Antonio Conte: Tottenham are new manager's 'biggest challenge' yet
- Published
Tottenham have won just one game under Conte
Antonio Conte says managing Tottenham is his "biggest challenge" to date.
The Italian, who took over as Spurs boss at the start of November, said his new side's level was "not high" after they were embarrassed by NS Mura in the Europa Conference League last week.
Spurs are seventh in the Premier League having won just one of their past three games, and play Brentford on Thursday.
"Biggest challenge, yes. But as I said in Mura, I'm not scared about this," said Conte.
"I have a lot of enthusiasm. When I arrive here, I enjoy the situation. I enjoy to work with the players, I enjoy to speak with the club, I enjoy to create a good base. Now the most important thing is this - to create a good base and then to build something important.
"We need a bit of time but I'm sure we can improve a lot and give satisfaction to our fans.
"But this is a big challenge for me. This is a big challenge for the club. This is a big challenge for the players. For everybody."
Conte won three Serie A titles with Juventus before managing Spurs' London rivals Chelsea, adding the Premier League and FA Cup to his honours during his time at Stamford Bridge.
He then led Inter Milan to their first Serie A title in 11 years before leaving the club in May, later returning to London to replace Nuno Espirito Santo as Spurs boss.
Spurs finished second behind Chelsea in their title-winning 2016-17 season but Conte says the club is now paying the price for not refreshing the squad earlier.
"The club, in the last years, has been slipping," he said. "If I compare Tottenham to when I was in Chelsea, Tottenham was very, very competitive, was a really, really strong team.
"And I think that to lose important players or someone became old and then to have a change of generation, I think Tottenham now is paying a bit of this.
"Now we have to create, to start again. To think that we have to create a solid base and then to build. Because if we don't have a solid base, it's impossible to build something important.
"I think that now is the right moment to create a solid base and then to start to build. To come back to fight for something important as [in] the past.
"I think it must be our target but this target has to involve all - the club, the players. I think also our fans.
"I understand that sometimes they lose their patience but I repeat I am here to put myself totally for Tottenham and to work 24 hours for this club because this a big challenge for me. Maybe the best, big challenge, about the difficulty - about the position that we are starting."
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