Intensity Conte will bring to Tottenham could make United pay for indecision

Miguel Delaney

Tottenham have acquired a considerable weapon in Antonio Conte, who has replaced Nuno Espirito Santo as Spurs manager. Photo: Adam Davy/PA

November 03 2021 02:30 AM

It was during the second half of the abject defeat to Manchester United, as the Tottenham crowd began to chant the chairman’s name rather than the manager’s, that a furious Daniel Levy made his decision.

Nuno Espirito Santo was out. Antonio Conte was in. A huge mistake was quickly rectified.

The situation moved extremely fast from Saturday evening to Monday morning, but that was because some groundwork had been laid. Spurs had been thinking about replacing Nuno for weeks. Conte, who came close to the job during the summer, was naturally being considered.

Influencing all of that was the situation at Manchester United, and the Italian’s own feelings on it.

Spurs still believe they can beat United to the top four this season, which is a real reprieve given how badly they’d messed up in the summer. Conte ultimately realised he would not be getting the Old Trafford job any time soon. The United hierarchy had too many reservations, independent of the uncertainty over Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s future. They see Conte as “another Mourinho”, with all that entails.

That is a mistake, in a similar way to how they may have erred in persisting with Solskjaer in general. United’s win over Spurs on Saturday could come to be seen as one of the season’s turning points, although not in the way that might have been expected from a 3-0 win.

There should be no mistake about this. Conte is no Jose Mourinho, at least not a post-2012 Mourinho. He is one of about six truly world-class coaches in world football, and four of them are now in the Premier League. It’s just one of them is at White Hart Lane, and not Old Trafford. United’s stance pushed him towards Spurs. Tottenham have just secured a considerable weapon, in what amounts to an arms race between the super clubs.

Conte, in short, is generally worth all the trouble. He can shake up the order of the league. He can restore Spurs to true competitiveness, let alone relevance.

His new club have pretty much made every wrong decision for the last three years – going right back to how they didn’t invest in the summer of 2018, when Mauricio Pochettino had them on the brink of becoming a truly top team – and yet they stumble onto a true star of a manager.

Much of that is based on the work of Pochettino, of course. This is what reaching a recent Champions League final, and becoming a regular Champions League club, gets you. It gives you that status that attracts managers like Conte. It will cost Levy. The Spurs chairman will have to make the investments the club wouldn’t in the summer, not to mention the pay-out to Nuno.

At Old Trafford, the lack of decisiveness continues and it may well cost United. They’ll have to work that bit harder for the top four, because Conte is going to make Spurs work much harder. That is the first message he delivers to any squad, and the first thing they will realise. It will all be so much more intense Spurs on the pitch.

This is the potent weapon Spurs are getting. This is the benefit of appointing a coach of such quality, too. Players like Harry Kane know this. An excitement has spread around the squad. They know he can make them much better.

As Conte has proved with the likes of Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso, too, previously dismissed players can look completely different under such a coach. It will be instructive to see what he does with Dele Alli, Matt Doherty, Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso.

There’s also the promise that his effect is generally quick. Chelsea clicked and went on a title run straight away after the move to three at the back. Italy immediately became one of Europe’s best international sides. Internazionale were instantly transformed into title challengers.

So, can he turn a Tottenham team that had been drifting into a Champions League side again? Conte is a tactical genius but he isn’t an alchemist. The likelihood is still that that big four will finish in the top four.

But through this appointment, they’ve given themselves the best possible chance of competing. Levy and the Spurs hierarchy may not have taken the best route, but Conte can now change the course of this season.

Intensity Conte will bring to Tottenham could make United pay for indecision

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