Why Conte talks with Tottenham broke down in summer with Levy thinking demands 'unrealistic' and possibly 'catastrophic'

ANTONIO Conte is the bookies favourite to replace Nuno Espirito Santo as manager of Tottenham after nearly being appointed in the summer.

Spurs are back in for the 52-year-old Italian just months after talks between him and the North Londoners dramatically collapsed – and SunSport exclusively revealed at the time exactly what went wrong.

After Spurs appointed Fabio Patrici as sporting director in the summer, Conte was linked with a return to the Premier League after previously managing Chelsea.

But talks were called off after disagreements on a number of issues.

Conte's £15million-a-year salary demands proved to be the first stumbling block.

Added to that the Italian was said to insist on being given a mammoth transfer arsenal – something Levy was not prepared to do at the time.

The £1billion move to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as well as the coronavirus pandemic hit the club's finances hard.

That meant Levy was unwilling to give in to Conte's 'unrealistic' demands that could have been detrimental to the future of the club.

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But after a brief four-month spell with Nuno as boss Levy has seemingly made a U-turn on his decision.

Spurs have won just five out of ten Premier League games this season, and Nuno was in charge for a total of just 17 games.

He was sacked this morning with Conte set to fly to London TODAY to thrash out a deal with the same Spurs chiefs who called off talks in the summer.

At the time a senior Spurs source said: “As soon as Conte became available, we had a duty to speak with him.

“He is a fine coach with an excellent record.

“But Daniel felt his budgetary demands were not only unrealistic but also potentially damaging to our future.

“Daniel wants us to be successful more than anyone  but not at the expense of the club itself.

“He knows any new manager is going to need money to improve the squad and he is certain to provide them with that.

“But there has to be a balance and it cannot leave the club in a perilous situation.”

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