Former Tottenham boss believes Antonio Conte can succeed in north London on one condition

Former Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas claims Antonio Conte can succeed at the north London club if can learn how to work with Daniel Levy.

Conte was appointed Nuno Espirito Santo’s successor after the former Wolves boss was sacked on Monday.

The Italian’s arrival at Spurs is something of a coup after he initially turned down the chance to manage the club in the summer.

Conte has a reputation for being a somewhat fiery character, which could mean a rocky relationship with Levy could lay ahead as the Spurs chairman is difficult to work with, according to Villas-Boas.

Villas-Boas, who managed Tottenham between 2012-13, left the club after a disagreement with director of football at the time Franco Baldini.

The 44-year-old, who is currently without a club after leaving Marseille earlier this year, said at Web Summit in Lisbon: “Conte was very successful at Chelsea and Inter Milan, he can do a good job.

“He is one of those people who puts people into the peaks of performance by motivation, by determining objectives, I think he can be a good fit, depending on that link up with the top.

“In football you always reach stages where that link up to the top has to be there and when you look up most likely it is not there any more. If that link up is fine tuned it can maybe be a good fit.

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“I don’t want to turn this into a criticism of Daniel (Levy). Everybody has their ups and downs, their strengths and weaknesses, but Daniel is not an easy person to deal with. I said that when Jose (Mourinho) went there and I was at Marseille.

“There are a lot of things that have to be said frontally, face to face, each side with truthfulness. But sometimes they look like they don’t happen that way.

“Coaches have to be judged on their performance, I agree. We lost, miserably, two games that led to us agreeing terms for me to leave but he’s not the easiest person to deal with. But what is easy right now in football?

“But for Antonio it will be a challenge, a great challenge.”

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Villas-Boas was sacked after a poor start to the 2013/14 season, with a 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool his last game in charge.

He was replaced by Tim Sherwood until the end of that season, with Mauricio Pochettino taking over the following summer.

https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/tottenham-antonio-conte-north-london-22062275

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