Antonio Conte: ‘Tottenham’s story’ is ‘20 years’ of inconsistency

Antonio Conte says "Tottenham’s story" is 20 years of inconsistency and has reiterated that it will take a long time to change the club.

Conte bemoaned Spurs’ "up and down" form after they crashed out of the FA Cup against Middlesbrough on Tuesday, taking their form this year to: W-L-W-L-W-L-W-L-L-W-L-W-L.

The head coach said Spurs had struggled for consistency for two decades and insisted that any manager in the world would unlikely find a quick fix. Daniel Levy marked 20 years as Spurs chairman last season.

"For sure, to have these up and downs, I don’t like," Conte said.

"I always said this from my first day when I arrived. Tottenham’s story is this, many ups and downs, but to be competitive, to try to win something, to try to fight for something important and become a strong team, the first thing that has to happen is to be stable and avoid these ups and downs.

"To do this and to change this type of situation that is happening for many, many years in Tottenham, it’s not simple. In a short time it’s impossible to do this, not only for me but I think for any manager or coach to come in and change the story in one second.

"Especially when this club for 20 years has this type of situation."

Conte added: "It’s a pity because FA Cup could have been a target for us, in our minds at least to keep us focused and concentrated on our target. And now we have only the second part of the season to play."

Spurs will aiming to bounce back against in Monday night’s visit of Everton, and Conte acknowledged that his team are generally better with more time to prepare.

"A good game for us, in the right moment," he said. "On Monday. We are having the right time to prepare the game and for sure from now until the rest of the season, the only positive thing is we can have more days to prepared for the game. In the past when we had more time to prepare we had good results. We know we’re facing a good team and a new manager."

Spurs will welcome back Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Moura after injury but Oliver Skipp and Japhet Tanganga remain sidelined.

Conte appeared frustrated with his medical department and joked that they should do a press conference to explain the situation.

"It is a pity I think in England that sometimes you should have a conference with the medical department," he said.

"The doctors, it is too easy for the doctors to work here, because they don’t speak, they don’t explain what happens! Sometimes I think that could be good, one day, if in two weeks, to have a good press conference with the medical department to explain about the situation of the players, about the situation that they are trying to take care of their players. It is too easy for the medical department in England, I think so.

"Skipp’s not ready, he’s having this problem with groin pain, and is fighting and he could recover before but maybe something was wrong, and now we have to wait.”

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