Arsenal legend Ian Wright believes Antonio Conte made a mistake by taking the Tottenham job. Conte joined Spurs in November of 2021 following the dismissal of Nuno Espirito Santo. The Italian made a promising start to life at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
However, Conte's side has seen a drop in form as of late, losing their last three games. The manager had strong words for the club in a recent Sky Italia interview over their vision and transfer operations in January. Wright has touched on the issues surrounding Conte and Spurs at present.
He told Premier League Productions (via Mirror):
"It's very confusing as to where Spurs are at at the moment and him like he's only just realizing it. He turned them down in the summer. They were saying about him not being able to get his coaching staff, (the job) not coming up to what he wanted."
Conte was linked with the Spurs managerial vacancy last summer but had reservations over the club's finances and vision.
The club then appointed former Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Santo but his reign barely got started. Wright is dumbfounded at Conte taking the job given his earlier hesitation. Wright said:
"So it's really strange that they got Nuno, obviously Nuno's gone and then he's (Conte) come back and he's still taking the job where I was thinking that, 'Well obviously he's going to get exactly what he wants.' But what I'm hearing from interviews and everything I'm reading from Antonio Conte at the moment, it's not what he wanted."
Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy needs to back Conte in the summer
Bringing in a manager with the credentials of Conte, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy not should support his ideologies in both playing style and his transfer operations. Ideally, Levy would be willing to listen to the former Inter Milan and Chelsea manager's thoughts on transfers.
Conte has highlighted the lack of cohesion the side have with the manager in terms of vision. Tottenham are renowned for bringing in young players and developing them but this does not match the way Conte operates.
Conte has favored experienced talent that he knows will bring immediate success. This was evident during his time at Chelsea, where he signed the likes of David Luiz and Olivier Giroud.
Conte won the Premier League in 2017 and the FA Cup in 2019 during his time in charge at Stamford Bridge.
Tottenham's January transfer dealings have not enthused the Italian, with the club only bringing in Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur from Juventus.
Kulusevski joins for £30million with an option-to-buy deal whilst Bentancur has signed permanently with an initial fee of £17 million.