Report: Some Tottenham players had doubts playing for ‘extreme and demanding’ manager

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Some Tottenham players reportedly had doubts about playing under Antonio Conte, who last week looked set to join the north London club.

According to the Athletic, some Spurs star had heard from friends at other clubs just how ‘extreme’ the Italian manager was in his methodology. Former Chelsea player Willian previously stated to the Standard that Conte was ‘very difficult to work with’.

There were also concerns over how little attention Conte gave academy prospects and younger players.

Conte to Spurs is now off

Conte looked certain to join Tottenham last week. However, talks between both parties came to an end as reported by BBC Sport. Spurs were unable to meet the former Inter Milan manager’s demands.

It’s now been over 50 days since Jose Mourinho left Tottenham. Since then, Ryan Mason has been in interim charge of the club, becoming the youngest manager in Premier League history.

However, the pending arrival of Fabio Paratici as per the Athletic report will seemingly speed up this process.

The former Juventus sporting director will join Spurs as a general manager. Paratici will oversee all footballing operations with the north London club.

Tottenham dodged a bullet with Conte

With reports of concerns from players as well as doubts over the future of academy players, Tottenham have seemingly dodged a bullet with Conte.

Indeed, whilst the former Chelsea manager could have brought immediate success to the club, the trade-off for this would have likely been unhappy players as well as talented prospects with zero chance of breaking into the first team.

Although Tottenham have not won silverware in well over a decade, very few supporters would have taken Conte as manager had it meant the line between the academy and first-team was all-but cut and players grew to resent the man they were playing under.