Apart from four hours a night, when he allows himself to drift off into a fever dream of Emerson Royal endlessly ballooning crosses over the box, Antonio Conte says he is giving everything to turning Tottenham into a team worthy of his image.
Standing in the rain at Turf Moor, after watching his Spurs side slump to a fourth defeat in five Premier League matches, Conte was hit by the realisation that those obsessive 20-hour days still might not be enough, as he called into question whether he, a five-time league-winning manager, is up to the job.
We surely can’t be in the Conte endgame already, can we? The Italian famously works in short cycles, which has brought the demands he has placed on Tottenham and himself into sharp focus following his latest extraordinary outburst.
Wednesday’s defeat at Burnley, who only last week were propping up the bottom of the table, saw Tottenham continue their relegation form, as Conte put it, which is not only a source of pain but also personal and professional embarrassment for the manager.
It left Conte seemingly on the brink of throwing in the towel, as he suggested he cannot accept his salary given his team’s run of results. Emotions do usually run high when Conte is around but the defeat left him in a spin and already his relationship with Tottenham is accelerating towards a messy end. He was even asked if he would be in the dugout against Leeds on Saturday.
It is a baffling situation for Tottenham to find themselves in, especially with it coming after their moment of the season against Manchester City last weekend. The victory at the Premier League leaders was a performance and result delivered from the brain of their manager, one that showed that on their day Spurs can beat the best in the league.
It was by far the outstanding moment of Conte’s reign, offering a glimpse into what can be possible with an elite coach at the helm, and it could have been a turning point. Conte has been clear that Tottenham face a long road to get to where he expects them to be but it was a result to galvanise everyone behind that project, from Conte himself following his questioning of last month’s transfer business, to Harry Kane, and to the wider club.
Such was the feeling of validation after beating City that actually, if you were to lose to Burnley in your very next game, this was arguably the time to do it. After all, the result at Turf Moor did not reveal anything that was not already apparent following recent home defeats to Southampton and Wolves: that there was a significant amount of work to do, Conte needs to be backed, and so far Tottenham have only dipped their toes into doing it.
But at a time when patience and perspective was required, Conte could only see the short-term view.
Consistency is the hardest thing to deliver in football, and Conte knows that. Even though there was no stopping his Inter side once they hit their stride last season, there were plenty of up and down results and spells during Conte’s previous 18 months in charge. It perhaps did not contain a run as damaging as four league defeats in five, but he has also come into a team midseason, and one that is lacking a winning mentality at that.
It takes time, though. Both Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp went through their share of setbacks in their first seasons at Manchester City and Liverpool respectively, as their own expectations and standards were laid out.
In Klopp’s case, his Liverpool side remained unreliable even into his third year. In a situation similar to one Spurs found themselves at Turf Moor, Klopp expressed anger and frustration after Liverpool lost to bottom-side Swansea just days after beating Guardiola’s runaway leaders at Anfield.
Ultimately, it was a step along the process that Liverpool needed to go through, just as Spurs are having to adjust to it now. Yes, the defeat to Burnley was a significant blow to their Champions League aspirations, but if it had been dealt with correctly Tottenham could have learned from it and moved on.
But in his latest outburst, Conte has thrown into doubt his commitment to the winding road that Spurs face. It also calls into question just what he saw when he looked at Tottenham following Nuno Espirito Santo’s departure, and the idea that he viewed Spurs as anything other than a project. Perhaps Conte sees himself as above that, incapable of adjusting his expectations to the reality of where Spurs are.
The Italian’s reaction to the Burnley defeat is unlikely to be as visceral once the heat of the moment has died down and he will surely remain in charge at Elland Road this weekend, but what it does do is move Conte and Spurs further down their collision course, with the joy of Kane’s performance and the win at the Etihad left behind.
Conte has been honest, sure, about the improvement that is required, and by demanding more of Spurs he has put the club under pressure to deliver it. They need to, of course, in order to seize the opportunity that the Italian provides, but it is the demands Conte expects of himself that have seen the club hurtle deeper into the mire of an unhappy relationship.
