Antonio Conte’s spirit of sacrifice key to Tottenham’s quest for success

As Antonio Conte approaches the first anniversary of his appointment by Tottenham, he continues to live in a central London hotel and so the conspiracy theorists question whether he intends to stick around for the long term. The manager’s contract is up at the end of the season, although the club have the option to extend it for one year. So he’s off soon, right?

The jokers, meanwhile, cannot see past the Alan Partridge aspect of it – the big plate in the restaurant and all the rest – even if, with all due respect to the Linton Travel Tavern, Conte’s digs are a cut above.

What people are more reluctant to process is the element of sacrifice which, in Conte’s case, involves him being away from his wife, Elisabetta, and their teenage daughter, Vittoria, who have remained in Italy. They visit regularly but it is not the same. When Conte got the Spurs job on 1 November of last year, he and Elisabetta did not want to uproot Vittoria from her school and that is still the case.

“I have to respect her moment because she’s growing and to change many schools is not good,” Conte said. “I’m really focused. We decided to go in this way with my family, also in this season, and then we will see. We will see in the future to try to find the best solution. It’s right to respect the family and, sometimes, if you have to put the family in front of you … [you do it].”

Conte is determined to lead by example at Spurs. He wants his wholehearted commitment to the club and how he suffers to be the template for everyone, beginning with the players.

As he prepared for Saturday’s visit of Everton, he noted how they had spent a lot of mental energy in Wednesday’s 3-2 Champions League home win over Eintracht Frankfurt. This is the nature of the