Tottenham, Conte to resume contract talks this week

According to both The Athletic and Sky Sports, Tottenham Hotspur are expected to restart negotiations with manager Antonio Conte over a new contract, with the goal to keep the Italian in charge of Spurs longer than this season. Conte’s contract, which he signed when he first joined the club in the middle of last season, is set to expire at the end of the 2022-23 campaign, but Tottenham have an option of a further year extension should the choose to exercise that clause.

However, Spurs would like to tie Conte down to a longer term deal. Talks had been held earlier in the season, but were put on pause during the World Cup. Jack Pitt-Brooke writes that the terms of negotiation should feel familiar to Tottenham fans who recall the brouhaha over whether Conte would return to Spurs this past summer.

This week’s talks will not only be about the terms of any potential new contract, the salary, the length of the deal and the potential break clauses. Also on the table will be Tottenham’s ambitions and plans for the forthcoming January transfer window, with Conte especially keen to know that the club shares the same ambition to win that he does.

— Jack Pitt-Brooke, The Athletic

“Sharing the same ambition” is almost certainly a thinly-veiled code for “I expect the club to spend money,” and the thought is that Conte wants two additions to the squad in January — one on the offensive end and one defensive. The offensive signing is likely either a backup forward to help rest Harry Kane, or a rotation option at LAM for Dejan Kulusevski. Tottenham have struggled to find consistent form without both Kane and Deki in the side, and another high profile offensive player would give Conte additional options.

Defensively, there are a couple of ways Spurs could go — either a right wing back (with Tottenham already linked with Sporting’s Pedro Porro) or another central defender. And that also doesn’t eliminate the possibility of Tottenham jumping on a couple targets of opportunity should they arise next month.

But a lot of that depends on Conte himself, and Conte’s future is also closely linked with that of Harry Kane, who is considering a contract extension of his own. If Conte leaves, it likely means it’ll be that much tougher to keep Harry long term as well. If Conte does extend, it almost certainly means that Spurs are planning to go for it, and we could see a couple of very busy and ambitious transfer windows ahead.