Antonio Conte's warning to Tottenham comes true with club embroiled in relegation scrap

Former Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte predcited an issue that the club would face in the future

Former Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte had previously predicted that the club could be dragged into a relegation scrap. The Italian tactician spent fewer than 18 months at the helm but delivered a stark warning during his time in charge.

Tottenham are positioned just one point above the drop zone with nine fixtures left to play. Igor Tudor's squad suffered a 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace on Thursday, stretching Spurs' winless streak to 11 league outings, having failed to secure a single Premier League win in 2026.

Conte, who replaced Nuno Espirito Santo in November 2021, boasted an impressive track record. He won the Premier League crown as Chelsea boss in 2017 and had captured the fourth Serie A title of his managerial career just months prior to his Spurs arrival.

After reaching the 2019 Champions League final, Tottenham had started slipping down the table before Conte took over. While the coach guided the club back into the top four during his debut campaign, the 56-year-old pointed to Everton as an example of a team facing an improbable relegation fight.

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"The level of this league is so high," Conte said in March 2022. "You have to pay great attention and it's my forecast that in the future it will be worse.

READ MORE : Under-fire Spurs boss Igor Tudor issues stern two-word response to sack threatREAD MORE : Can Tottenham play in the Champions League next season if they win it but get relegated?

"Worse in the sense that it will be very, very difficult and then you'll have to pay [even] greater attention. Teams that at this moment seem to be in the middle, they could slip. For sure, Everton is a good example."

The previous season, Everton had been tipped to challenge for European qualification under Carlo Ancelotti. Yet successive managerial changes sparked relegation worries before they ultimately secured 16th place.

"You look at the squad of Everton, their players, and you can think it's impossible that Everton is fighting relegation," Conte explained. "That they had such an important coach in Rafa Benitez, who won the Champions League and titles, and was sacked. And now they're fighting for the relegation zone.

"Everton is a good example to understand that this league is very, very difficult and in the future it will become much more difficult."

Conte's warning that mid-table sides would face increased jeopardy has seemingly proved accurate this campaign, with Wolves and West Ham United both occupying bottom-three positions. Furthermore, the Italian boss had already categorised Tottenham as being "in the middle", heightening concerns about a potential relegation battle.

Back in January 2022, after a 2-0 loss to Chelsea, Conte said of Spurs: "If you compare the two teams there is not a comparison. We are talking about a team ready to win - today we have seen the difference between the two teams. We are a team in the middle.

"This game confirmed what I thought about the difference between the teams. In the last years the level of Tottenham has dropped a lot."

He added: "There is a lot of work to do, in this moment, it is very difficult to understand which part you take to improve because there is a lot of situations to improve. We need so much time and patience."

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