Antonio Conte has reflected on his first year in charge of Tottenham after celebrating the first anniversary of his appointment in north London.
This week marked 12 months since Conte’s arrival at Spurs, with the Italian having led the club to Champions League qualification during his opening months in charge.
Spurs have made an encouraging start to the current campaign and are third in the Premier League table, while Conte’s side secured progress in the Champions League as group winners after beating Marseille in midweek.
Ahead of this weekend’s high-profile clash with Liverpool, Conte has reflected on his first year in charge at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“Do you see me older after one year?” he said, laughing. “For sure, we must be happy because in one year we made a lot of progress in every aspect because to finish last season in the Champions League place, in fourth place, and this season despite a lot of injuries and important injuries because we’re not talking about fringe players.
“Many times people forgot there are teams who can lose two or three players, other teams, they pay a lot when you have these big injuries to important players and sometimes people like to talk and don’t understand what it means to play every three days with 13, 14 or 15 players.
“I think what we are doing is important and we are trying to manage the situation in the best possible way. If you ask me why it happened the first half like Marseille, for sure I am the first to be disappointed because the first half against Marseille was really poor but we didn’t prepare to have this first half.
“We wanted to be aggressive and press but I played football. I understand sometimes when you have an important target or if you prepare a different situation, mentally you want to defend and you have to face an aggressive atmosphere, it can happen this type of situation. But I spoke with my players and we have to be proud for this achievement. Don’t forget, last season we weren’t able to overcome the group of the Conference League so a lot of positive things.
“Can we improve? Of course. First we have to recover the important players and then we have to improve in every aspect. I am proud of my players for their reaction to the second half because they showed great will, great desire to achieve qualification for us, for the fans and for everybody.”
