Despite starting his Premier League reign at Tottenham Hotspur in last season’s corresponding fixture at Goodison Park, Antonio Conte was never going to make it back was he?
If a week is a long time in politics, the 16-day gap following his rant at St Mary’s seemed like a relative epoch in football terms for the 53-year-old to still be in charge of Spurs when they faced an away fixture against Everton on Monday April 3 and so it proved. However, his seemingly inevitable departure would appear to reinforce the belief that the most-important employee at any football club is still the manager.
Conte’s remarkable verbal volley after his side surrendered a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3 with Southampton after James Ward-Prowse’s stoppage time penalty for the Premier League’s bottom club saw him hit out at both his players, who he called “selfish”, and the club’s owners. While the passionate Italian has always had plenty of fire in his belly, there appeared to be a degree of calculation in the tone and language he took as if he was deliberately taking himself to the precipice in his position from which there was no turning back and only the slightest of pushes from his employers was now required to finish things off.
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