One year into his reign at Tottenham, Antonio Conte will face a moment of truth in the Stade Velodrome.
And Conte’s torturous night could be even more painful as he is forced to watch from the stands because of his one-game touchline ban. Conte knows another early exit from the Champions League will be viewed as failure from a manager regarded as a serial winner.
Tottenham boss Conte took over at White Hart Lane 12 months ago this week and has undoubtedly rejuvenated the club on several levels. Conte got Tottenham back into the top four, has got the players fitter and stronger from Nuno Espirito Santo’s disastrously short reign.
But the question marks remain over Conte when it comes to his style of play because it is functional and workmanlike rather than spectacular which is what the Spurs fans crave.
Tottenham supporters may be willing to compromise on that if Conte delivers the club’s first trophy in 15 years and they also love having a world-renowned coach in charge.
However, for all of Conte’s remarkable success at domestic level with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan, his Champions League record is worryingly ominous ahead of Tottenham’s dare-not-lose final Group match in Marseille.
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Incredibly, Conte has never got past the quarter-finals in this competition and has gone out at the Group stage in three of his five campaigns. That is freakishly bad for a coach who prides himself on preparation, tactics and success.
The Italian dare not fail in his sixth season in the Champions League - and it would again raise serious doubts over his long-term future. Conte’s current £13m-a-year contract expires at the end of the season, there is an option to extend which is automatically activated on his side if they qualify for the Champions League.
But there is also a will on Tottenham’s part to get a new deal in place because chairman Daniel Levy can see the progress that Conte is making. After all, Conte took over with the club in ninth last season, they were floundering in the Europa Conference League, but he still guided them back into the Champions League at the expense of North London rivals Arsenal who bottled it.
Levy backed his manager to the hilt last summer, splashing out £50m on Richarlison, £25m on Yves Bissouma and bolstered the squad with the likes of Djed Spence and Fraser Forster having also recruited Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski.
That is a pretty unprecedented level of spending by Levy’s standards - and yet it has still not been enough to please Conte which is another part of the problem.
Conte’s constant demands for more players, constant complaints that it will take years to catch up with big-spending rivals, often leave you wondering how long he can last at Tottenham.
If they fail to reach the knock-out stages in the Champions League, there will inevitably be a knock-on effect when it comes to spending in the transfer market. They stand to lose millions if they miss out.
Tottenham’s task is actually quite straightforward. A win or a draw takes them through. A defeat means they are out irrespective of what happens between Sporting Lisbon and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Maybe that is why Conte was so frustrated and so angry after Harry Kane’s 95th minute effort against Sporting was ruled out after a VAR row. Conte could face another UEFA charge on top of his red card and automatic one-match ban.
Conte’s sending off in the ensuing melee earned him an automatic one-match touchline ban and, while he is allowed in the stadium, he is precluded from having any contact with the players and is not allowed in the dressing room or technical area.
Conte is clearly so annoyed by the ban that he is set to put his assistant Cristian Stellini on pre-match media duties. Some managers do their preview press conferences even when banned but others decide against it. But ultimately, Conte knows what is at stake for Tottenham and his tenure. And for a serial winner, failure is not an option.
