Antonio Conte hits out at Tottenham players after draw at struggling Southampton
By George Sessions, PA
Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte let rip into his own players in an extraordinary rant after they missed the chance to move up to third with a 3-3 Premier League draw at Southampton.
Spurs looked set to claim a vital win in their quest for Champions League qualification when Ivan Perisic fired home in the 74th-minute after earlier efforts by Pedro Porro and Harry Kane.
Bottom-of-the-table Southampton instead mounted a fine fightback with Che Adams and Theo Walcott reducing the deficit before James Ward-Prowse fired home a stoppage-time penalty to extend Tottenham’s winless run on the road to five matches.
Recent defeats at AC Milan and Sheffield United saw Spurs exit the Champions League and FA Cup to make it a 15th consecutive season without silverware and their manager took aim at all parties in an astonishing 10-minute interview following their collapse at St Mary’s.
“If we are going to discuss the penalty, it means we don’t want to see the other situations,” Conte said.
“I think it’s much better to go into the problem because the problem is that, for another time we showed that we are not a team.
“We are 11 players that go into the pitch. I see selfish players, I see players that don’t want to help each other and don’t put their heart (in).
“Why? Because they are used to it here, they are used to it. They don’t play for something important yeah. They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress.
“It is easy in this way. Tottenham’s story is this. Twenty years there is the owner and they never won something but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stays here. I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench.
“You risk to disrupt the figure of the manager and to protect the other situation in every moment.
“Until now I try to hide the situation but now, no because I repeat, I don’t want to see what I have seen today because this is unacceptable and also unacceptable for the fans.
“They follow us, pay for their ticket and to see the team another time, to have this type of performance is unacceptable. We have to think a lot about this.”