"We can announce that head coach Antonio Conte has left the club by mutual agreement," Spurs wrote in a statement late Sunday night.

The London club said Cristian Stellini, who had taken over on the bench during Conte's recent health problems, "will be the interim coach until the end of the season".

"There are still 10 Premier League games left and there is a fight ahead of us for a place in the Champions League. We must all pull in the same direction. Everyone will have to show themselves at the level to ensure that the club finishes as high as possible," said president Daniel Levy, quoted in the statement.

Currently 4th and last virtual qualifier for C1, Tottenham is only two points ahead of Newcastle (5th), who have two games less, just like Liverpool, ambushed in 6th place with 7 lengths behind.

Conte arrived in November 2021 with a flattering reputation as a successful and successful coach on the domestic level but who never stays in place for long.

Champion with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan as coach, the 53-year-old technician was to allow Spurs to end 15 years without trophies.

Last year, he turned around a team that was badly engaged but which, thanks to the mental strength he had instilled in it, had topped Arsenal at the post for Champions League qualification.

Tale crosses the Rubicon

This season, the early eliminations in national cups and in the C1 eighth final against AC Milan (1-0, 0-0), with two very lackluster performances, had considerably cooled the atmosphere.

The renewal of his contract at the end of the season already seemed to be off to a bad start but Conte crossed the Rubicon in a press conference a week ago after a 3-3 draw at Southampton as his team led 3-1 in the 75th.

Italy coach Antonio Conte during a Tottenham Hotspur match against Nottingham Forest on March 11, 2023 in London © JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP/Archives

"We're not a team. We are a team where everyone thinks only of themselves. I don't see a sense of responsibility in the players," he said.

"We regress, I see a lot of negative situations and a lot of selfish situations in players I don't like," the coach said.

The management of the club had also taken it for his rank.

"They're used to that here, not playing for something important," he said.

"The story of Tottenham is this: 20 years that the owner is here and they have never won anything. If they want to continue like this, they can change coaches, lots of coaches, but the situation will not change, believe me," he concluded.

Plagued by illness and death

It was not the first time Conte had taken dramatic or brittle accents in a press conference.

"For me, it's difficult to talk about fourth place, because I'm used to aiming for other goals," he had, for example, released in mid-February 2022, frustrated at not being able to play for the title.

Full of ups and downs on the sporting level, the current season had also been very trying on a personal level, with an operation to have his gallbladder removed in early February.

Conte had also been deeply affected by the recent deaths of his long-time fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone, as well as former teammates Sinisa Mihajlovic and Gianluca Vialli.

Conte's criticism is not unfounded, especially on Spurs' lack of ambition in the transfer market.

After the costly sacking of Mauricio Pochettino -- one of the possible replacements, along with Julian Nagelsmann, recently sacked at Bayern Munich --, Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo in the last three and a half years, parting ways with Conte will cost them another £4 million (€4.5 million). So many agents who will not be put this summer in the recruitment.

© 2023 AFP