The relentless outburst from Tottenham manager Antonio Conte after Saturday's late collapse against Southampton caught many completely off guard. However, upon delving into exactly what the Italian's rant was focused on it is somewhat difficult to disagree with many of the things he said.
Understandably, his explosive rant, where he took aim at the ownership model, the club and the players caused significant shockwaves. The impact was felt among the Tottenham hierarchy, although Conte clarified that evening his comments were aimed at the players.
Nonetheless, a departure for Conte is expected to be confirmed later in the week, as per the Daily Telegraph, with the situation deemed as unrepairable following his weekend press conference.
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Discussing the late collapse from his team at St Mary's Stadium, Conte said: "They are used to it here, they are used to it. They don't play for something important yeah? They don't want to play under pressure, they don't want to play under stress. It is easy in this way. Tottenham's story is this. 20 years there is the owner and they never won something but why?
"The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stay here? I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench. You risk to disrupt the figure of the manager and to protect the other situation in every moment."
While Conte's words were unleashed with a real anger they are not too dissimilar from what Mauricio Pochettino said towards the end of the January transfer window in 2019. Much of his tenure at Spurs, at least on the pitch, was disrupted by new stadium plans which also impacted the club in the transfer market.
The Argentine's relationship with Daniel Levy soured in the last few months of his reign and some of his comments towards the culmination of his time at the club likely angered the Tottenham chairman.
"Liverpool need a defender, they get [Virgil] Van Dijk," Pochettino told ESPN in January 2019. "They need a goalkeeper. Who's the best? Allison. It's the same as Manchester City. In the end it's valid as Real Madrid and Barcelona do the same because they're on a different level.
"At the moment, Tottenham haven't reached that level so when we can't buy a washing machine, we get a dryer that can do the same job. Instead of a sofa we get a chair where you can also sit. That's the difference between Tottenham and the teams that are built to win."
Also in January 2019, Pochettino said: "We were talking a little bit in the last few months. We need to arrive at the day that is going to be the day that click is going to be on the club.
"The day we sign a player and he says, 'I am signing for Tottenham because I want to win titles' that is going to be the day that the club is going to be in the last level.
"Today if you listen to me in the last four and a half years we are always helping the club to finish the stadium, to finish the training ground to help the club on the financial side, to achieve this to achieve that. To be in the top four that was our dream four and a half years ago to be consistent in the top four to play champions league and to have the capacity to show Europe that Tottenham is alive and is there."
Pochettino was seemingly subtly questioning Tottenham's ambition to compete at the top level during his time at the club and now four years later Conte has done the exact same. Of course, their respective comments are vastly different in terms of tone and what was actually said but there are clear similarities in their annoyance at the club when it comes to showing an ambition to fight for more than just a top-four spot in the Premier League.
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