Tottenham is on the brink of ending Antonio Conte’s reign as manager following late-night talks, sources have told Football Insider.
Spurs officials held further internal discussions on Monday about the Italian’s position and the consensus is growing that he cannot remain in charge for the rest of the season.
It is expected that Conte’s representatives will now hold talks with the club over a severance pay-off for the three months remaining on his contract.
The 53-year-old is not expected to be the club’s manager by the end of the week.
Tottenham has turned their attention to a successor for Conte, with the most likely option – as first revealed by Football Insider on Sunday afternoon (19 March) – that Ryan Mason will be appointed as interim manager for the rest of the season.
The 31-year-old, who is currently on Conte’s coaching staff, is braced to take over temporarily for a second time, starting with the Premier League match against Everton on 3 April.
Internal discussions have been held about Mason taking the reins and they are advancing with Conte no longer seen as a viable option to remain in charge.
The alternative for Tottenham is to use the international break to lure one of their top long-term targets.
But the likes of Mauricio Pochettino, Luis Enrique, Roberto De Zerbi, and Thomas Tuchel, are likely to prefer to wait until the end of the season before accepting the job, so they can have a full pre-season to implement their methods and work with the players.
Conte made it clear by torching the players under his command that he is comfortable with his departure being brought forward, with his contract already expiring at the end of the season.
The Levy-led Spurs board is no longer comfortable with putting the club’s hopes of a top-four finish in the hands of a man who has just slaughtered the players as “selfish” and who only wants to play “for themselves”.
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