Antonio Conte says one Tottenham player has proven ‘many people’ wrong; he’s been amazing

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Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has praised the “important” Dejan Kulusevski ahead of Spurs’ weekend meeting with Fulham.

The Spurs boss believes the 22-year-old has proven wrong the “many people” who were “not totally sure” about his signing.

Kulusevski has been a revelation since joining Tottenham on an initial loan deal from Juventus in January.

The Sweden international was struggling for game time at Juve, so there was a mixed reaction to his arrival at N17.

However, Kulusevski quickly hit the ground running for Conte’s side.

He finished the season with five goals and eight assists from 18 Premier League matches.

And this season, Kulusevski has picked up one goal and two assists from five league outings.

“He became an important player”

At Friday’s press conference, football.london asked Conte what Kulusevski has added.

“I think we tried to improve our attacking line with Richarlison,” replied the Spurs boss.

“In January we had to sign also Kulusevski.

“We’re talking about a young player, I think many people were a bit not totally sure about this signing because he wasn’t playing at Juventus.

“Instead, for us he became an important player, like Bentancur.

“For sure, Richarlison is a good signing and a good addition. I hope to recover Lucas Moura and then we have a young player like Gil to be part of that attacking front for us.”

“Definitely Tottenham’s gain”

Tottenham have certainly struck gold with Kulusevski, which begs the question – why were Juve so eager to offload him?

In August, Alasdair Gold held a fan Q&A on football.london, where a fan asked him a similar question.

“It’s a strange one for me as well,” replied the journalist.

“But his game time just dwindled and they clearly didn’t have the belief in him that Paratici and Conte did.

“It’s definitely Tottenham’s gain. I think he’ll soon become world class the more and more he develops. He’s superb already.”