Antonio Conte set to remain in charge of Spurs

Antonio Conte is set to remain in charge of Tottenham next season.

The Italian, who is contracted until next summer, has been coy about his future, regularly refusing to commit himself to being at Spurs for the long run and insisting it would be decided by a meeting with the club at the end of the recent campaign.

But Conte, who has been on holiday in his homeland, had already signalled his intent to carry on by the time that meeting with managing director of football Fabio Paratici took place in Italy on Friday and the PA news agency understands he will remain in the role for the 2022/23 season.

Tottenham’s qualification for the Champions League and the promise that the majority of the £150million ploughed into the club by owners ENIC this week would be used in the transfer market has been enough to remove any doubts Conte had about their ambition.

Conte had regularly spoken about how he was not prepared to be involved in another scrap just for fourth place and that he wanted to challenge for the top honours and Spurs have listened.

The Turin summit with Paratici, who was his director of football at Juventus, was understood to be focused on player recruitment, with Conte wanting up to six new arrivals this summer.

As well as the £150m cash injection, Conte will also have funds from player sales at his disposal, with the club willing to offload Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, Harry Winks and Sergio Reguilon among others.

That should be enough to give Conte the tools to build a squad that he feels can challenge on all four fronts.

Conte’s commitment to the club will also be well received by the Spurs players, who have been unanimous in their praise of the former Chelsea and Inter Milan boss since he came into the club last November.

Harry Kane has publicly said he was excited to carry on working with the 52-year-old, while Hugo Lloris and Eric Dier both implored the club to back him.

Conte staying means that Spurs are in for a much smoother summer than last year, when their managerial search – which included Conte turning the job down – descended into farce and ended up with the appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo, while Kane’s attempts to leave also left a black cloud over the club.