Antonio Conte leaves Tottenham after ‘extraordinary’ rant at players

Antonio Conte’s 16-month spell in charge of Tottenham Hotspur is officially over after he left by “mutual consent” last night. The 53-year-old’s departure comes just over a week after he publicly labelled his players as “selfish” after they threw away a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 against Southampton.

The result capped a “miserable” March for Spurs and Conte, said Sky Sports. They were “dumped out” of both the FA Cup and the Champions League to leave them “without a trophy for another season stretching back to 2008”.

Over the years Conte has given some “extraordinary” press conferences, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph. But none like the ten-minute rant after that draw on 18 March. He “came out swinging at everyone”, including club chairman Daniel Levy. It was a “declaration of war” for the Italian, who was out of contract at the end of the season.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

With Spurs sitting fourth in the Premier League table, but out of all cup competitions, the club confirmed the Italian’s exit and also announced that Cristian Stellini will take over as acting head coach for the remainder of the campaign. Stellini will be assisted by Ryan Mason.

“We have ten Premier League games remaining and we have a fight on our hands for a Champions League place,” said Levy. “We all need to pull together. Everyone has to step up to ensure the highest possible finish for our club and amazing, loyal supporters.”

Exit was a ‘mere formality’

Relations between Conte and the club “deteriorated at all levels”, said James Olley on ESPN. In the “remarkable” post-match news conference, Conte launched a “stinging attack” on the players and the club’s owners, ENIC. “Tottenham’s story is this: 20 years there is this owner and they never won something. Why?” Conte said. “The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stays here? I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench. You risk to disrupt the figure of the manager and to protect the other situation in every moment.”

Conte’s exit was a “mere formality” from the moment he concluded his “incendiary unmasking of his squad’s frailties and the culture of failure at the club”, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. It put Levy “right in the frontline” for criticism from fans – and that “invariably only ends one way”.

Who will take over at Tottenham?

While it was clear that Conte had recognised his time at Spurs was more or less done, that doesn’t mean there’s no truth to what he said – he simply told Spurs “a few home truths”, said Martin Samuel in The Times. In recent years, an extraordinary “roll call of managers” has passed through Tottenham – their achievements alone “would command several pages” – but not one has won a “sausage” while at Spurs. That has to say something about the club’s culture and executive management: it “cannot be that all the managers are a poor fit”.

In the wake of Conte’s dismissal, and with the club “still battling” for top four, Levy is “reportedly keen to grasp the nettle” and hire a “permanent fix right away”, said Mark White on FourFourTwo. Julian Nagelsmann, who was sacked by Bayern Munich just a few days ago, is “expected for talks shortly”.

Nagelsmann, 35, previously managed Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga and is the bookies’ favourite to replace Conte, according to Oddschecker. Other names being linked include former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Oliver Glasner, Celtic’s Ange Postecoglou, ex-Spain boss Luis Enrique and former Real Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane.