Harry Winks says he wants to repay Antonio Conte for reviving his Tottenham career after admitting his future at the club looked bleak before the head coach’s appointment.
Winks started a sixth consecutive match as Spurs twice squandered leads to lose 3-2 to Southampton last night, Conte’s first home defeat in the Premier League.
The England midfielder was marginalised by former managers Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo but Conte has taken a shine to Winks, who has seen off competition for places from Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso and Dele Alli, who all left the club in January.
”The manager’s come in and given me a chance, given me confidence again,” Winks told Standard Sport. “Every game I play, every training session I have that hunger to try to impress him and do everything I can to try to improve.
“My career at Tottenham was probably dead and buried but he’s come in and given me an opportunity to show myself and prove myself. And for that, every time I get an opportunity I really want to impress the manager and show myself and repay that faith he’s shown in me and put it back to me.”
Asked how close he came to leaving his boyhood club, Winks added: “My chances at Tottenham were looking slim. I wasn’t getting opportunities and it looked like I would need to leave the club. I don’t know. But as I said, the new manager’s come in and given everyone an equal opportunity, which is all I wanted under the last two managers. And now it’s down to me to take that. So I wouldn’t say it was as strong as [nearly leaving] but it was looking slim because the facts were that I wasn’t playing as much as I wanted to.”
Mohamed Elyounoussi and Che Adams headed home superb James Ward-Prowse crosses as Spurs threw away a 2-1 lead with 10 minutes to play, denting their top-four chances.
Heung-min Son had put Conte’s side 2-1 up with 20 minutes remaining after Armando Broja cancelled out Jan Bednarek’s own goal in the first half.
”It was very frustrating,” said Winks. “It was a poor performance and result. When we’re not playing well but leading, we need to find a way of not conceding. If we’re not playing well, we need to defend well, be resilient and hard to break down. Last night we were too passive, too easy to play against and defensively as a team it wasn’t solid enough.”
Conte accused his side of being “too emotional” and said they must improve their game-management, but he refused to criticise the commitment of his players.
”We are improving in many aspects but then we are still too emotional,” the Spurs manager said. “It’s important to have players with experience to manage the situation during the game. It was a pity because my players they gave 120 per cent today and the effort was maximum. I cannot say that I don’t see the right attitude or the right commitment. I saw the maximum commitment.”
