January the first big test of Tottenham and Conte relationship

conte tottenham

These are early days for Antonio Conte and Tottenham. Still, they might be the most important.

In Conte, Tottenham landed perhaps the best available manager in world football. A man to have lifted league titles in both Italy and England, his pedigree is up there with the very best in the game.

While there have been some who have tried to label him as some kind of modern Jose Mourinho, the Italian’s teams are usually much more proactive and, although they rely on a solid defensive base, tend to press much higher up the field.

What Conte is not, however, is a magician and in order to get Tottenham challenging, there quite clearly needs to be investment. Both Mauricio Pochettino and Mourinho called for it from Daniel Levy, though those protests largely fell on deaf ears.

Naturally, the January transfer window might not offer the best value for money and the kind of club Spurs want to be don’t generally conduct much business in it. What it might be for Spurs this time, though, is a necessary evil and suggestions are that they are game.

To suggest Conte is a cheque-book manager would be ridiculous. Although he may have a reputation for demanding backing, most of his greatest successes have been through getting more out of players many had written off. Victor Moses, Romelu Lukaku, Marcos Alonso and Ashley Young are some of the leading examples of his ability to truly elevate a number of talents.

He does, though, require a certain way of playing. As Conte has said himself, the level in the Tottenham squad is “not so high” at the moment and improvements must be made, particularly in full-back areas.

So then, it’s important to get things started in a positive fashion. Should this first transfer window not quite go to plan, Spurs risk sending the wrong message to both Conte and the Premier League as a whole.

Clearly, nobody wants to be conducting the bulk of their business in the January market. That is usually a sign of a club in desperation and to expect wholesale changes is somewhat fanciful.

Still, the crux of the argument is that Tottenham are a club who have sent the wrong message so often over the last few years. Nobody is assuming there will be a spending spree but to allow Conte to start embedding his imprint is absolutely crucial for the project going forward.

Quite how that takes shape remains to be seen. Predicting a raid on Inter seems somewhat lazy, although it’s equally as difficult to imagine Conte shopping in the same kind of Premier League has-been market he was during his time at San Siro.

It is not about the targets on an individual basis, however. It is about providing a platform going forward, showing Conte that this is a team who seriously want to challenge and gladly go along with him as he attempts to bring the kind of success he’s become synonymous with to Tottenham.

Start 2022 on the wrong footing and it could set a bleak precedent. One might feel it would be unreasonable of Conte to lose heart after just one January window but, the point is, he needs to at least feel like he’s being backed in the way Mourinho and Mauricio Pochettino felt they weren’t.

Without that support, the infighting starts and we’ve seen how that ended for Conte at Chelsea, who went from title-winners to finishing fifth in a matter of months. Spurs simply cannot allow that to happen. As Tottenham and Conte prepare for their first dance, the mood music has to be right.

 


 

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