Napoli manager Antonio Conte has come out to reflect on his emotional Tottenham exit. He recently shared how a personal tragedy reshaped his outlook on life and football, and fans have been reacting.
According to him, his time in North London was a difficult chapter in his managerial journey, and he didn’t believe that qualifying Spurs for the UCL in 2022 was worth celebrating.
Conte added that his final months as Tottenham manager coincided with the death of his close friends, and that ultimately left him questioning his priorities in life.
His words, “It was a difficult year at Tottenham. I arrived in November with them ninth in the standings and we ended up in the Champions League, overtaking Arsenal… For them, going to the Champions League was like winning the Premier League.
On the last day, the Champions League entry was celebrated in the dressing room. I called my staff and told them: we don’t get used to these celebrations. You don’t celebrate these things. We are used to celebrating other things. OK, great feat, but at the same time, we understand what kind of celebration it is.”
On his personal tragedy, “Gian Piero Ventrone died of leukaemia in fifteen days and it was a terrible blow on an emotional and psychological level and it wasn’t easy.
Then Gianluca Vialli also passed away, with whom I had met the month before at a restaurant with my wife. I had seen him very calm, he was even fine, but during that dinner, I understood that something was wrong. You notice it when someone is enjoying something, he had drunk, eaten and after a month he passed away.”
WOW.
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