A lot of anger but no trophies – how Antonio Conte’s Spurs reign blew up

What came first at Tottenham? The angst and impatience within the fanbase over the lack of trophies that affects the players? Or the players’ inability to cope with the pressure and win trophies that fires the angst and impatience?

Antonio Conte is not sure. But what the latest former Spurs manager came to feel was that both were present and incorrect at the club, shaping an environment that resembled the results of an attempt to sprint through quicksand. Or, to put it another way, the impossible job for a manager. Any manager. Even one as decorated as him.

To repeat, as Conte likes to say, this was his point of view, his justification as to why his stint at the club will go down as a failure. He was signed in November 2021 to win silverware, Spurs having lifted only the 2008 Carling Cup during the 22-year chairmanship of Daniel Levy, and he could not do so.

There came to be an unhealthy amount of reputation future-proofing from Conte, an inversion of the old break-up line. It’s not me, it’s you. Other than Juande Ramos, nobody has won a trophy at Spurs under Levy and there were plenty of top managers before Conte who fell short by this metric.

To repeat, it comes down to the culture at the club, one in which the players are indulged and excused; the managers that carry the can. “They can change the manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change – believe me,” Conte said during his diatribe after the 3-3 draw at Southampton on the Saturday before last.

In some ways, Conte was a victim of his “serial winner” reputation – a little like one of his predecessors, José Mourinho. He began to know it, too. “If I was a good coach but without a win in my career, I think this would be the perfect situation,” Conte said