Conte slams ‘very strange’ Tottenham transfer window as result of ‘mistakes’ in Levy criticism

Antonio Conte has claimed that Tottenham had a “very strange” transfer window which was necessary because of “mistakes” in the past.

Spurs had to operate a fine balancing act in January between outgoings and incomings. Manager Conte had an idea of the players he wanted to sign. He also conducted an evaluation of his current group.

As such, Tanguy Ndombele, Bryan Gil and Giovani Lo Celso all left on loan. Meanwhile, Dele Alli departed to Everton on a free transfer.

As for new arrivals, Tottenham director of football Fabio Paratici – who used to work at Juventus – helped to bring in Juve pair Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur.

Conte has established a track record of stamping his mark on clubs quickly and delivering success in short timeframes.

And he has acted no different at Spurs, whose chairman Daniel Levy has faced criticism for his past overseeing of the club’s transfer business.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Conte insisted that he would have preferred a different plan for the January window. However, he stressed that Tottenham’s squad make-up did not let him.

“For the players who went out on loan it was right,” the manager said.

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“For sure it was very strange to send out on loan four players and one transfer in January, it showed something went wrong in the past.

“Maybe there were some mistakes in the past. You have to buy players to reinforce your team but if you send away players that you bought in the last two or three years it means you did something wrong in the past.

“We need to make sure we don’t repeat mistakes in the future, we have to reduce the mistakes.”

Spurs also had a reshuffle upstairs, with technical performance director Steve Hitchen also resigning. The Guardian reports that his influence on recruitment had become marginalised after Paratici’s arrival in June.

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“With Steve I had a good relationship. For sure it’s a pity when a good person, a good man, decides to resign,” Conte said.

“At the same time it’s important to respect the decision of every single person. For me he was good and I enjoyed the time we passed together with Steve.

“He worked for a long time with this club and for this reason it’s right to tell him thanks for his time at Tottenham. Personally I wish him good luck for his career and future.”

Conte was speaking ahead of Tottenham’s return to action on Saturday against Brighton in the FA Cup.