https://theathletic.com/4319228/2023/03/24/conte-tottenham-levy/
How Conte’s Tottenham turned ‘toxic’: The tension he brought has proven too much [Athletic]
Some highlights
Much of the Conte era — and certainly the first season — felt like a tussle between two competing impulses. He could be a brilliant coach, capable of getting his players fit, hungry and schooled in a style of play that was effective and efficient. But his dark moods and outbursts — when the friction got too much — wrecked any sense that everyone was pulling in the same direction
Tottenham tried to compromise and do things differently to keep Conte happy. ENIC arranged a £150million equity injection, which made things easier.They gave Ivan Perisic — one of Conte’s players from Inter — a two-year contract worth £180,000 per week, something they would never normally do. They spent an initial £50m on Richarlison, who was not even a guaranteed starter, and another £25m on Yves Bissouma. They acted early and proactively to get Conte his players before the tour to South Korea. Not that Conte was bowled over, saying after the first game of the season he was “really surprised” to read it was unusual for Spurs to do their business early. Tottenham also left four unwanted players at home rather than taking them on tour, something they would not normally do — another compromise in Conte’s direction
Part of this is to do with the style of play. When Conte arrived last season, the players were crying out for structure and that is what he brought. But players do not like to play like that forever. This season, a feeling has developed among the squad that they would rather play with more freedom rather than be stuck in Conte’s rigid 3-4-3.This will sound fickle and it probably is. This is a similar Spurs squad who went from feeling overtrained by Pochettino to undertrained by Mourinho at some speed. They had complaints about Conte’s training, too. At the start, they loved it, of course, even if at times Conte’s intensity could leave some players a little confused by his instructions. But by this season they found themselves bored by the predictable, repetitive exercises. It was a common complaint from players that they would actively look forward to international breaks just so they could finally do something different. Some at the club were also unhappy with Conte’s habit of providing very little notice for when training sessions would take place, which made planning difficult for players and staff alike. Medical and sports science staff would often not know their schedules more than a few days beforehand. Clubs always prefer a manager who provides the schedules well in advance. Conte’s short-notice methods left the club unable to organise a warm weather training camp during the World Cup break, because all the best venues had been booked by clubs who planned ahead.
Part of the issue was with Conte himself. There are some coaches with exceptional people skills who know how to get through to struggling players, to put an arm around their shoulders and lift their confidence at difficult times. Conte is not one of them. Even his greatest advocates would admit motivating players out of a slump is not one of his strengths. But plenty of Spurs players have seen their confidence and form drop and look as if they needed precisely the sort of personal motivation that does not come easily to Conte.
But it put Spurs in a strange position, with the head coach running his contract down and the club unwilling to take control of the situation.That added to a sense of drift; of not knowing how to plan beyond the summer. And no one picks up on these feelings quicker than a dressing room. Even if many of the players stopped enjoying playing for Conte long ago, they were broadly willing to go along with it as long as it was delivering results. They knew what Conte had achieved in his career and felt privileged to work with such a decorated coach. But as results faltered, the mood started to turn. And Conte never showed any interest in trying to repair it.
By the second half of this season, the mood inside the camp, according to multiple training-ground sources granted anonymity to protect relationships, was “toxic” or even “rotten”.The tension Conte had brought to the club had finally proved too much. Players were physically and mentally worn out, fed up and bored. Staff were frustrated by Conte’s public criticisms of the medical team and transfer policy, his abrasive manner, his repeated insistence that Spurs were not set up to compete. Training-ground sources have also pointed to the fact that even if players do not consciously stop playing for a manager, their incentives change as soon as they know he will be gone by the end of the season. Naturally, they would lose some of their motivational edge. There was even a feeling from some who remembered the last few months of Mourinho’s tenure that the last few months of Conte were worse than the dismal spring of 2021.There was a widespread feeling in the camp by the end that Conte simply did not want to be there any more. He cut an increasingly isolated figure, with only one ally left at the club in Paratici, and no other close relationships he could fall back on. Players felt that the energy and passion from his first season, which they had responded so well to, had gone.The way Conte confronted Thomas Tuchel in August, which they loved, now felt like a distant memory. In Conte’s first season, the players also appreciated how willing Conte had been to defend them all in public. But when Conte hammered his players at Southampton for being “selfish” and only playing “for themselves”, it brought into the open how broken the relationship was between manager and squad, even if some fans and pundits agreed with the sentiment. Conte knew he was going, but wanted to make sure he got his retaliation in before he was sacked. Most Spurs managers eventually lose the dressing room. Conte ensured that this time the dressing room had lost him first.