Tottenham boss Antonio Conte is enjoying being back in the Premier League despite the situation he inherited at his new club.
Conte laid bare just how big a job he has on his hands after Spurs’ European embarrassment in midweek, where they lost to Slovenian minnows NS Mura – the lowest ranked team in the Europa Conference League.
Conte was forced to admit after the humiliation that the level of his squad is “for sure not so high” and that he has reservations over its limitations.
The Italian chose to return to the Premier League four years after he was sacked at Chelsea and just four months after he left Inter Milan.
“I am enjoying it a lot, I am enjoying everything in these three weeks, the atmosphere, to work here and I am enjoying a lot,” he said ahead of Sunday’s trip to Burnley.
“To be back in the Premier League makes me happy.
“I didn’t think that I would miss my job after only four months. It happened, I’m happy and am proud to be here, in Tottenham I know this is the place for me to work in the way that I like and I am enjoying every moment of my day.”
One of the attractions of managing Spurs is having Harry Kane to work with, even if the England captain is struggling for goal-scoring form in the Premier League.
Conte was keen to entice Kane to Stamford Bridge during his reign there, but says he has found a new admiration for the 28-year-old having now worked with him at close quarters.
“I must be honest, Harry, it’s important to score, but if I am to judge Kane’s performance against Leeds and Everton, I am very happy,” he said.
“He is a striker with great talent, a world class striker but at the same time it is very difficult to find a player with his talent that works like him and he is a fantastic player and I am very happy to be his coach.
“Outside you can speak about the player to say he is good, but only when you train them can you understand the value of the player and Kane is a top, top player.”
Spurs must look to bounce back from their midweek shame by heading to Burnley, where they won in the Carabao Cup earlier this season in what turned out to be Nuno Espirito Santo’s penultimate match in charge.
Conte said: “We have another important game away at Burnley. I know the ground, I know the atmosphere we are going to face, but we must be ready to face it.
“You must know everything about your opponent, they are working with a really good manager for many, many years and this is important for them.
“I know the atmosphere will be very hot and we must be ready to fight and give everything to try and get three points.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here