Tottenham boss Antonio Conte has dropped huge hint that he’s ready to commit future to club, saying he wants to fight to win trophies with “my heart and soul” – provided the club matches his ambition.
Antonio Conte has given his biggest indication yet that he is keen to sign an extension to his current Tottenham contract. (Image: Getty)
Conte agreed an 18-month deal with Spurs until the end of next season, which includes an option to extend if both parties agree.
It has been a turbulent few months since appointing Conte as Tottenham’s manager in November which is followed by a series of swift exit amid Spurs’ struggles for consistency this term.
But with Harry Kane now seemingly more settled and back to his best form, and the two January signings Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur hitting the floor running in England, Conte is feeling better about Tottenham’s long-term chances of competing for the very highest prizes again.
“For sure at the moment there is only one truth – I am committed to this club for another year,” he said.
“The club wanted this type of situation and I accepted it because it wais good to get to know each other.
“After four months I think the club has understood the way I want to work and I understand the club. We have three more months till the end of the season to continue to improve our knowledge of each other and then to find the best solution for both.”
” I can tell you that I am enjoying working for this club and I would like to fight for something important for this club.”
“For sure it is true that I would like this – to fight for the future, to fight to be competitive, to fight to win and not only to finish fourth in the league, because I repeat, that is not my ambition.”
My ambition is to be competitive and to fight to win. I want this and I know my heart, my soul, my mind wants these things. I hope myself and the club match each other in this situation.
Conte said Spurs must develop a “good vision” for the future and also called for the club to show “ambition with facts and not only words”.
“If you have a good vision in football and you have a lot of hope, you can be successful,” Conte said.
”In January we showed that we have just started to try to improve the situation, to be competitive and become stronger and win the league and to fight to stay in the top four, we need a big, big improvement.”
“We have started to do this with these players and in my opinion are improving a lot. But you need in the future to have other important steps and to have ambition. And it needs to be ambition with facts, not only with words.”
Following the win over Everton, he challenged his players to beat tomorrow’s opponents United, Arsenal and West Ham to a place in the Champions League next term and says he will not know the true level of his squad until the end of the season.
Honestly in this moment, I don’t know the way that we can finish the season,” Conte said.
“What I can tell you and I am sure about this, we are creating a really good team with a good idea of football.
“I don’t know if it will be enough to reach the top four in this season but I think we need to have this type of ambition. Since one month ago, we improved a lot, despite ups and downs. Now we are ready. We are ready to fight, we are ready to play our cards and to see what happens. It would be outstanding for us to win a Champions League [place] because don’t forget that this season for Tottenham was very difficult for many, many aspects.”
Tottenham take on Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday in a huge showdown for fourth place.