Mauricio Pochettino under no pressure to win trophies at Tottenham, says Antonio Conte
The Argentine has yet to win any silverware during his career as a manager, with many critics calling for him to deliver at Spurs
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Your support makes all the difference.Chelsea manager Antonio Conte believes Mauricio Pochettino should be under no pressure at all to win trophies for Tottenham.
The Argentine has yet to win any silverware during his career as a manager at either Spurs, Southampton or Espanyol.
Tottenham and their supporters are hungry for success but Conte, ahead of Sunday’s London derby at Stamford Bridge, is adamant that his success should not be judged in terms of the number of the medals he is won.
“I think that every manager wants to win a trophy,” he said, and also suggested Tottenham’s “project” was more advanced than Chelsea’s. “But I must be honest, if you want to win trophies, maybe for important managers, it's easier to go to another country if you want to win easy trophies.
“In England, if you stay here, never, never will it be easy to win trophies. I think there is the club who judges the work of the manager.
“Every important manager wants to finish the season with a trophy. This is the truth. We work very hard to try and reach this target.
“Tottenham are a team who, in the last period for many years now, they are competing to win the title. Don't forget that, two years ago, they were very close to winning the title when Leicester won it.
“Last season they tried to compete with us. Don't forget that our final of the season was incredible. We won 10 games, otherwise Tottenham were ready to win it.
“I consider Mauricio Pochettino a really good manager. I think he deserves a lot of credit for Tottenham growing. Don't forget that only one team can win the title and, in England, it's not simple.
“You start every competition with six teams, six top teams who are ready to win something during the season. It's not simple.
“I think Tottenham have started [their project] before us. I am talking about my period, my era. For sure, now, they are ahead of us. But, despite this, last season we were able to win the title and reach the final of the FA Cup.”
There may have been plenty of bad blood in this fixture in previous seasons but not now between the managers. Conte’s relationship with Pochettino is excellent after being invited to watch Spurs train in February 2015 while he was in charge of Italy.
“It was a great pleasure to visit the training ground at Tottenham and then to have a good conversation with him and his staff, to speak about our ideas of football,” recalled Conte.
“I spent a good time with him. I enjoyed a lot the time we spent together. I think he didn't convince me to take this decision but, for sure, in this moment, to be a coach and to play in this league is a great achievement for a manager.
“It's very difficult, because this tournament is very difficult. But I think, also, for the future, it will be the same.”
Meanwhile Conte has backed misfiring Alvaro Morata to rediscover his form after fully recovering from a back injury.
The Spaniard scored for the first time since Boxing Day in a 2-1 FA Cup win at Leicester City and Conte said: “If you remember, it was a serious problem but he solved the problem. I think, at the start of this period, he continued to feel a bit of pain in his back.
“But now he's ready, totally fit. For sure, when a striker is not scoring, the confidence can go down. For the strikers, the goals are of vital importance: for himself, for his confidence.
“I think it has been an important period for him. He needed to rest and then to have hard sessions of work to find his best physical condition for the final part of the season.”
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