Tottenham Hotspur managing director of football Fabio Paratici believes the choice to part ways with Antonio Conte was the “right decision for everyone”.
Paratici claims he understood the difficult periods Conte went through during the current season but was adamant that his departure was the correct call.
He said: “We know how difficult this season was for him personally, Gian Piero (Ventrone) died and (Gianluca) Vialli and then his surgery.
“The club supported him a lot with it and everyone is close to each other but then we arrive in this mutual agreement, and I think the decision that we made was the right decision for everyone.”
Spurs confirmed on Sunday that Conte departed the club “by mutual agreement” following a period of uncertainty.
Conte and Spurs had been discussing his departure ever since the Italian effectively made his position at the club untenable after branding his players “selfish” in an astonishing rant following a 3-3 draw with Southampton.
Spurs also confirmed on Sunday that Conte’s assistant, Cristian Stellini, and Ryan Mason will take interim charge for the rest of the season.
Stellini will step up as acting head coach for the last 10 games of the season, working alongside Mason, who played for Spurs between 2008-16 and was interim head coach following the dismissal of Jose Mourinho in 2021.
Paratici says he is confident the pair will do a good job until the end of the season and that it was important, for the sake of the players, that there wasn’t a lot of change in the coaching set-up.
“Cristian managed the team even when Antonio was sick this season and was good,” Paratici added.
“He has a lot of experience as a second (assistant coach) and he was even first coach in the past, in some years in the past, so then we have even Ryan Mason who can help him a lot; he has been a part of this club for a long time, and he knows everything about this club and this kind of group of players. So, I think we are really really really confident that these two people can do a very very good job.”
“The players don’t have to change habits and style of training so, to change everything when you have just 10 games to go, I think would be really difficult for the players to adapt to this kind of situation.”
Stellini and Mason will start their tenure against Everton at Goodison Park next Monday night.
