Tottenham ace Eric Dier backs Antonio Conte to return the club to the best levels they enjoyed when Mauricio Pochettino was at the helm having struggled under their previous two managers
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Eric Dier has admitted his major disappointment at the way Tottenham ’s standards slipped under Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo, and during the latter days of Mauricio Pochettino’s reign.
And the Spurs star reckons it’s now high time everyone at the club started walking the walk again instead of just talking the talk.
Tottenham were Champions League finalists in 2019 but failed to bounce back from their defeat by Liverpool under Pochettino.
Mourinho came in to replace the Argentinian and soon had the club riding high at the top of the table.
But their form took a nosedive early in 2020, consistency never returned and Mourinho was axed around 14 months later.
Chairman Daniel Levy then turned to Nuno, who proved a disastrous hire, and Antonio Conte was subsequently brought in at the start of last month to pick up the pieces.
Dier said: “We’ve had a couple of years that have definitely been below the standards that were set previously in my time here, which has been really disappointing and something that you try to fight against.
“There have definitely been two or three years which have been way below the standards that were built in my time here before, so it’s about trying to get back to that place and I definitely get the sense that, under this manager, hopefully we can.
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“It takes time and it’s not something that happens overnight.
“But we really need to build ourselves back up to those standards and those kind of performances and results, and to be more competitive in every competition.
“So I’m really excited about where we’re going and now it’s not so much about doing so much of this — talking — it’s about performing.”
Conte made no secret of his upset at the defeat by Slovenian minnows Mura in the Europa Conference League 10 days ago, and Dier and Co were desperate to get back out there against Burnley last weekend to put that result to bed.
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Heavy snowfall in the north west made the Turf Moor pitch unplayable, however, and they had to wait until Thursday’s clash with Brentford for the opportunity, which they took with a 2-0 win.
Dier added: “The sooner you play after a loss, the opportunity to turn things around, you want that.
“You want to play the day after but the other side of things was that we got the chance to work well as a team in training and that’s great to take advantage of any time we get to work together given how many games we have.”
Today, Spurs host Norwich and Conte wants his men to build on the Brentford result and start the climb back up towards the top four.
Dier said: “The message from the manager is very simple — we need to work very hard and try to improve as quickly as possible as a team and put ourselves in a much better position.
“A position that, if we believe we should be in, then we need to show it, we need to show it every day in training and take that into games.
“There’s huge room for improvement and we need to fill that room as quickly as possible.”
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