Antonio Conte hits out at critics trying to create rift between himself and Daniel Levy after following his comment in an interview.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has hit out at critics he believes are attempting to create a rift between himself and chairman of the club Daniel Levy after admitting his Sky Italy interview had caused a “disturbance.”
Conte claimed his squad became weaker on paper after a January transfer window in which the club signed Juventus pair Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski while allowing Dele Alli to leave permanently and Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso and Bryan Gil to depart on loan.
Ndombele and Lo Celso are the two most expensive players in Spurs’ history while Gil only arrived from Sevilla six months earlier in a deal worth around £25 million.
Speaking on Friday ahead their Premier League match against leaders Manchester City, Conte was asked to clarify his comments and said Spurs have suggested he does not conduct further interviews in Italian for fear of mistranslation.
“During the interview after the transfer market ended, they asked me about the club and if I was happy,” Conte said. “I said the club did the best that the club can do. We lost four players and I said important players for Tottenham. Because these players that we sent away on loan, Tottenham paid a lot of money.
“When you pay a lot of money, it means that we are talking about important players for the club, to pay attention in the future because we need players to be used to play in this league.
“And in my last interview, I said numerically, when you lose four players, important players for Tottenham I repeat because spent a lot of money, and you sign two players, If before I leave in this position 20 players, I have 18 players, numerically you could be a bit weaker. Then I said with Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur, we are as a squad more complete.
“But I repeat, I think I was very clear. I don’t understand why someone wants to create a problem between me… but not also with me, also in the past. I read stories in the past from the club and I read a lot of problems between the coach and the chairman of the club.
“The chairman knows very well by thoughts. It is not important for me to go to the media and speak to the media. If I have to tell him something, he knows very well that I go and speak with him.
“Sorry, but I think that I was a bit… it create[d] a bit of disturb[ance], this type of situation, especially because I had an interview with an Italian media. From now, the club don’t want me to speak with Italian media because maybe the translation is not so clear with my thoughts.”
