Antonio Conte has slammed Richarlison by agreeing the striker’s season has been “s—” and accusing him of being “selfish”.
The Tottenham Hotspur head coach added that Richarlison had apologized to him for an interview with TNT Sports Brazil following the Champions League exit against AC Milan.
Conte also accused his players of being “a little soft” and said he later saw the interview in which the Brazil international questioned his lack of playing time since his £60 million move to Spurs.
“First of all, I watched Richarlison’s interview and he didn’t criticize me. He said my season is ‘s—‘ and he’s right because his season is not good,” said Conte, who is expected to leave the Spurs when his contract expires at the end of this season.
“Because he had a lot of injuries. He started well with us, he then had an injury in the Champions League and then he went to the World Cup and he had another serious injury. He came back and was gone for a month. Then another injury He scored zero goals with us, only two goals in the Champions League and I think the man was very fair to say his season was not good His season and our season is still not over and he has time to If he deserves to play, I’ll give him a chance, otherwise we’ll play against another player.”
Conte did not hesitate to criticize Richarlison for what he said. “If you ask me for the rest of the interview, I think the man understood very well that he made a mistake, because if you talk to ‘me, me and I’, not us, it means that you are only on think about yourself and yourself. are selfish,” he said.
“For this reason I analyzed this situation and to reiterate to my players that if we want to build something important, if you want to try and fight for something important, if we want to fight to be competitive and win a trophy, you have to speak with ‘we’ and not ‘I’, because when we say ‘I, I and I’, it means that you only think about yourself and not about the others and the club.”
Conte: I think we are a bit soft sometimes
Conte continued: “The man [Richarlison] understood very well and he apologized and for me it was good because I had the opportunity to clarify the importance of the spirit of the team for another time. Because the field is important, tactics are important, but the spirit and the desire to fight and the fire in your eyes are [more] more important than the other situation. It was important for me to underline this situation again to my players, because in this area we definitely need to improve, improve a lot, be more of a team and show more courage to help each other, especially in negative moments.
“I have good boys, but sometimes it’s not enough to be a good boy. Sometimes you have to show the right desire, sacrifice yourself to fight to win the game, to win the duals – yes to be mean and yes I think we are a little soft sometimes.
There was criticism of Conte’s substitutions during the goalless draw against Milan – with Spurs 1–0 defeat in the last 16 – as he kept Arnaut Danjuma on the bench and put on defender Davinson Sanchez after he was down to 10 men. . Conte suggested Danjuma, who joined on loan in January, was a player the club were looking for.
“About Horace, I’m certainly sorry,” said Conte. “I’m sorry for him because he came on the transfer market in January and the club wanted to hire this player. He certainly has good qualities, good quality and maybe he doesn’t have specific qualities to be a number 10. Maybe he is more like a second striker or a winger, but I certainly appreciate his desire, his will in every training. [session]. Against Milan, if we don’t have that red card [Cristian] Romero, he came trying to play with a 4-2-4. I always have to try to find the best solution.”