the desire to always question oneself even in very very difficult situations such as this one of Tottenham, because Tottenham has been in the middle of the table for so many years.
But here this did not scare me, I glimpsed situations that could have developed, then when you enter the situation you understand that something, however, what happened in January is not easy.
Four players left in January. Four important players for Tottenham, two have arrived. So even numerically instead of reinforcing yourself in quotes you may have, on paper, weakened. Then precise choices were made for many reasons.
But I certainly never expected that in January 4 players who I still considered important would change their shirts for a thousand reasons. This shows the difficulty. Tottenham in the last session of the summer transfer market and in January changed 8 players.
*During the conference, you said “There were opportunities in the January market”. But were there any opportunities Tottenham could have seized and missed?*
It is inevitable that in January it is very difficult to get two players like Bentancur and Kulusevski to sign who, I repeat, are the ideal prospects for Tottenham. Because Tottenham is looking for young players, players to be developed, not ready players. This is the speech.
*And is it possible to grow even with players like that and not with ready players? You at Inter were asking for ready players to fill the gap you were talking about.*
Eh but here was the link. The vision, the philosophy of the club is this. It is inevitable that if you want to grow faster and if you want to be competitive more quickly you need players with a lot of experience because they also lead to an increase in experience in your team.
But then again, the vision of the club I realised is this and will continue to be this. For this reason it will take a lot of patience, and I continue to explain it to the whole environment and to the fans.
*Does Inter win the Scudetto?*
(Laughs) Yes, Yes, Inter wins.
