Expectations

When Antonio Conte was finally ushered through the front doors of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, there was probably a small penny that could be heard dropping in the arena. The search for a manager over the summer turned into a circus as manager after manager was linked with the vacancy. Here on betting-sites.ca, the odds on the manager to take the hot seat fluctuated by the day. Names linked with the job were Gennaro Gattuso, Paulo Fonseca, Graham Potter and even Maurizio Pochettino. Conte though was one of the favourites, fresh off winning the Serie A title, stopping Juventus from making it ten in a row in the process, but his appointment didn’t materialise.

Nuno Espirito Santo was the man that was eventually tasked with taking over from Ryan Mason, who himself had replaced Jose Mourinho as interim manager when the Portuguese was shown the door in April 2021. Many fans feared that Tottenham had just gone for a Mourinho 2.0. Nuno had achieved a lot at Wolverhampton Wanderers with pragmatic football, taking them from the Championship to an established Premier League team. But Tottenham is a completely different challenge. After all, this Spurs team under Pochettino had reached a Champions League final in 2019, only two years ago.

Before Nuno, Mourinho was supposed to take Spurs to the next level and expectation levels rocketed due to his previous record and reputation for winning trophies with some of the best clubs in Europe. Instead, after 17 months, Mourinho was bizarrely sacked right before their Carabao Cup Final match against Manchester City, and with that went his chance to win Spurs’ first trophy since the League Cup in 2008.

The Spurs emotional rollercoaster of hope and expectations rolls on and by going full circle, Conte is the man now tasked with winning some silverware with this very talented Spurs squad. Like Mourinho, Conte has earned himself the reputation of a serial winner. The Italian transformed Chelsea and led them to the title in the 2016/17 season and the FA Cup the following season. In achieving all that, Conte also developed a reputation as a master of the 3-4-3 formation, utilising wingbacks to their full potential. At Chelsea, it was Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses who benefited, at Inter Milan, it was Achraf Hakimi and former Manchester United full backs Ashley Young and Matteo Darmian who flourished. Sergio Reguilón, Emerson Royal and even Matt Doherty must be licking their lips at the change in shape.

At Spurs, Conte has all the ammunition to mount a strong challenge for silverware. Many will point to the Europa Conference League as a near shoe-in, if Conte and Spurs take it seriously. Harry Kane stayed at the club despite the heaviest of heavy speculation linking him with Manchester City and Spurs fans will be buoyed by the hattrick their talisman scored against Albania for England.

To say Nuno’s short tenure at Spurs was a failure would be slightly over-exaggerated. He did leave the club in a congested mid-table position, but only five points behind West Ham United in 4^th place. However, many will expect a manager of Conte’s calibre and playing style to propel Spurs up the table. Top four is still very realistic, higher would be a bonus and a trophy in the remaining cup competitions would be a job well done for this season. Spurs fans have probably given up the notion of raising expectations but in Conte, is there now real reason to believe again.