‘I never expected that’: Conte shares what’s happened at Tottenham which has shocked him already

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Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte has voiced his frustrations over the transfer business his side decided to do in January.

Spurs worked long and hard last month to get a few deals done, but everything they tried in the first 25 days, failed. Adama Traore and Luis Diaz rejected them, while deals for Sofyan Amrabat and Dusan Vlahovic couldn’t be completed.

Tottenham signed Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur in the end and they’re both great additions. However, Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, Bryan Gil and Dele Alli left the club, which decreased their overall squad depth.

Conte has now claimed that he considered all four of the above-mentioned players as important to his plans and didn’t expect Daniel Levy and Fabio Paratici to sanction moves that would see every one of them leave.

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Antonio Conte: I never expected Tottenham to let four players leave in January

The Italian told Sky Italia, as translated by The Evening Standard: “What happened in January is not easy. Four players left. Four important players for Tottenham, two have arrived. So even numerically instead of reinforcing yourself in quotes you may have, on paper, weakened.

“Then precise choices were made for many reasons. But I certainly never expected that in January four players who I still considered important would change their shirts for a thousand reasons. This shows the difficulty.

“It is inevitable that in January it is very difficult to get two players like Bentancur and Kulusevski to sign who, I repeat, are the ideal prospects for Tottenham. Because Tottenham is looking for young players, players to be developed, not ready players.”

“The vision, the philosophy of the club is this. It is inevitable that if you want to grow faster and if you want to be competitive more quickly you need players with a lot of experience because they also lead to an increase in experience in your team.”

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TBR View:

It is surprising to hear that Conte considered Alli, Gil, Ndombele and Lo Celso as important players in his squad. All four of them were clearly not first-choice and almost every Spurs fan expected them to leave.

Looking at Conte’s comments now, it clearly looks like the Italian wasn’t in agreement with Levy and Paratici when they decided to push the four players out of the door last month.

What’s done is done now and Conte has to find a way to get the best out of the players he has available. Tottenham’s three defeats on the bounce in the league has put them in a difficult position, but their top-four hopes are still alive and they could get there if they go on a good run.

However, their next game is arguably the most difficult one yet – Manchester City at the Etihad.

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