Antonio Conte has warned his Spurs stars they are playing for their futures.
The ruthless ex-Chelsea boss revealed he has the full backing of chairman Daniel Levy as part of the move to bring the Italian to the club “at all costs”.
It comes after Thursday night’s defeat to NS Mura - the lowest-ranked team in the Europa Conference League - which will go down as one of the most humiliating in Tottenham ’s history.
Speaking ahead of Sunday's trip to Burnley, Conte said: “We want to grow and compete with other great English clubs. But today there is a gap between the investments made by the owners and the sporting results. We have to fill it.
“We need players with the right mentality and with the quality, players that deserve to play for Tottenham and aspire to be competitive, to fight for this shirt, to win something.
“I’m making my evaluations and then I’ll speak with the club.”
Conte made nine changes to the side that beat Leeds last weekend to face Mura - only to replace four of those fringe players, Matt Doherty, Bryan Gil, Dele Alli and Joe Rodon, nine minutes into the second half. Davinson Sanchez, at fault for both goals, and struggling record signing Tanguy Ndombele both also appear to be on borrowed time.
Over the past five windows, Tottenham have signed 18 first-team players permanently or on loan. Yet their most important players pre-date all of them - Harry Kane, Son Heung Min and Hugo Lloris.
Sergio Reguilon, Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Lucas Moura, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and academy players Japhet Tanganga and Oliver Skipp have all impressed Conte while Ryan Sessegnon, despite being sent off against Mura, is likely to get more chances.
But most, if not all of the others are playing for their futures with Levy determined to support the manager’s determination not to write off this season.
“The chairman has shown me that he wants me at all costs,” Conte added. “In his words and in the investments made, I saw a vision: the desire to excel.
“I said to myself: ‘If we combine this ability off the pitch with what I can give on the pitch, we can really set up a serious and profound job.’
“Challenges have never scared me, I just need to have even a 1% chance of winning them to start my battle. I have never taken teams that had won the year before, mine are always paths of reconstruction.
“ Juventus reached first place from eighth, Chelsea from tenth, Inter from fourth. I know it will take some patience this time.
“In Milan I left a finished job. Here I have to start all over again and beginning once the season has started is never easy.”
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