Tottenham Hotspurs manager Antonio Conte has criticized the clubs’ philosophy of weakening the team and buying young prospective players.
Conte is of the notion that if you want to compete for trophies and win them, you need readymade players and not developing players.
The 52-year-old Italian laments his weakened squad despite bringing in two Juventus players in the January transfer window.
Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski joined the North London side in January, but Conte feels his side are not as strong as it used to be because of the transfer of four key players in his team.
Dele Alli joined Everton on a free transfer, Tanguy Ndombele joined Lyon while Giovani Lo Celso and Bryan Gil were loaned to Villarreal and Valencia, respectively.
The former Chelsea and Inter Milan manager answered the question ‘if there are similarities between Spurs and his first year in charge of Inter?’
Conte said: “Should you find something like this, it is always difficult to make comparisons, but surely when you take the job in a team that hasn’t won for a long time it is inevitable that you will lack confidence.
“I glimpsed situations that could have developed, then when you enter the situation you understand that something… what happened in January is not easy.
“Four players left in January. Four important players for Tottenham, two have arrived. So even numerically instead of strengthening yourself you may have, on paper, weakened.
“Bentancur and Kulusevski are the ideal prospects for Tottenham. Because Tottenham is looking for young players, players to be developed, not ready players.”
With Spurs currently sitting eighth in the Premier League, Conte noted that it is “impossible” for his team to make the top four despite their January transfer.
He added: “The vision, the philosophy of the club is this. It is inevitable that if you want to grow faster and if you want to be competitive faster you need players with a lot of experience because then they lead to increase the experience also in your team.
“But then again, the vision of the club I understand is this.”