Conte: One Tottenham thing ‘drove me mad’, Chelsea ‘underdogs’ in 2017 title win
Tottenham Hotspur head coach Antonio Conte reacts during the English Premier League football match between Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur at St Mary's Stadium in Southampton, southern England on March 18, 2023. (Photo by Adrian DENNIS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
During his interview with The Athletic, Antonio Conte looked back to his time at Tottenham and Chelsea, insisting he won the 2016-17 Premier League title with the Blues ‘as underdogs’ and revealing the one thing at Spurs that drove him ‘mad.’
Conte reflected on his time in England as the coach of Chelsea and Arsenal during an interview with The Athletic.
The Italian tactician, who left Napoli after two years at the Stadio Maradona last summer, had coached Chelsea from 2016 to 2018 and Tottenham from 2021 to 2023.
He was the last coach to win the Premier League title at Chelsea in 2016-17. In the following campaign, his last at Stamford Bridge, he secured one more domestic title by winning the FA Cup.
“That was a Premier League title we won as underdogs,” Conte said.
“We hadn’t made any big signings. We signed (centre-back) David Luiz, (left-back Marcos) Alonso and (midfielder N’Golo) Kante — the club asked me 10 times if I was sure about him. He wasn’t the typical Chelsea player: tall and handsome. He was the sort of bloke who, when you saw him, was just… well, when I first saw him, I had a few doubts myself about his physicality (laughs), but I was so convinced he was a top player.”
After his two-year spell at Chelsea, Conte coached Inter from 2019 to 2021, won the Scudetto in 2020-21 and then moved to Tottenham, replacing Nuno Espírito Santo in November 2021.
Tottenham qualified for the Champions League that season, but Spurs were never genuine title contenders during Conte’s reign, which ended in March 2023.
“The thing that drove me mad was hearing people around me saying,’ Tottenham are never going to win anything’. That they’re losers,” Conte said.
“They [Tottenham] were made fun of. They’re still being made fun of. Even now. Arsenal lost 3-0 to Brighton and they were joking, ‘Arsenal have turned into Tottenham’, get it? Believe me, this irritated me a lot.
“I remember we weren’t winning or we’d drawn a game and I sent Daniel Levy a message,” he added.
“He came back to me: ‘Don’t worry, we’ll win the next one.’
“‘What the…?’ I kept saying to him, ‘Look!’
“I went to Tottenham with the ambition to turn things round a bit,” Conte concluded.
“Partly because (managing director of football and former Juventus colleague Fabio) Paratici was there. When I arrived, they were ninth. We finished fourth, overtaking Arsenal.”
Conte also dropped hints about his future, revealing that he would be open to taking on a new role during the season “if it’s worth it.”
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