Antonio Conte blasted his Tottenham players after they allowed bottom side Southampton to come two goals down to draw 3-3 at the St. Mary’s Stadium on Saturday.
Tottenham had Pedro Porro and Harry Kane score the first two goals, and seemed cruised to victory when Ivan Perisic increased their lead to 3-1 with 16 minutes, but they let in two late goals including James Ward-Prowse’s stoppage time penalty.
It was a slump that saw Spurs missed out an opportunity to go third which left Conte furious. Speaking to SkySports after the game, the Italian said;
“I’m not used to seeing this type of situation. I see a lot of selfish players and I don’t see a team. We are 11 players that go into the pitch. I see selfish players, I see players that don’t want to help each other and don’t put their heart [in].”
“There are 10 games to go and some people think we can fight. Fight for what with this spirit, this attitude, this commitment? What? For seventh, eighth, 10th place? I am not used to this position.”
The London outfit are out of every competition this season, and they sit fourth in the Premier League table, but only seven points ahead of Brentford who are eighth. They risk missing out on Champions League qualification next season, and when asked why this is happening, Conte said it is because the club aren’t used to winning.
“Because they are used to it here, they are used to it. They don’t play for something important, yeah. They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress. It is easy in this way. Tottenham’s story is this.
“Twenty years there is the owner and they never won something but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stay here. You risk to disrupt the figure of the manager and to protect the other situation in every moment.
“Until now I try to hide the situation but now, no, because I repeat, I don’t want to see what I have seen today because this is unacceptable and also unacceptable for the fans.
“They follow us, pay for their ticket and to see the team another time, to have this type of performance is unacceptable. We have to think a lot about this.”
Conte continued with his rage. He advised Tottenham who have not won any trophy since 2008 to change their situation if they want to improve because changing managers won’t get them anywhere.
“I’m really upset and everyone has to take their responsibility. Not only the club, the manager and the staff, the players have to be involved in this situation because it is time to change this situation if Tottenham want to change.
“If they want to continue in this way, they can change the manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change. Believe me.”
