Antonio Conte has praised Daniel Levy for delivering Tottenham Hotspur a “cathedral” of football — but has urged him to “rebuild” the Premier League club into one that can fight for silverware.Conte has repeatedly pleaded for patience from the club’s supporters since he replaced Nuno Espirito Santo in November.Spurs quickly improved under Conte and moved up the Premier League table but they have struggled in recent weeks, with the Italian suffering three consecutive league defeats for the first time since November 2009, when he was in charge of Atalanta. “There is a fantastic stadium and there is a fantastic training ground and the infrastructure (at) this club is very, very top. But then there is the football aspect,” Conte told beIN Sports.He added: “The level of this league is very high. Every single team wants to improve, not only Tottenham but Arsenal and Leicester and West Ham and Aston Villa and Newcastle. Also teams like Brighton and Wolves — they want to improve. “At this moment we have to fight with these teams. It’s important not to be scared about this situation now but we need to have the desire and the will to fight this situation, to try to rebuild again. It’s a totally different situation compared to my past.”Tottenham currently sit eighth in the Premier League table, trailing Manchester United in fourth by seven points, albeit with two games in hand. “In the past I always say I have to feel only one per cent the possibility to win the league,” he said. “For sure here the situation is strange because maybe I feel the one per cent possibility to have the ambition to finish fourth.”Tottenham take on Premier League leaders Manchester City this weekend and will need to upset the odds if they are to get their hopes of securing Champions League football for next season back on track. Conte added that he believes City manager Pep Guardiola is “the best coach in the world” — partially because he has been so significantly backed at all of the clubs he was worked at.“He has shown (he is the best) at many teams and in many different situations. He has shown it is good to build something important if the club supports him. He (has managed) at Barcelona and Bayern Munich and then Manchester City (and) these clubs wanted to invest in him and he repaid their trust.“When you see a team (managed by) Pep Guardiola you understand that a lot of work has gone into the team and this work is his idea, and for this reason for me he is the best coach in the world.”Conte’s interview with beIN Sports comes after an interview with Sky Italia in which he suggested his squad was “weakened” in the January transfer window despite Tottenham signing two players.“What happened in January was not easy,” he said.He added: “We lost four players – four important players for Tottenham – and we brought in only two.“So even just in terms of numbers, rather than reinforce the squad, we, on paper, may have weakened it.”(Photo: Getty Images)
