Antonio Conte on why he’s ‘failed’ to win a trophy at Tottenham amid summer exit talks

Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio says he’s been trying to instil a winning mentality at the club since he took over in 2021.

Spurs crashed out of the FA Cup to Championship side Sheffield United earlier this month after also being dumped out of the competition by second-tier Middlesbrough the previous season.

In the Champions League they limped out against AC Milan, leaving fans furious and some calling for the manager to leave. Antonio Conte has won trophies at Juventus and Chelsea, and only recently ended Inter Milan’s 10-year wait for a Serie A title.

His contract at Tottenham is up in the summer and with no sign of extending his stay, Conte says he’d be disappointed to leave without ending their trophy drought.

He told reporters ahead of the game against Southampton: “For sure, in my mind and in my heart there is always the will to lift the trophy. For this reason since I arrived in Tottenham I tried to push the total environment in the right direction.

“But, as I said to you before, I understood that to reach an important level, to gain a win, there is a path you have to go down together and to move down this path it needs us all to work a lot.

“We have to learn to live with pressure and we need to learn to live with the stress, to learn to live with the fatigue of the situation because I have never seen in my life a team that lifts a trophy without pressure, stress and fatigue.

“But, for sure in my mind and in my heart I have always had this ambition and I have tried to transfer this feeling to the club.

“After a year and half we have improved many aspects but we need to continue to work on this path - and sometimes during this path, I think we’ve failed.

“We failed because we are not ready to face the right pressure and stress and this aspect I think we are working on.

“But for sure the team and this club I think it’s going in the right direction and the work we are doing is important work, and the club can see this.

“We can develop a lot in the future but, I repeat, I understand the fans are frustrated because they don’t see us... but at the same time I can tell them we are working very hard to make them proud and to try to bring this club to be optimistic for the future and be ready to lift trophies.”

Tottenham take on Southampton in the Premier League, hoping to secure three points that will strengthen their grip on a top-four place. The Saints, meanwhile, are looking for points to lift them off the bottom of the league table.