‘My understanding is’: Journalist shares the real reason why Spurs took so long to announce Conte's sacking

By Charles Jones

Tottenham announced Antonio Conte’s departure at a strange time, and now we know why.

Speaking on the Rule The Roost Podcast, Dan Kilpatrick has been discussing Antonio Conte’s departure from Tottenham and why it took so long for the Italian to actually be sacked.

It was reported for all of last week that Conte was on the verge of the sack, but, for some reason, his departure was announced late on Sunday night when most Spurs supporters were tucked up in bed.

So, why was this news announced so late on Sunday? Well, according to Kilpatrick, the news was announced as soon as the compensation deal between Daniel Levy and Antonio Conte was agreed so that they could announce the news before any other journalist got hold of the story.

Spurs rushed announcement

Kilpatrick shared what he knows about the timing of the Conte sacking.

“Yes, So my understanding is that this was literally when the agreement was reached between Conte and Levy who was leading the talks externally, he wasn’t in Italy, they were doing it remotely. That what when the ink was dry on the deal when they announced that. There was a feeling that the news wouldn’t hold. I’m not suggesting that Conte would’ve called Di Marzio or Fabrizio Romano, but that’s what the club was thinking,” Kilpatrick said.

Knew it was coming

While Conte’s departure may have come in the dead of night on Sunday, the announcement didn’t come as a shock to anyone.

Indeed, after his press conference post-Southampton, pretty much everyone in football knew that Conte’s race was run at Spurs, and it was just a matter of time before he was sacked.

Yes, Spurs wanted to beat the reporters when it came to the official announcement, but due to a number of leaks in the week, it was an open secret for quite some time.