Antonio Conte had the perfect chance to inspire Tottenham players and fans but he chose not to

Antonio Conte employed that age-old tactic at Hotspur Way on Friday of lashing out at French reports linking him to PSG while not really convincing anyone that his future lies at Tottenham.

Managers love to be wooed. They want to feel wanted and if there's flattery to be had then they're not going to slap it away. Conte spends a lot of time telling everyone just how good he is and he likes to know he's in demand, particularly after last summer when reports claimed that Real Madrid, Manchester United and at first Spurs all baulked at his demands.

In one sense he did want to deny the PSG reports, because they claimed he had offered himself to the Parisian club, and the Italian hit out at them in a rather Donald Trump 'fake news' style, all the while making it clear to interested parties that he might be available in the summer. You half-expected the refrain of Carly Rae Jepsen's number one hit 'Call Me Maybe' to roll around the press conference room.

Antonio Conte explains exactly what must happen in Daniel Levy meeting for him to stay at Spurs

Conte is not alone in starring in The Tottenham Manager Linked Elsewhere Show. Harry Redknapp once took a main role, particularly when it came to the England job and Mauricio Pochettino in particular appeared to relish having his name out there, particularly when it strengthened his hand with chairman Daniel Levy.

Trying to get the Argentine to shut down links to Real Madrid, Manchester United, Barcelona, the Argentina job and at one point PSG was like asking a dog to spit a treat out of its mouth.

During one press conference, Pochettino was asked so many times about links to United because he wasn't shutting them down, that the then head of communications Simon Felstein stopped