Conte’s Spurs U-turn: Tottenham on the verge of confirming the arrival of ex-Chelsea boss on a £13m-a-year, 18-month contract despite his summer snub that led them to hire sacked Nuno Espirito Santo – with Fabio Paratici’s role crucial in the move
- Tottenham have made their move to appoint Antonio Conte as manager
- They failed to persuade the Italian to take over as boss last summer
- After sacking Nuno Espirito Santo, there is belief they can land Conte
- Cone won the Premier League and FA Cup with Spurs’ London rivals Chelsea
Antonio Conte is on the verge of becoming new Tottenham head coach after the sacking of Nuno Espirito Santo.
As MailOnline exclusively revealed on Monday morning, Nuno was axed as Spurs head coach, the club confirming the Portuguese’s departure news just before 10am.
The club’s increasingly influential director of football Fabio Paratici has moved quickly to identify Nuno’s replacement with a deal in principle agreed for former Chelsea boss Conte.
Tottenham have returned to Antonio Conte with a fresh approach to become manager
Conte won the Premier League title back in 2017 when he was manager of Chelsea
Tottenham made their move on Sunday night, hours before sacking Nuno Espirito Santo
It is understood Conte, who has a long-term relationship with Paratici, has been offered an 18 month contract with a pro-rata salary of around £13million, taking his overall earnings across the initial contract to close to £20m.
Sources claimed yesterday that Tottenham were exploring the possibility inserting a 12 month extension option into the deal.
There was growing optimism at Tottenham on Monday evening that Conte would be their next manager, with one well-placed insisting the deal was as good as done.
Indeed, players were told to expect the new manager to be in situ to take this morning’s training session at the club’s Enfield HQ.
In his last position, Conte delivered Serie A glory to Inter Milan for the first time since 2010
Conte came close to joining Spurs in the summer but eventually decided against taking the role amid concerns over the club’s ambition.
The Italian arrived in London on Monday to hold a final round of talks with Paratici and chairman Daniel Levy aimed at ratifying his appointment.
Conte’s appointment would be viewed as a major victory for the club given his standing as one of the planet’s leading coaches.
He has been heavily linked with replacing under-fire Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United.
And the 52-year-old’s track record of proven success will come as a reason for huge optimism for supporters, who have grown fed-up at the direction the club are headed.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy (bottom right) was alarmed by the team’s Manchester United loss
Tottenham Director of Football Fabio Paratici (centre) moved rapidly to secure Antonio Conte
We reported on Monday that Nuno was on the brink of the sack following the disastrous defat and performance during the 3-0 loss to United on Saturday, the game that sealed his fate.
Sportsmail understands Santo arrived at the club’s Enfield training ground morning as normal only to be informed of the club’s decision to remove him.
Nuno is understood to have earned in the region of £3million a year at Spurs and is now due compensation but is expected to be placed on gardening leave until he finds a new job.
Paratici said: ‘I know how much Nuno and his coaching staff wanted to succeed and I regret that we have had to take this decision.
‘Nuno is a true gentleman and will always be welcome here. We would like to thank him and his coaching staff and wish them well for the future.’
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