Antonio Conte must decide between carrot and stick as Tottenham chase top-four spot

Antonio Conte introduced a couple of old friends to his post-match briefing on Tuesday.

They were Eugenio Fascetti and Carlo Mazzone, Italian coaches whom the Tottenham Hotspur manager played under in the 1980s. Conte’s Spurs had just lost to Championship Middlesbrough in the FA Cup, and, in a reflective mood, he rolled back the years to cite Fascetti and Mazzone for what they had taught him.

In the short time he has been in charge of Spurs, the Conte press conference has become a must-watch event.

Six days before the Boro defeat, after a 1-0 loss at Burnley, he made headlines by asking out loud if he was the right man for a Tottenham job he accepted only four months ago. “I came in to try to improve the situation, but maybe in this moment, I’m not good to improve the situation,” he said.

Following hard on the heels of an interview he gave to Sky Italia, criticising Spurs’s work in the January transfer window, it sounded like a clear signpost towards the exit door come the end of the season.

After the Cup elimination at Boro, though, he was contemplative, almost mild in his tone. Which was where Fascetti and Mazzone, admired Italian coaches but not superstars of the profession, came in.

Fascetti gave Conte his senior debut, at Bari, at 16; Mazzone coached him at the same club before Conte went on to build a career in the midfields of Juventus and the Italy national team.

“My old coaches in Italy, especially Fascetti and Mazzone, taught me that the coach sometimes has to use the carrot, sometimes the stick,” said Conte.

He went on to describe how he had used both tools, anger - the stick - and encouragement - the carrot - within the previous week. “After Burnley, I used the stick,” he explained. "And the result in the