Daniel Levy is experienced enough to brush off speculation and is used to ignoring noise from his managers, but employing Antonio Conte must occasionally test the Tottenham chairman’s patience.
This week, in the wake of Spurs’ frustrating stalemate with Brentford which dented their chances of returning to the Champions League, a fresh round of reports linked Conte with a summer exit, with the head coach rumoured to be interested in succeeding Mauricio Pochettino at Paris Saint-Germain.
They raised the intriguing prospect of a sensational job swap between Conte and Pochettino, but Levy will surely be growing exasperated with Conte’s quit threats and rumours of his interest in other jobs — even if the Italian’s camp insist the PSG stories did not come from them.
While Pochettino’s likely dismissal by PSG offers Levy an attractive safety net in the event that Conte walks at the end of the season, the danger for the chairman is a repeat of last summer, which he spent searching for a new manager and battling with Harry Kane over his future.
These concerns are part of the package in employing Conte, who is notoriously high maintenance and described by one senior figure at Chelsea as making Jose Mourinho “look like a pussycat”.
The hard-to-please coach will always demand more and his rhetoric should be viewed, at least in part, as a means of pressuring the club to give him what he wants.
Clearly, there is an argument that Levy and managing director Fabio Paratici should do whatever possible to appease Conte in the transfer market this summer.
Given Tottenham’s position in the food chain, the chairman may never again have one of the world’s top coaches, at the very peak of his powers, in his employ, and for all the (justified) talk of Pochettino being a better profile of manager for the club, backing Conte still feels like Spurs’ best chance of real success next season.
For Levy, it is not quite so simple, though. Conte’s short-term contract, which runs until the end of next season, and his apparent concerns that Spurs do not have the means to compete for the League title, mean Levy and Paratici will have to be particularly careful to sign players who suit both Conte and the club this summer.
As Saturday’s draw demonstrated, Conte is rigidly committed to his preferred system and, if he stays in north London, he wants at least six new players — among them two wing-backs and a left-sided centre-half who can play in a back three. He also favours experienced, senior players.
Conte tends to leave clubs in a better condition than he finds them but Levy will still be wary of backing the head coach to the tune of millions of pounds on specialist players when there remains a danger he could walk away as soon as he gets a more attractive offer, or at the end of his contract.
Levy has already showed an admirable willingness to back Conte, offloading the club’s record signings, Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso, for nothing in January, and signing Dejan Kulusevski — a former Conte target at Inter Milan — and Rodrigo Bentancur from Juventus.
Completely reshaping the squad in Conte’s image, however, poses long-term risks while his position and future remain uncertain, so Levy and Paratici must tread carefully.
Liverpool’s rebuild under Jurgen Klopp, by contrast, was made easier by his long-term commitment to the club, ensuring they could sign players to suit the German’s approach. Manchester City have done the same with Pep Guardiola but Spurs are disadvantaged both by being more financially prudent than their rivals in the market, and having a rigid tactician whose future is not certain.
Spurs have already spent £50million on a centre-half who excels in a back three and spending the same again on a left-footed version of Cristian Romero may not suit, say, Pochettino, who prefers playing a four-man defence (and might have also been happy to work with Lo Celso and Ndombele, as another example).
It might be in Conte’s interests to start showing some commitment to Spurs, starting with a new deal
The success of Kulusevski and Bentancur offer reasons for optimism, proving that Paratici can find targets to suit the club’s policy of young, versatile players while still satisfying Conte, but this summer will certainly test the relationship between the two Italians, and Levy’s willingness to cede control over big deals to the pair.
Paradoxically, in pushing Spurs to back him with a drip-drip of hints and threats, Conte has arguably made it harder for the club to give him everything he wants.
It might be in Conte’s interests to start showing some commitment to Spurs, starting with a new deal, if he is to convince the club to go full-throttle behind his vision.
