THEY WINKS IT'S ALL OVER
‘I was dead and buried’ – Harry Winks reveals how he came back from the brink to revive Tottenham career
HARRY WINKS thought his Tottenham career was 'dead and buried' under Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo.
The Spurs academy product and lifelong fan feared his time at his boyhood idols was up when he was frozen out by his previous two bosses.
But new boss
Antonio Conte has brought him back in from the cold to the first-team since taking over in November.
Winks said: “The manager's come in and given me a chance, given me confidence again.
“Every game I play, every training session I have that hunger to try to impress him and do everything I can to try to improve.
“My career at
Tottenham was probably dead and buried but he's come in and given me an opportunity to show myself and prove myself.
“And for that, every time I get an opportunity I really want to impress the manager and show myself and repay that faith he's shown in me and put it back to me.”
Winks made just seven
Premier League starts last season under Mourinho - and just one under Nuno this term before the former Wolves chief was sacked in November.
The midfielder, who has started six and been on the bench for two of new boss Conte’s 11 top flight matches in charge, admitted: “My chances at Tottenham were looking slim. I wasn't getting opportunities and it might have looked like I would need to leave the club.
“I don't know what would have happened, but as I said, the new manager's come in and given everyone an equal opportunity, which is all I wanted under the last two managers.
“Now it's down to me to take that.”
Winks played the whole game as
Tottenham lost 3-2 to Southampton last night after conceding two late goals.
He said: “It was very frustrating. It was a poor performance and result.
“When we're not playing well but leading, we need to find a way of not conceding. If we're not playing well, we need to defend well, be resilient and hard to break.
“Against Southampton we were too passive, too easy to play against and defensively as a team it wasn't solid enough.”
Conte, having remained unbeaten in his first nine Prem matches in charge has now lost his last two - with the Saints defeat his first League loss at home.
Winks said: “I wouldn't say it was a wake up call. We haven't been getting ahead of ourselves. We know it's a process.
“We're playing in the Premier League against top opposition.
“Southampton are a top side, they're strong and aggressive and we had to be at our best to beat them. Unfortunately we were poor.
“We let them play, we let them suffocate us and it wasn't a good enough performance.
“But we've got a game against Wolves on Sunday, another difficult opposition, and we've got to do better.”
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