Eric Dier has called on Antonio Conte to remain at Tottenham Hotspur to continue the 'special relationship' he has forged with his players.
Spurs' 1-0 victory against a battling Burnley side on Sunday afternoon, thanks to Harry Kane's first half penalty kick, pushed them back into fourth place and put the pressure on Arsenal, who play on Monday night and go to Newcastle needing to win to jump back above their north London rivals.
While Conte still has another season remaining on his contract at Tottenham, he has consistently said that his future will be decided by a meeting after this campaign has ended with club chairman Daniel Levy and managing director of football Fabio Paratici, during which he will decide whether the club's ambitions align with his own.
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Dier says that while he cannot convince the Italian to remain in north London, he hopes that what has already been built will help convince Conte that it is a project worth continuing with.
"That’s above my pay grade but I can speak for the group of players, and I think the manager would agree as well, the relationship between this group and the manager is something special and I really want to continue to build that relationship," the centre-back told BT Sport. "There’s so much room for improvement. With this group and this manager, it would be a shame for it to end now."
On what Conte is like behind the scenes, Dier added: "It is a big contrast him on the touchline and training pitch to him off it. At half-time and in meetings at training he is very calm and gets his message across very clearly, but passionately always, but on the training pitch and on the touchline he is so aggressive and intense.
"There’s so much intensity in training. Training is the same as it is here, he just feels and lives it and that just rubs off on you. You feel that passion that he shows and all his staff as well. It has been so enjoyable to work under him."
Conte stated after the hard-fought victory against Burnley that Tottenham could not have won that match three months and indeed they did lose at Turf Moor in February in a similar type of match. Dier agreed with the head coach about the improvement in mentality at the club in the months since.
"He is right. I think coming off the Arsenal game in particular. In the past, if you look at the last Burnley game away, we beat Manchester City away a couple days before then we lose away to Burnley," he said. "We are making steps in the right direction and today was another one.
"That comes down to the manager and his influence over us and us feeding off that and trying to do what he wants from us. We have been improving constantly under him and the results have come with that. There’s still so much space for us to improve under him."
Dier praised the Tottenham fans for their help in getting the team over the line in what was a nervy end to the match against Burnley, as the relegation battlers threw everything at their Spurs defence.
"It was a game of two halves. First half we dominated but second half they’re playing for something huge as well so it was bit nervy at the end," he said. "The support in here has been incredible the last two games too."
