Harry Winks says that he is determined to repay the faith of Antonio Conte after admitting he feared his Tottenham career was “dead and buried”.
The midfielder was marginalised under the previous manager, Nuno Espírito Santo, who started him only once in the Premier League this season before being replaced by Conte in early November.
Winks had also fallen from favour under Nuno’s predecessor José Mourinho and was expected to seek a transfer during the January window. But Conte was impressed with Winks’s performances in the league games against Liverpool and Southampton in December, after starting him, and he said at the end of the month that the player would stay after proving “reliable”.
Winks, who won the last of his 10 England caps against Iceland in November 2020, drove the team in the 3-1 FA Cup win over Morecambe on 9 January, showing a good attitude on a day when Conte substituted Tanguy Ndombele, Bryan Gil and Dele Alli as Spurs trailed 1-0. All three would be moved on in January – together with a fourth player, Giovani Lo Celso. Winks has started in all five of Spurs’s games since, most recently the 3-2 home loss to Southampton on Wednesday night, when they threw away a 2-1 lead late on.
“The manager’s come in and given me a chance, given me confidence again,” Winks said. “Every game I play and every training session, I have that hunger to impress him and do everything I can to improve.
“My career at Tottenham was probably dead and buried but he’s come in and given me an opportunity to prove myself. And for that, every time I get an opportunity, I really want to impress the manager and repay that faith he’s shown in me.”
Winks rowed back slightly on his “dead and buried” comment but the sense did not change. “I wouldn’t say it was completely dead and buried but my chances at Tottenham were looking slim,” he said. “I wasn’t getting opportunities and it might have looked like I would need to leave the club. I don’t know.
“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. Now it’s down to me to take that.”
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Winks can feel the competition from the January signing Rodrigo Bentancur but it was interesting that Conte introduced the Uruguayan as a substitute for Pierre-Emile Højbjerg against Southampton – rather than Winks. Oliver Skipp, who is out with a groin injury, is Conte’s other option in central midfield. Conte hopes to have Skipp back for the trip to Manchester City on Saturday week.
“It was a poor performance and result against Southampton,” Winks said. “When we’re not playing well but leading we need to find a way of not conceding. We were too passive, too easy to play against and defensively as a team it wasn’t solid enough. We let them play. We let them suffocate us.”
