‘Not the manager’: TalkSPORT pundit thinks players may be put off signing for Tottenham because of Conte

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TalkSPORT pundits Danny Murphy and Simon Jordan have contrasting views on whether Antonio Conte will be able to attract top players to Tottenham.

The pair had differing opinions on whether the Italian’s “workaholic” reputation might put big players off from making the move to north London.

Conte is a serial winner who has won the league title with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan, but he arguably faces the toughest challenge of his career doing the same with Spurs.

Daniel Levy’s Spurs have been the nearly men in recent years, but have seemingly lacked that ambition to kick on and consistently challenge with the biggest teams in the country.

The 52-year-old signed Juventus duo Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski on the last day of the January transfer window.

And he will be hoping to significantly bolster his squad further in the summer market and this is where Murphy and Jordan disagreed on how the intense Conte, who demands a lot from his players, will fare.

Responding to Jim White’s claims that “everybody wants to play for Conte”, Murphy responded: “That’s a personal thing because if you know him and have worked with him then ‘yes’ would be the answer, but ‘no’ looking from a far.

“Do you want to play for a highly emotional, workaholic manager who has you training like a demon and doesn’t take any backchat?

“I’m not sure he’s the most appealing manager in the world if you don’t know him.

“If I was playing now, I wouldn’t be thinking I’d love to go and play for Conte and play under a tyrant in a nice way – that’s not the manager I would want to go and play for.”

However, in stark contrast to Murphy’s thoughts on Conte, Jordan felt the influential Italian will have huge pulling power.

The former Crystal Palace chairman said: “If you’re a top player? Surely it’s not about the perception of a manager whether he is a workaholic or someone that drives you to be in a position where you’re the very best you can be.

“Surely if you’re a top player that’s the environment you want to be in, Conte is someone that drives you to a level of attainment.

“He takes Victor Moses from a bit [part] player at Chelsea to a Premier League winning wing-back.

“Players will look at it and surely think ‘if I fancy going to Tottenham because [Conte’s] in the mix then that’s an allure not a deterrent.”