the times | Wednesday February 23 2022 67
FootballSport
Antonio Conte believes his Tottenham
Hotspur players need to be angrier in
defeat if they are to become a team
capable of winning trophies.
Conte has won silverware with
Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan and
arrived at Tottenham with the inten-
tion of ending their 14-year wait for a
trophy. However, they are eighth in the
Premier League and Conte has repeat-
edly highlighted the need for them to
tackle their “mental instability” if they
are to produce more consistent results
and secure Champions League qualifi-
cation with a top-four finish.
“The first step to change your
mentality after a loss is to understand
you lost the game,” he said. “It is very
clear in a top club, used to winning. For
example, Bayern Munich were domi-
nating in Germany before this season,
miff me about Crystal Palace, I spent
four very good years there,” Hodgson,
74, said. “I was given the support the
club was able to give me. They’ve been
able to give Patrick even more support,
in terms of money and the players they
could buy.
“After 25 games last season we had
32 points [Palace have 26 points after 25
games this season], so we must have
been doing something right. But yes, I
will say they are more expansive. But
the major difference is that they roll the
ball out in the six-yard box for the
centre backs. We didn’t, because it
didn’t suit our centre backs.”
Hodgson added: “I’m tempted to say
it was the best job [of my career] given
the circumstances.”
Watford v Crystal Palace, kick-off: 7.30pmJob I did at Palace was best
of my career, says Hodgson
Ian WinrowConte: We need more rage to succeed
then they lost 4-2 in the league and they
drew 1-1 in the Champions League. I
read that the players were very, very an-
gry, and they said, ‘No we can’t con-
tinue this way, we need to be strong.’
“If the atmosphere is always the
same, and it is always joy and celebra-
tions, it would be very difficult to [instil]
the right winning mentality. If you
don’t suffer it means you don’t want to
improve your winning mentality.”
Spurs travel to Burnley tonight off
the back of a stunning 3-2 win away to
Manchester City on Saturday. Before
that, however, they suffered disap-
pointing home defeats by Southamp-
ton and Wolverhampton Wanderers —
highlighting the inconsistency that
Conte wants to stamp out.
Harry Kane was outstanding in the
win over City while Hugo Lloris, the
goalkeeper and captain, has been excel-
lent this season. Asked if those are thetwo players he most relies upon, Conte
said jokingly: “There is a sporting
director in Italy that is my friend, whose
name is Pantaleo Corvino, and he says:
‘You can make a mistake about your
wife but not about the striker or ’keeper.’
“We are talking about two good
players, two important players for us
[Lloris and Kane], and also the players
with more experience.”
Conte has disputed claims by Pep
Guardiola that Spurs defeated his City
team by relying on counterattacking
football. City had 71 per cent of the
possession, but Tottenham recorded
more shots on target than the Premier
League leaders.
“If you keep the defensive line, you go
to press and then you find the way to
overcome the pressure; you earn this
space, you work to earn this space, [it is]
not a counterattack,” Conte said.
Burnley v Tottenham, 7.30pm, talkSPORTMolly Hudson
Roy Hodgson insists that he is unaffect-
ed by claims that Crystal Palace are
playing a more expansive brand of foot-
ball since his departure last year and
regards his four-year spell in charge at
Selhurst Park as arguably his best work
during his long career in management.
Patrick Vieira, Hodgson’s successor,
has drawn praise for changing Palace’s
playing style — in contrast to the criti-
cism Hodgson received for what was
seen as a more negative approach.
Hodgson — who took charge of
Watford last month and who will face
his old club at Vicarage Road tonight —
said that Vieira had benefited from
being able to make bigger moves in the
transfer market. “Nothing’s going toW
ith four children aged
two to 12, Troy
Deeney looks at what
his kids are learning
and thinks of all that
has changed in education since he was
a boy. He mentions a son who is
coding on computers, a daughter who
comes home and says she has learnt
about same-sex couples becoming
parents, and open discussion about
mental health. “Stuff I was never
taught, so it feels like everything is
moving forward,” he says. “Fantastic.”
But his expression clouds and deep
frustration builds when he wonders if
that progress is true of racial diversity
in schooling. It was cursory in his
time — “a mention of Martin Luther
King and watching Roots on TV,” he
says — and he has become
increasingly alarmed that the system
has not advanced at all.
He sensed it from talking to his
own children but wanted to find out
more, so the Birmingham City striker
engaged with campaigners and
commissioned a YouGov survey of
1,000 primary and secondary
teachers. The results, he says, were
“damning” given only 12 per cent felt
empowered to teach diverse topics;
64 per cent said they are not provided
with enough support on teaching a
culturally diverse curriculum; and
72 per cent felt the government
should do more to ensure that school
children, from all backgrounds, have a
balanced and inclusive understanding
of Britain’s past, and how it has
shaped today’s society.
According to the poll, the majority
— 93 per cent among ethnic minority
opinion. It’s coming up with the
answers. Everything else is moving
forward in education. Why is this
such a difficult subject?
“Is it that people are scared how it
might paint the British Empire? That
old quote about history being written
by the victors. But the world has
different lenses and we need to give
teachers a platform where they feel
comfortable to teach.
“We had government responses
that it’s already there on the
curriculum, so it’s the teachers’ fault,
but we asked the teachers. The results
were staggering. They feel
uncomfortable. Only 12 per cent feel
empowered to teach a diverse
curriculum in history, science and
across the board. That’s not me saying
that. It’s teachers from all around the
country. That alone warrants a
conversation.”He adds that the campaign does
not involve removing anything,
simply adding to it: “There is no
negativity to being enlightened.”
As part of the research, he has
visited schools to speak to teachers
about how subjects can become more
diverse. He sat down with senior
figures in education in Wales to find
out how it works there.
“We have spoken to kids who
explained the different conversations
they have when they learn about
different cultures,” he says. “We have
spoken to a head teacher who said
that it does not have to cost a lot of
money if schools are creative. Not
one parent complained in schools
where it is already happening. We are
holding back the future generation if
we don’t do this.”
He knows there will be opposition.
“It is going to be called racist, divisive
and everything that comes along,” he
says. “But I am already living that.
“People can spin it however they
want but I just know we have put in
seven months of hard work, asking
right questions, wrong questions,
being challenged, having arguments
about it. I will be really disappointed
if it does not move the conversation
along.” Asked if he holds out any
hope of the government responding,
he tries to be diplomatic but it is not
easy. “We had Priti Patel and Boris
Johnson at the start saying: ‘Don’t
take a knee, it’s divisive.’
“The lads miss penalties at the
Euros, the country gets behind them
and suddenly they are like: ‘It’s
terrible, disgusting, we should do
more.’ Then it falls flat again.
“Look at what happened with
Raheem Sterling [suffering racist
abuse] at Chelsea. A huge thing for
two weeks then gone. So, yes, it feels
like it’s all PR because no one has a
solution. We wait around for the next
racist incident and there is a big storm
but no substance, no follow-through.”
Deeney, 33, clings to the hope that
Rashford’s success over school meals
shows what is possible when a
campaign gathers momentum and
public support. He is passionate about
this issue as a father, as a footballer
with a voice and as someone who
looks back and reflects on all the
opportunities missed to inform,
enlighten and engage, especially as a
child who loved history.
“It captured me as a kid. I have a
huge tattoo on my back of a Roman
soldier. But as I’ve got older I think,
‘Why wasn’t I taught about where I
come from or what I represent?’ ”
He wishes it had been different, but
wants to channel his frustration into
meaningful change. As he writes:
“The importance of education at an
early age to inform identity and
combat racist beliefs and stereotypes
cannot be understated.”Deeney, with his Roman tattoo, left, says only 12 per cent of
teachers feel empowered to teach a diverse curriculumUK does not
have a systemic
problem with
racism at all,” he
says.
As someone
who only has to
look at social media to see vile racist
abuse, he tried to think of practical
interventions and he has been
working for the past seven months on
this campaign. With 400,000 names
already on petitions calling for
mandatory changes to the
curriculum, he is convinced that
education is key to tackling racism.
“We can all say when any racism
comes around ‘it’s terrible’ but what
are we doing about it?” Deeney asks.
“Who is coming up with a solution?
“We have looked into it, studied it,
commissioned a survey, got the data.
That’s powerful. It’s not just saying an‘I loved Romans so
much that I got a
tattoo – but what
about my history?’
teachers and 54 per cent among all
respondents — believe the national
curriculum has a racial bias. “Yet the
teaching of black, Asian and ethnic
minority histories and experiences in
schools still remains optional,”
Deeney says.
He has included these figures in an
open letter to Nadhim Zahawi, the
education secretary, along with a
demand for diversity to be made
mandatory across the curriculum, as
it is in Wales. “The system is failing
children from ethnic minorities,” he
writes.
As Deeney explains of his own
background, struggling for identity as
the son of a black Jamaican father
and white mother of Irish descent:
“My only
experience of
black history or
black culture
was through the
food or music I
experienced at
home.” Has
anything
changed?
The idea of a
footballer making
demands of
government
might have
seemed fanciful a
few years ago but
these are different
times, not least
thanks to Marcus Rashford and his
successful campaigning on free school
meals. Footballers have a voice on
social issues and, at the very least,
they can bring profile.
“This is not my campaign,” Deeney
says. “How sad is it that you need
celebrity, that bullshit, to make the
noise?” But it can be effective.
Deeney was among the key
activists when footballers took a knee
after the killing of George Floyd, but
he talks of “an eerie quiet” these days
on the issue. “If we are to believe the
conclusions of the Sewell Report, theTroy Deeney is sick of
PR gestures on racism
and is calling for reform
of national curriculum,
he tells Matt Dickinson
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