REPORT: Tottenham and Conte to part ways this week

Life comes at you fast. Just two days after Tottenham’s 3-3 draw at last-placed Southampton, a match that was known more for what happened afterwards than what happened on the pitch, Antonio Conte is likely to lose his job very soon. Matt Law is now reporting (in a Telegraph exclusive) that Tottenham Hotspur is expected to part company with the mercurial Italian later this week.

While it’s safe to say that nobody’s more excited about this particular move than Matt Law, it’s also something that will surprise absolutely nobody. It’s not official — it won’t be official until we see the corner flag photo and “Club announcement.” on Twitter — but according to Law the parting of the ways will happen sometime this week, with Ryan Mason assuming interim head coach duties for the second time in his short coaching career.

There have been plenty of reports suggesting most of the current Spurs players were furious over Conte’s emotional criticism of the team and the club after the 3-3 draw — Conte called his players “selfish,” saying they lacked desire and mentality, and questioned why Spurs haven’t won anything in the 20 years Daniel Levy has been in charge. He since tried to walk that latter part back, but it’s too late.

It was always coming, and we’ll wait for the official announcement (which could come at any point making this article spectacularly redundant), but this does look like the direction that Daniel Levy is going to go. It would fit the pattern, too — Levy has rarely let relations with a manager sour to this point and not let them go. If it happens, Spurs will now face the daunting prospect of qualifying for top four under Mason and likely without much of Conte’s current staff.

Hang on to your butts and wait for the COMMUNICADO OFICIAL.