The Tottenham manager blew his top last week after the 1-0 defeat, saying he was “too honest to continue taking his salary”.He seemed to do an about turn on Friday and committed his future to the club following talks with Tottenham owner Daniel Levy. A much-improved Spurs performance the following day saw Conte’s side win 4-0 away at Leeds – with Marcelo Bielsa, ironically, the one to leave his post hours after the game.
However, it was only at a more considered press conference back at the club’s Enfield training ground to prepare for the FA Cup fifth round clash that Conte felt it was appropriate to explain fully what had been going on.He also made clear his real intention in threatening to quit after he was asked whether his emotions had been getting the better of him more than usual recently.
“It is not right to stand here without explaining why I talked in a certain way and after three days I spoke in another way,” he admitted.
“Maybe I need to explain to you, every time we have a press conference there is a strategy behind it. It is not an emotional moment.
“I understood that was the right moment, after four defeats in five games – and having won the game against Manchester City three days earlier – to send the right message.”A clear message to myself, the club and also the players.”
However, that message was not simply that he was close to throwing in the towel after just four months in charge.
Instead he wanted his players to know after their poor showing at Turf Moor that they could not afford to relax for a moment – even after a brilliant result like the 3-2 win over Manchester City at the Etihad the previous Saturday.
“We have to know we are here to enjoy football,” Conte explained. But at the same time to improve ourselves, to ask ourselves for 100 per cent commitment and desire and also to underline that a team like Tottenham does not exist to lose four games in five.
“If someone understood that my words were from an emotional moment, no. In that moment I sent a specific message to the whole environment – and it has happened in the past.
“When I want to push the situation and the environment in the same direction, because I am seeing we can do better, it is not because it is an emotional moment, it is because there is a strategy behind it.”
Conte ended his explanation on a brighter note with a broad grin that recognised the tensions his outburst might have caused – not least with Tottenham in a very real and very fierce battle to finish in one of the highly lucrative top-four Champions League places.