Antonio Conte delivers scathing review of Tottenham’s transfer mistakes

Antonio Conte says Tottenham are still a long way from where he wants them to be as he delivered a scathing assessment of the club’s transfer market mistakes.

The manager thinks small steps towards clearing up the mess were made in January with the signings of Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur from Juventus; players to make the squad more complete, to add depth in areas where it was needed. He said that Kulusevski could play at right wing-back, an area he was extremely keen to strengthen, as well as in attacking midfield. Bentancur will compete in central midfield.

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But Conte did not hold back as he reflected on how the club had loaned out three recent signings during the window, including Bryan Gil, who only joined last July from Sevilla for £21.6m in a deal that saw Érik Lamela move in the opposite direction. A fourth player – Dele Alli – was sold permanently to Everton.

Gil has gone to Valencia until the end of the season while Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso have been loaned to Lyon and Villarreal. Spurs spent just under £60m when they took Ndombele from Lyon in the summer of 2019 while Lo Celso cost them about £57m from Real Betis at the same time, initially on loan.

“For sure, it was strange to send [three] on loan and sell one player in January because it means something went wrong in the past,” Conte said. “Usually you have to buy players to reinforce your team. But if you send away players on loan you bought in the last two or three years, it means maybe you did something wrong. It will be very important to not make mistakes in the future because in this moment many teams are higher than us.”

Asked whether he had expected so many