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“What do we think of Tottenham?!”
Well, in this specific instance, most of the soccer world things the Premier League is pretty darn comical.
In fact, that sums up most of the Tottenham Hotspur’s existence. Just ask since-fired manager Antonio Conte.
“Tottenham’s story is this – 20 years there is this owner and they never won something. Why?” Conte said.
“…The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stay here,” said Conte. “I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench. 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 not now because, I repeat, I don’t want to see what I have seen today because this is unacceptable and also unacceptable for the fans.” Conte said via BBC.com
That was just the start of the verbal tirade that landed the Italian manager in the unemployment line.
“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,” he said. “If they want to continue in this way, they can change the manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change. Believe me.
“Maybe previously in the other games something can change. But here we’re used to it for a long time. The club has the responsibility for the transfer market, every coach that stayed here has the responsibility. And the players? The players? Where are the players?
“In my experience, I can tell you that if you want to be competitive, if you want to fight, you have to improve this aspect. And this aspect, I can tell you, in this moment is really, really low. And I see only 11 players that play for themselves.”
When asked why this is the case at Tottenham, Conte said: “Because they are used to it here, they are used to it. They don’t play for something important here. They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress.”
As it turns out, he may have had a pretty good point. Tottenham sat in fifth place entering Sunday’s match against third-place Newcastle United. A win would see Spurs move a step closer to the top-four. That would mean qualification for the UEFA Champions League next season.
Instead, they got hammered.
Tottenham fell 5-0 down inside of the first 21 minutes and lost 6-1. It was an utter embarrassment and only stood to validate Conte’s comments.
The loss was so bad that players are now offering to reimburse fans that traveled to watch the away game.
Tottenham players will reimburse cost of tickets for fans who have travelled to Newcastle. 🚨⚪️ #THFC
Official statement released by players here ⤵️📑 pic.twitter.com/uQkloYxV7H
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) April 25, 2023
They released the following statement addressing the performance:
“As a squad, we understand your frustration, your anger. It wasn’t good enough. We know words aren’t enough in situations like this but believe us, a defeat like this hurts. We appreciate your supports, home and away, and with this in mind we would like to reimburse fans with the cost of their match tickets from St James’ Park.
“We know this does not change what happened on Sunday and we will give everything to put things right against Manchester United on Thursday evening when, again, your support will mean everything to us. Together – and only together – can we move things forward.”
In theory, it’s the right thing to do. But it makes the players look absolutely hilarious.
This is Tottenham, though, and that’s how things work.