Antonio Conte sending hints about his Tottenham future, chaos in Milan and Spurs' stability woes
football.london takes a look behind the scenes at Tottenham Hotspur's first day in Milan ahead of the Champions League round of 16 first leg match
Alasdair Gold
Tottenham boss Antonio Conte speaks to the media at the San Siro ahead of the Champions League round of 16 match against AC Milan
There was something aptly chaotic about Tottenham Hotspur's arrival at the San Siro Stadium and the press conference within the bowels of the iconic old ground in Milan.
Some Italians, particularly in football, are labelled as passionately chaotic and those who know
Antonio Conte believe he falls firmly into that category - a chaotic, emotional football genius. On one hand he plans meticulously for matches, with an incredible amount of detail and information, some of which he shares with his coaches and some of which he keeps to himself until it's time to speak to the players.
Then on the flipside the 53-year-old can make sudden or late decisions about details such as training, start times and return dates from breaks. Sometimes training sessions can suddenly change or days off can be scrapped the night before, requiring players to have to awkwardly change pre-planned engagements.
READ MORE: Tottenham predicted team vs AC Milan: Conte makes midfield decision and two changes in defence
That doesn't just affect
Spurs' first team as Conte often calls on a large number of U21 players to fill out his training sessions, particularly for his often used 11v11 tactical training matches, in which he can call upon an entire team of academy players as the opposition.
The problem with that is it leaves little to no U21 players remaining for their own sessions with the academy coaches. On some occasions, U21 players have been training with Conte's side at Hotspur Way in the morning before having to dash off at the session's end to play matches for the academy. That and the fragmented sessions of their own to prepare have no doubt been reflected somewhat in their difficult season in Premier League 2, although they have taken maximum points from their three matches so far in 2023.
Conte has always been brilliant but chaotic. A whirlwind that blows through football clubs, capturing people's imaginations but also leaving some in his wake. So that's why his return to the San Siro, where he swept Inter Milan to the Serie A title, was so aptly chaotic.
On Monday night, a large number of the media, predominantly the travelling English reporters, were held outside the stadium until 40 minutes before Conte's return to press conference duties, only to then be taken to the lowest level of one stand, standing behind the dugouts and overlooking the pitch.
There the journalists were told to wait and the minutes passed and passed...and they passed...until with the time now 8pm - press conference start time - one member of the Spurs staff with the squad, who were below undertaking their pitch walkabout along with managing director of football
Fabio Paratici, shouted up that it had begun.
Cue plenty of frantic journalists trying to implore stewards to allow them through and into a lift that could only take five people at a time down to the media area. For context, in England the media are allowed to begin setting up and working in the press conference room up to two hours before the event is due to start.
So in rushed the English media as Conte and
Dejan Kulusevski were kicking off their joint press conference, which ended up being dominated by the already in-place Italian media, albeit understandable with one of their own in the hotseat and a Swede who had played in Serie A for years.
So excited were the Italian reporters about the return of Conte that after it was announced that Kulusevski would answer questions first so he could return to his team-mates, the first question was of course instead directed at the Spurs head coach.
What followed for the next 20 minutes or so was a Conte love letter to Italian football. The only thing that that would have topped it off would have been the Tottenham coach walking in wearing a t-shirt proclaiming 'I'd rather be managing in Serie A'.
Conte's difficult living situation is well known. His wife Elisabetta remains in Italy so as not to uproot the couple's teenage daughter Vittoria from her final years of senior school. Conte and his family take it in turns to fly to and from England whenever a spare day arises, with the Spurs boss living in a London hotel.
Yet this press conference was more about his clear love of Italian football and the obsession around the sport that he clearly adores.
"I think that the pressure is different between Italy and England. In Italy you speak about football from Monday and you finish on Sunday. You speak only football and then you have a lot of TV that speaks football and putting a lot of pressure," he said.
"You are born in this way and you grow in this way, with this pressure, and you are used to living with this type of situation.
In England I think that there is an atmosphere that brings to enjoy football without a lot of pressure, because football is a sport and in Italy sometimes football is not only a sport, it is a war between the teams and the fans. I think for this reason is the main difference about the pressure."
When asked why his team has been so inconsistent this season, Conte responded: "Unfortunately this is the truth, it's like you say. Last year we had consistency in the last 14 games, we won 10 out of 14 and then to get in the Champions League we did something that was unexpected, it was incredible considering the situation we had.
"Considering the number of players, we just had 13 available last year. This year we resumed in the same way and then injuries started, especially in attack, with Lucas Moura, Kulusevski, so the situation got complicated. It was like a rollercoaster. One time you were up and then all of a sudden you were down. If you want to be competitive, if you are aiming for something important you need stability.
"You need stability, you need consistency, you can't have these ups and downs. I am trying to work on this and focusing on not having ups and downs. England is not like Italy, the Premier League is not like Serie A, we have different cultures in these two leagues. In England it is much more difficult to be focused and stay focused for every game. In Italy it is easier.
"I am trying to work on this, I want my team to be more focused. When you have ups and down, which is what is happening to us, then obviously it is a bit thing. We need to look for more stability. Sometimes luck abandons you. This year many times we needed to be happy with what we had. This last period it is happening again but we need to react and be stronger."
It's difficult to avoid the irony of Conte speaking about stability, when he offers no assurances about his future and if anything constantly makes it clear that he "will make a decision that is best for everyone" at the end of the campaign. That only adds to the instability at the club and must subconsciously affect the players. Do you give everything for a coach who may not be around in three months' time? It's not a deliberate thing, but it's a mindset that can creep in without warning.
Yet if any coach in the game has the ability to galvanise Tottenham in the second half of the season despite their injury woes, it's Antonio Conte.
He did the same last season despite uncertainty over his future and injury problems, aided by clearer weeks between games after the team had exited every other competition.
Spurs have lost important players in the past week, with Rodrigo Bentancur ruled out for the remainder of the season. The Uruguayan will undergo surgery once his left knee has settled down again and the swelling subsided.
Hugo Lloris will be out for six to eight weeks with his own knee ligament damage, while Yves Bissouma is expected to be out for the latter end of that timeframe after having surgery to fix a stress fracture in his left ankle. On top of that Ryan Sessegnon will be on the injury for at least six weeks with another hamstring problem, one which has left the 22-year-old devastated and 34-year-old Ivan Perisic as the only natural left wing-back for the cluster of matches ahead.
If the three players' injuries stick to those timeframes then Conte could have all three back after the international break at the end of March. One silver lining in that is, on paper, Spurs' tougher Premier League matches - after this run against most of the bottom eight - come from April onwards.
That's without taking into account though any new injuries that may occur and also Conte's own health. The Italian did not look his old self yet within the San Siro as he continues to recover after his gallbladder surgery and he admitted: "I'm feeling much better than before. I'm still not 100 per cent but I think I'm recovering well."
Conte will be hoping that someone steps up against Milan on Tuesday, whether it is his star players like Harry Kane and Son Heung-min or a youngster making a name for himself like 20-year-old Pape Matar Sarr or 22-year-old Oliver Skipp, who the head coach said will both play in the absence of Bentancur, Bissouma and the suspended Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
Then suddenly and unexpectedly the press conference was over. The Italians journalists, many of them experienced, senior reporters, swarmed over to Conte, hugging the Tottenham boss and asking for selfies with him. He was happy to oblige, back in his San Siro home and among faces he knew well from across the decades.
