Tottenham’s new coach Antonio Conte has admitted his side is not ready to fight for the title.
Conte was appointed as Spurs coach this week following the sacking of Nuno Espírito Santo after the club suffered a 3-0 loss to Manchester United last weekend. The Italian’s first test as Spurs boss came on Thursday as he led the north London side to a 3-2 win over Vitesse in the Europa Conference League.
The 47-year-old, who is known as a serial winner told his players they must learn to ‘breathe a winning mentality’.
“For sure, this aspect we have to work to improve,” he said.
“It is not easy because you have to work every day and you have to breathe a winning mentality every day.”
“It is impossible to invent, it is impossible to pay because it doesn’t cost money for a winning mentality but I think you have to take the right people to bring this into the club. You must start every day with this type of mentality.
“You must start to think football for many hours in your life to improve the desire to win, to start to think, ‘OK, I want to win but I know that it means sacrifice, it means to suffer, it means to work very hard.’
Level
“And if you start to think in this way, it means that you want to become a winner otherwise you will continue to stay in your medium level. Most of your time in your life, you have to dedicate to football and it means you want to improve your level.”
Target
“In Tottenham, we need to improve the level of the team if we want to try to reach some targets in the present and this future. I think this is the key. We need to start to think football more and more and more.”
Conte signed an 18-month contract with the north London side as is expected to end the club’s 13-year wait for a trophy dating back to the 2008 League Cup triumph.
