Antonio Conte warns Tottenham not to make past ‘mistakes’ with transfers

Antonio Conte has urged Tottenham to learn from previous ‘mistakes’ in the transfer market and has described Spurs’ January window as ‘very strange’.

Tottenham allowed club-record £53.8 million signing Tanguy Ndombele to rejoin Lyon on loan, while Giovani Lo Celso, who moved to Spurs in a £27.2m deal in 2020, completed a switch to Villarreal on loan.

Spurs also allowed Bryan Gil, a £21m signing last summer, return to La Liga as he moved to Valencia on loan. Meanwhile, Dele Alli joined Everton in a deal that could reach up to £40m after add-ons.

Conte’s squad was reinforced with signings as Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski arrived on deadline day.

But the Italian believes Spurs’ hierarchy should not get into the habit of signing players who are then moved on shortly after.

‘About the transfer market I think the club tried to do the best and you know very well in general it’s not easy, it’s not simple,’ Conte said on Friday.

‘I think the club tried to do the best. I repeat, it’s not simple. And then to sign a player you need to have the availability of the players. You don’t have a lot of options. That’s it.

‘We signed two new players, Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski, I think these two players are the right prospect for Tottenham’s philosophy.

‘Young players, talented players who can develop and improve and make them important players in the future, but you know very well we need time to do this.

‘But I think for the philosophy of Tottenham they are two good signings for us.

‘About the players who went on loan, they needed to play more games. I think it was right for both sides, both for the club and the players.

‘For sure, it was strange to send out on loan [three players] and sell one player in January because it means