Antonio Conte: The five things that led to Tottenham sacking and what we can learn from his time

Tottenham finally confirmed Antonio Conte’s well advertised departure from the club in a late-night announcement on Sunday.

The Italian boss signed off in style with a memorable post match press conference that will stay long in the minds of players and staff. The former Juventus boss tore into his players, accusing them of being “selfish” and blaming everyone but himself for both recent and past failures.

So despite arriving with a reputation of being a born winner- Antonio Conte departs north London after just 16 months with a bruised ego and a taste of failure. So here are some of the reasons his sacking was just a matter of when and not if.

Boring style of play

Antonio Conte doesn’t really have a plan B, it really is his way or the highway and when his style of play brings results, fans are comforted by the wins and not necessarily the brand of football.

Last season when they snatched Champions League football from rivals Arsenal at Norwich, the style of football was boring but the results made up for the lack of excitement, once the results dropped, the love went and fans slowly began to turn on the Italian boss.

The way Arsenal have improved and blown away everyone has just exacerbated Antonio’s situation and frustrated everyone.

Failure to win a trophy

One of the biggest disappointments from Antonio Conte’s time at Spurs will be how they crashed out of both FA Cups for two seasons running. First to Middlesbrough and then to Sheffield United.

One of the reasons Mikel Arteta had credit in the bank when the tough days came was that he immediately won the FA Cup when he took over.

Antonio’s Tottenham meekly lost to championship sides- the Sheffield United defeat coming days to the Champions League exit that set the tone for what has been a disappointing campaign for everyone.

Relationship with players

When Conte first arrived he had an aura of a winner and he commanded so much respect and attention from every member of the playing body.

At the end of his first season, the club were already talking about extending his 18 months contract, but this season has just been a massive fall off from all the positives of the previous campaign.

He was not getting along with some members of the playing body, he wasn’t satisfied with the way new signings were settling in. LondonWorld understands he wasn’t happy with the chairman’s reluctance to commit to the total overhaul that was required if Tottehham were to challenge for titles under the Italian.

The manager’s post match at Southampton meant his relationship with the playing body was broken beyond repair and he had to leave, the fact that it took almost a week to settle is evidence of how hard it was for everyone.

New signings just did not get going

The likes of Yves Bissouma and Ivan Perisic were brought in to lift the standards in the team and even though they have shown glimpses of their enormous talent, they’ve just not been firing on all cylinders.

Conte is a win now manager while Spurs tend to like a project manager so they were always going to clash at some point but if the new signings had the desired impact then winning would have papered over the cracks and allowed him more time than he eventually had.

As it stands Perisic only scored his first league goal at Southampton and nobody knows when Yves Bissouma will be back in action after an ankle injury picked up in training.

Losing close friends and poor health

Buried in all the chaos is the fact that Antonio Conte has lost two of his close friends this season, Gian Piero Ventrone and Gianluca Vialli have all been buried this season and LondonWorld sources say the Italian manager has been struggling to deal with the grief and work effectively.

His own health meant he had to spend almost the entire February in his home in Turin and when he briefly returned, it was to supervise surprise defeats to Leicester and AC Milan.

His assistant Cristian Stellini was the one who earned massive wins especially against Manchester City and Chelsea in February which earned Antonio the Manager of the Month nomination.

Throughout his career, the Italian has always been an emotional manager and the recent loss of long-term friends has definitely taken a toll on him, it is worth noting that it shows Antonio’s class that he agrees to let his assistant manager Cristian Stellini stay on and see out the season in the best interest of everyone.