Antonio Conte’s Spurs contract: Why the sudden change of signals?

Normal life, of sorts, is returning to Tottenham Hotspur. Due to their lunchtime kick-off, they will be, along with Brentford, the team that restarts Premier League football after just over six weeks away. Ivan Perisic, Hugo Lloris and Cristian Romero will be the last three players to return to Hotspur Way — exactly when remains unclear as of Monday — and then they will have an almost full squad to choose from.

Spurs are gearing up for the remainder of their season in a good position. They are fourth in the Premier League, the position they finished last season and their minimum target for this one. They have a good points return and while they did not play especially well in the first part of the season, that feels like a long time ago.

Like everyone, they have the chance to start again on Boxing Day. They won a difficult Champions League group and face AC Milan in February, a tie that is a perfect combination of glamour and being winnable. Spurs have Dejan Kulusevski fit again after a frustrating hamstring injury that impeded the team’s ability to create chances in the autumn. There are causes for optimism here.

But there is another story going on in the background, one that is looming over Tottenham’s season (or will do until it is resolved). And that is a story that many Spurs fans are probably bored of by now: the story of Antonio Conte’s contract.

Conte, as we all know, only signed an 18-month deal when he joined Spurs in November 2021. That deal expires, as Conte has admitted himself, on June 30, 2023. Tottenham have an option they are confident they can activate but ideally they want to secure Conte to a new long-term deal.

Preliminary talks started during the first part of the season. The Athletic reported in October, approaching the one-year anniversary of Conte taking the job, that there was optimism a new deal could be agreed. That is still the case. Conte has returned to training full of his usual enthusiasm, commitment and energy, loving being back out on the pitch with the players.

But as talks resumed at the start of last week, the mood music has slightly changed. Sources close to key figures in the negotiations sound less optimistic than they did earlier in the season about the chances of a deal being reached.

The prospect of Conte leaving at the end of this season, which felt remote only a few months ago, is being raised again as a prospect. And if Conte left, it would mark the end of this mini-era at Spurs, forcing Daniel Levy to change direction once again.

So what could be holding the negotiations up? Conte is already very well paid by Spurs (he has himself admitted his “important salary”): £15million ($18.2m) per year.

He would like his good work at Tottenham to be rewarded and a figure of £20million has been discussed. A long-term contract on a salary that high would be a heavy commitment for Spurs and so the specifics of the divorce terms would be important. No club would want to be on the hook for tens of millions of pounds if they had to sack a manager with a lot of time left on his deal.

Salary has never been a sticking point between Conte and Levy in the past. When Levy first approached Conte to take the Spurs job in May 2021, that element was swiftly agreed, and it was only when Conte wondered whether Spurs could match his ambition to win, and sign the players that he needed, that he pulled out and decided to rest and recharge instead.

Eighteen months on, these are still the questions that hang over Conte’s relationship with Levy and Spurs. Conte has done very well to frame himself as the man who does not just want to win titles, but who is physically addicted to the very possibility of it. All he needs is a one per cent chance, as he puts it. Those who know Conte well often talk about competing and winning as a “drug” to him.

The question from Conte’s side is whether Levy needs to win like he does. Is that what motivates him? Or is he more focused on building up the brand of the club, securing its future by building infrastructure, and keeping them in the Champions League? Defenders of Levy would point out that he has always wanted Spurs to win, has taken them close a few times, and has had to compete with teams who spend far more than ENIC has been able to.

Connected to the question of how much Levy wants to win is the immediate issue of the forthcoming transfer window.

Conte wants reinforcements. He has seen the club fail to buy an elite right wing-back for two windows in a row and does not want it to happen a third time. But Pedro Porro, arguably the best fit on the market right now, is going to be expensive. Sporting Lisbon may not want to sell at all. And the indications are that Tottenham are not going to throw money around. It would frustrate a coach who believes he is a few players away from what he needs.

Spurs fans may well sympathise with Conte on this point, and often demand that Levy do everything to keep Conte happy. But the reality is that Levy has never broken a promise to Conte about spending, quite the opposite. Levy has repeatedly been clear with Conte in private that there is not a huge amount of money to spend. And he has sanctioned deals for Conte — Ivan Perisic on £180,000 per week, Richarlison for £60million — that he would not have done in the past. Levy and Conte knew what they were getting into when they hitched themselves to one another last year, even if it might sometimes suit them to pretend otherwise.

So how worried should Spurs fans be about these negative noises?

The first thing to remember is that we have been here before. Seven months ago, there was speculation about whether Conte would leave at the end of the 2021-22 season. He was given the opportunity every single week to kill the speculation and commit his future to the club, and he never did. The speculation was in his interest. At the very end of the season, the word was still that Conte was as likely to go as to stay. And then, after the end of the season, Conte stayed anyway.

Maybe this particular moment will be like that one. Complaints will be made on Conte’s behalf, the word will go out that Conte is not happy, that the club’s ambition does not match his own, that maybe he would be better off elsewhere. Conte understands the politics perfectly. He knows that he has the leverage in this relationship, that Levy needs to keep him happy, rather than the other way round, and that Levy will always have at the back of his mind the fans’ reaction if Conte does walk. For Conte to admit that he was happy and relaxed about the club’s plans going into a transfer window would be to just gift that leverage away.

So maybe this is another game of politics, Conte trying to force Levy into giving him what he wants. And maybe it will end with a deal, all handshakes and smiles and a big announcement on social media. Maybe the pressure will help to find the money for the players he wants in the January window. Or maybe this time the smoke points to a real fire. Conte could clear this all up when he speaks to the media in his press conference on Friday, but is it really in his interest to?

(Top photo: Catherine Ivill via Getty Images)