‘We have just started the process’ – Antonio Conte demands patience at Tottenham

Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has called for calm after his side’s 2-1 loss to Newcastle at the weekend.

Tottenham enjoyed a strong start to the season, but back-to-back Premier League defeats leaves Conte’s side in third, five points off league leaders Arsenal having played one more game.

More importantly, Sunday’s opponents Newcastle are just two points behind in fourth.

The pressure is mounting on the Spurs boss, but despite this he has called for money, time and patience to allow him to imprint his mark on this Spurs team.

“We need time and patience and, also for sure, money,” said Conte, speaking after Sunday’s defeat.

Whilst he is sure his side will improve, Conte’s main concern lies in the lack of depth in his current squad.

“My only worries in this moment is we have to try to keep the fingers crossed and don’t have injuries because we are not a team with such a depth of squad to face competitions like the Premier League and Champions League, but this is not something against the club.

“For sure there are players that need to rest for two days to recover because we have players who for them this was seven games in a row and we don’t have the possibility to make rotation in this moment.

“When I spoke before I always said look, we have just started the process for Tottenham to bring Tottenham into the best position to be more competitive to fight for something important, we have just started.

“For this reason we need to cope with this situation. For me it is not easy, it is not simple but we have to cope and to manage the situation with experience and stay together.”

After exceeding expectations by sneaking Tottenham above rivals Arsenal into fourth last season, Conte may feel he can be cut a bit of slack by the fans and board at Spurs.

But patience could be running thin.

Whilst at the start of the season unconvincing performances resulted in wins, if the poor displays continue but results do not improve then the Italian will be watching his back.

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