“His emotions come out sometimes and that’s who he is”: Harry Kane wishes “great man” Antonio Conte “all the best” in his future but insists Tottenham must “keep fighting” if they want to qualify for the Champions League
Tottenham striker Harry Kane has wished ‘great man’ Antonio Conte all the best for the future, but urged the side to keep their focus on the battle for a top-four finish.
Spurs kept their Champions League qualification hopes alive with a crucial 2-1 win over Brighton on Saturday thanks to Kane’s 25th goal of the season late.
It was a first win for Tottenham’s acting head coach Cristian Stellini, who has left his second role following Conte’s departure last month to lead the club for the final two months of the season.
Conte left the club on 26 March, a week after his explosive remarks at Southampton, where he took aim at his own ‘selfish players’ after they dropped a 3-1 lead to draw only at St Mary’s.
And Kane, discussing the Italian’s departure for the first time, said: “Of course I wish Antonio all the best. I had a great relationship with him and it was just a shame it didn’t quite work out for some reason.
Harry Kane has revealed he had a ‘good relationship with Antonio Conte’ despite the Italian’s explosive comments about the Tottenham team following their 3-3 draw against Southampton
“I wish him luck in his next adventure and in the meantime we will continue to fight with Cristian, Ryan (Mason) and the staff and try to achieve what we set out to do.
“I will not go into that (press conference). It was an emotional moment after we should have won the game and to conced two goals the way we did, we were all disappointed.
“He’s a great man, his emotions come out sometimes and that’s who he is and that’s the owner.
“As players we talk to each other to keep fighting and keep improving. We know that Southampton game, we know the Everton game last week, we need to do better in those moments when we are in the lead.
“In general, all we can do is keep fighting and we will.”
Conte’s claim that Spurs players don’t like to play under pressure or stress seemed to be confirmed when they conceded a late collection against Everton earlier this month.
Tottenham kept their top-four hopes alive with a dramatic 2-1 win against Brighton
Kane has urged his teammates to keep fighting under interim boss Cristian Stellini
A dramatic 2-1 win over Brighton in an ill-tempered game on Saturday helped stop their slide and could act as a pivotal moment in their season with a strong finish needed to finish in the top four again.
“There’s been a lot of noise around us this season and we know we probably haven’t been as good as we’d like, especially in all competitions,” admitted Kane.
The bottom line is that we are still in a position to finish in the top four and that is important for the club. We know we need to improve, we know there are areas we need to get better at.
“For this season until the end of the season, we can only fight with what we have. We have a few injuries that hopefully will come back soon. That’s what we have to do.
“We can’t think about the past, about the future, it’s about doing what we can now and that’s what we’ll try to do now.”