The best bits of the inside stories, from bored players to a p*ssed-off academy

Spurs have parted with Antonio Conte and the inside stories on the Italian’s demise have been revealed, from bored players to an annoyed academy and more.

The inevitable was confirmed on Sunday evening: Conte is no longer manager of Spurs. And a departing manager means inside stories. And inside stories mean someone needs to collate all the inside stories to get the ultimate inside story. And this is that. Or something.

Here are the best bits from the finest Tottenham-adjacent journalists out there.

That press conference
The Southampton post-match press conference is understandably cited as a key factor in Conte’s departure.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Sami Mokbel claims that players ‘were furious with the outburst’ from the manager and ‘huge concerns’ were ‘raised at board level over how the rant affected the squad’s morale’.

In The Guardian, David Hytner adds that ‘most of the players were happy for him to leave right away’ after the 10-minute rant, which was ‘not lost on’ Levy.

Reporting for Sky Sports News, Michael Bridge “was told that some players did actually take it on board, that Conte made some good points, that he was right”. But the general reaction was that of anger and frustration.

‘Key players left for the international break convinced Conte would not be in charge when they returned,’ claims Tom Allnutt of The Times. How right they were.

Squad morale, training and tactics
This all bleeds into a wider point of squad spirit, which had been ebbing away before reaching a new low.

While ‘the club grew increasingly weary’ of Conte’s deployment of media interviews as a weapon with which to attack the club (Allnutt, Times), there had previously been an acceptance that his hardline methods were what a listing club required upon his appointment.

Mokbel reports on ‘palpable concerns behind the scenes’ about how ‘Conte’s presence is negatively affecting morale amongst the squad’.

But his waning impact on the training ground was perhaps the biggest issue with a group of players he had largely already deemed not good enough.

The Italian is described as being ‘blindsided by the scale of the job’ by Dan Kilpatrick of the London Evening Standard. He adds that ‘the players grew tired of his repetitive and gruelling training sessions’.

Expanding further, Jack Pitt-Brooke and Charlie Eccleshare of The Athletic go into immense detail on this particular breakdown in relationships, saying the squad…