Antonio Conte has declined to confirm
that he will be in charge of Tottenham
Hotspur next season, saying only that
his future will hinge on whether the
club can match his ambitions.
At the end of a week in which he was
linked with Paris Saint-Germain, who
are expected to sack Mauricio Pochet-
tino, the Tottenham head coach said he
deserved to be managing a club that
could compete for titles.
Before he tried to dismiss the link
with the French champions as “fake
news and lies”, he seemed enthused
about the prospect of opportunities
elsewhere. “It’s good that other clubs
appreciate my work,” Conte said.
the times | Saturday April 30 2022 1GSK1 7
THEBRIEFING
All the Premier League news and quotes
Pep: I’d be in Maldives if I didn’t like schedule
Pep Guardiola
has said he will
not be joining his title
rival Jürgen Klopp’s
complaints about
kick-off schedules
(Ian Whittell writes).
While Manchester
City face Leeds
United at 5.30pm
tonight, Liverpool
kick off five hours
earlier at Newcastle
United, having played
their Champions
League semi-final on
Wednesday, 24 hours
after City played
theirs.
But the City
manager said that if
he had a problem with
the fixtures, he would
swap the Premier
League for life on a
tropical island.“Nothing is going
to change,” Guardiola,
51, said. “It’s not going
to change because the
broadcasters are
thinking about what
they have to do to get
more viewers.
“Everyone has their
own business to
defend. We adapt. Ifthey say play Saturday,
we play Saturday. If
they say play Tuesday,
we play Tuesday.
“Whatever they
want, no problem. If
I’m not satisfied, I go
home and don’t be
manager of Man City.
I go to another league
in the Maldives, the
Maldives League, and
play one game a week
and I’m so
comfortable under
the coconuts.
“But it’s not the
case. You are playing
at 12.30? I’m sorry,
Liverpool, but I’m not
involved with that.”
Kyle Walker is still
out with an ankle
injury and may not
play in the league
again this season.Farke and
Hughton onQPR shortlist
Queens Park
Rangers have
included the former
Norwich City
manager Daniel
Farke on a shortlist to
replace Mark
Warburton as
manager at the end of
the season (Gary
Jacob writes).
Farke, who twice
led Norwich to
promotion to the
Premier League, is
joined by Slavisa
Jokanovic, the former
Fulham head coach,
and Chris Hughton.
Farke, 45, had been
in charge of the
Russian club
Krasnodar but left
after Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine.
Hughton has been
a technical adviser for
Ghana.Leeds picked
on Zaha,
says Vieira
Patrick Vieira
has defended
Wilfried Zaha after
the Crystal Palace
winger was accused of
diving “a lot” by
Leeds United’s Kalvin
Phillips.
Phillips made
the comment after
the goalless draw
between the sides
on Monday and
Vieira called it
“strange”.
“Some of them
were quite lucky
not to get a yellow
card because I
think their plan
was to target
Wilfried,” Vieira,
45, said. “Wilfried
remained calm
and concentrated
on his game and
he had a really
good game.”Smith: Everest climb no issue
The Norwich
City manager
Dean Smith has said
he has no problem
with their sporting
director Stuart
Webber taking time
off to climb Mount
Everest (Jon West
writes).
Norwich’s
relegation will be
confirmed today if
they lose at Aston
Villa and Burnley win
at Watford.
Webber was
confronted by angrysupporters after last
week’s 3-0 defeat by
Newcastle United;
hours later the flames
were fuelled further
by Webber revealing
Norwich were getting
“90% of me” because
he was climbing
Everest for charity.
“That was 90 per
cent of his time, not
90 per cent of his
effort,” Smith, 51, said.
“If we look at the last
4½ years, he’s
probably worked 120
per cent of his time.”16
Tottenham
Hotspur’s Harry
Kane, right, has
scored more goals
against Leicester City
(16) than against any
other Premier League
opponent.
Only Alan Shearer
has scored more
Premier League goals
against a single
opponent — 20
against Leeds United.
Spurs host Leicester
tomorrow at 2pm.“This is lighter and protects only
the place that needs to be
protected... it gives him more
confidence when he’s running.”
WOLVES MANAGER BRUNO LAGE ON
RAÚL JIMÉNEZ’S NEW HEAD PROTECTORI deserve to win trophies, Conte tells Spurs
Gary Jacob
The 52-year-old said he wanted to sit
down with Daniel Levy, the Tottenham
chairman, at the end of the season,
when asked why he could not commit
to the club and end speculation. The
pair met for dinner this week, when it is
thought that transfers were discussed.
“We will have a good meeting, a pri-
vate meeting, and we will try to find the
best solution for everybody,” he said.
“I deserve to try to fight for and to win
trophies and to fight for something im-
portant, not only for sixth, seventh or
eighth place — or, if you have a fantas-
tic season, fourth place. Don’t forget, I
like to have ambition, not only to fight
for a place in the Champions League or
a place in the Uefa [Europa] League.”
Conte won five league titles in his
seven full campaigns as a club manager,most recently with Inter Milan last
season. He took charge of Spurs in No-
vember on a contract until the end of
next season and plans wholesale
changes to the squad should he stay.
He wants to sign at least six players
and is willing to offload about eight,
including Sergio Reguilón, Emerson
Royal and Steven Bergwijn.
“It will be very important to under-
stand how much time we need to fight
for something important if we have the
patience to wait,” he said. “If we can
match my opinion and club opinion.”
Fifth-placed Tottenham host Leices-
ter City tomorrow. “If you win five
games, you will probably get a place in
the Champions League,” Conte added.
“But we have to go step by step and
game by game.”enough images of destroyed villages,
towns, even cities such as Mariupol.
“Some of those images have been
falsified, you know that, don’t you?”
When I say this is the stuff of far-
flung conspiracy theorists, there is a
flash of frustration. “If you want to
discredit somebody, you just have to
say, ‘Ah, it’s a conspiracy theory,’ then
you don’t have to actually argue
anything. It’s absolute dogshit.”
Le Tissier says that most people he
engages with shake him by the hand
and thank him for speaking up for the
voiceless. Within football, he insists
that there are many who show him
support privately but do not want
the criticism.
“When things blow up like a couple
of weeks ago, I get a lot of support,”
he says. “It would be nice if they were
public but I understand that. Not
everyone has the same mentality as
me that can cope with the flak.
“I had it most of my career from
you sports journalists who would
constantly take pot shots at me for
not working hard enough, so it’s
water off a duck’s back. If you
have had 50,000 people at
Old Trafford calling you
a fat bastard and
questioning the size of
your nose, it really
doesn’t affect you
too much.”
That said, he does
have a bite back at
Gary Lineker, whom he
accuses of illiberalism. “I
find it funny that he goes
out of his way to criticise me for
having an opinion that’s different to
his. I have followed Gary on social
media for many years and a lot of the
stuff I completely disagree with, but I
have never attacked him for it. But
the other way round...
“He is meant to be the nice bloke,
the woke Gary Lineker, nice and
inclusive, but he is the one going out
of his way trying to dig me out.”
Le Tissier insists that he will not
back down. He was on a march in
January, outside the offices of the
BBC, against mandatory vaccinations
for NHS workers and may attend
other rallies.
I tell him it must be exhausting to
be scouring the internet, so convinced
he is being lied to all the time. And
what about losing that job at
Southampton, for whom he scored
209 goals in 540 appearances? That
must have pained him?
“To be honest, it’s no great
hardship,” he says. “It wasn’t a great
financial thing for me, something that
was more of a title, a way of being
linked to the club. I am still welcome
to go down there.
“So nothing really changes except
Southampton don’t get the cancel-
culture people ringing in saying, ‘You
need to sack Matt Le Tissier, his
views are harmful to the people.’ ”the idea that he is antivax. He has
been vaccinated all his life but
resisted Covid jabs because of a lack
of long-term data.
“One thing I object to is that it is
always painted as a black and white
thing — pro-vax or antivax,” he says,
believing that too many of the rest of
us have succumbed to fear and
brainwashing in a world in which
contrary voices have been censored.
Perhaps he is right about the need
for a plurality of voices but, then,
what about his own ability to see all
sides rather than to grasp at anything
to reinforce a particular narrative?
Even that retweet about Ukraine,
which I suggest could seem highly
offensive given the evidence
mounting against Russian forces, he
regrets only in not explaining a wider
context. “The point of the tweet was
to say, ‘Don’t believe everything you
read in times of war because both
sides use propaganda.’ ”
But surely he is not disputing that
Russians have killed many innocent
Ukraine civilians in a brutal invasion?
He responds by saying that it is
strange, given modern technology,
that there is not more footage of
fighting. I suggest that we have seenNot everybody
has the same
mentality as me
and can cope
with flakADAM GERRARD/MIRRORPIXbww