Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte certainly isn’t one to be consumed with flighty, light-headed self delusion – despite impressively engineering a fine 1-1 draw away to Liverpool last night in the Premier League fixture at Anfield – about his side’s title chances next season and have rated their chances as being “impossible”.
Despite his valiant men having now taken eight points from their four fixtures against Manchester City and Liverpool, a fact clearly outlining the truth that the North Londoners could go unbeaten all season against arguably the best two teams in Europe is noteworthy by any account. Not many teams can lay claim to being able to accomplish this. However, Conte for his part is definitely keeping his feet grounded and hie head out of the airy stratospheric heights.
According to The Evening Standard, the idiosyncratic Italian admits that it would be impossible for Tottenham to challenge for the title next season with the current status quo. Understandably, although the Spurs boss’ lofty ambitions would want his squad to do more than just finish in the top four next season, he is reality-anchored and readily admits that both Manchester City and Liverpool are far along in their development cycle.
“It’s impossible to imagine that next season you are going to win the title because I’m realistic and I know there are teams in England like Liverpool and City, Chelsea, also United, who are really strong. And it’s not simple to face these monsters.”
Conte was full of praise for Liverpool and their determined, disciplined approach all this while under Jurgen Klopp to building a consistently winning side. As an elitist coach himself with even more trophies to display than the German, Conte is well aware that a solid base is the foundation for Klopp’s success.
“Liverpool did this because they created a foundation with Jurgen [Klopp] and they did a fantastic job in seven years they won a lot.”
While sceptics may argue that a point at Anfield is certainly not something to go overboard about, especially when we ought to be mindful that Liverpool dominated for large spells of the game and had Tottenham chasing slippery shadows.
Conte is also cognisant of the fact that he has a huge challenge ahead of him and will need to get his targets right in the summer transfer window. Slowly yet steadily they can hope to keep gnawing away at both Liverpool and Man City in the coming seasons.
Now the next engagement for Tottenham is the North London Derby. With both Spur and Arsenal going for a top-four finish, this is going to be no less than a very a heated encounter as always. Clashes between the two sides usually are.