‘When you speak to people’: David Ornstein has worrying Antonio Conte contract update for Tottenham fans

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David Ornstein has been giving his thoughts on Antonio Conte and his contract situation at Tottenham.

The Italian manager has taken Spurs into the top four and is challenging for the title as things stand. However, a poor defeat at Manchester United in midweek seemed to put Spurs and Conte on the back foot. Once again, that sort of performance led to some criticism of Conte’s tactics, which have been seen as defensive.

Conte is known for only signing short-term contracts and reports from Italy today have claimed that Conte has his eyes on a return to Italy. And speaking on the Five Podcast, David Ornstein says the situation is tricky for Spurs and Daniel Levy to manage.

“You’ll have seen reports recently that Spurs are looking to open contract talks during the World Cup. That provides an opportunity for clubs to sit down and discuss such things. But, I don’t know how far that will get the situation moving because Antonio Conte tends to wait on these things. How a season’s going to pan out, how it looks,” Ornstein said.

“When you speak to people who know his career, they do suggest he’ll leave it until much later to make a decision. If that’s end of season or summer, then that is really quite difficult for Tottenham. They need to plan ahead, so if they don’t know if Conte is staying, it’s going to difficult. Of course they can activate that year extension. But with someone of Conte’s pedigree you’d only do that if there’s mutual buy-in, if he wants to stay, if he believes in the project and you’re going to provide him with the players.

“We’ve seen Juventus linked with him. But it is coming to a crucial point and Daniel Levy will definitely want some clarity as soon as possible and I’m not sure that’s going to happen.”

TBR’s View: Tottenham And Conte Need To Sort Things Quickly

As good as a manager Conte is, Tottenham need to be in a position where they know what is happening and with that in mind, this needs sorting quickly.

Of course, Daniel Levy and the club knew this risk was coming with Conte when they signed him up. But as time ticks by, this becomes harder to navigate.