Gavin Cooney

MATT DOHERTY HAS defended Antonio Conte following the Spurs’ boss rant at his players after Saturday’s 3-3 draw away to Southampton. 

A furious Conte delivered a blistering press conference after Spurs blew a two-goal lead against the Premier League’s bottom side, savaging his players as “selfish.”

“I see players that don’t want to help each other and don’t put their heart”, spat Conte.

“Tottenham’s story is this. 20 years there is the owner and they never won something, but why?” 

Doherty, who worked under Conte at Spurs before leaving for Atletico Madrid in January, defended the manager when asked about the incident today. 

“I hope he stays for a long time at Tottenham”, said Doherty at a press conference ahead of Ireland’s friendly against Latvia tomorrow night. 

“He’s an unbelievable coach, an unbelievable manager. He won’t say anything in the Press that he won’t say to his players, he’s completely honest with his players, has the passion for the whole club. I hope Tottenham stick by him and hold onto him for as long as possible, he’s one of the best managers of all time.” 

Doherty has not started a game since joining Atletico, restricted thus far to just 12 minutes off the bench in a 6-1 victory over Sevilla. Doherty is in Madrid on a permanent deal to the end of the season, after a proposed loan move was scuppered by Spurs’ belatedly realising they would have been in breach of new limits on the number of players out on loan at any one stage of the season. 

“It’s going well for me in Spain”, said Doherty. “It’s a different experience completely, different culture, different preparation for games. I’m enjoying my time there even though I’m not playing that much. The reason I left was, well initially it was just to go on loan for the rest of the season and then obviously we had the problems with too many loans.

“So then it was a case of I couldn’t really say no to that type of experience and a manager of his calibre. I always like to challenge myself and be uncomfortable at times and it was a similar case there. I didn’t have long to think about it but the time I did have, I just couldn’t say no to that opportunity.

Despite his lack of match minutes, Doherty says he feel sharp and will be matchfit if selected against France in next Monday’s Euro 2024 qualifier. In the interim, he will start tomorrow’s friendly against Latvia to get back into the swing of action. 

“It is frustrating at times”, said Doherty of his bit-part role in Spain, “but I have learned to deal with it. I was at Wolves for a long time where I played every second of every game, I am sure there were players at that time who trying to get in and were in the same boat.

“Over time I’ve become more experienced and been able to deal with it a lot better. I am there until the end of the season and I am just using it as a learning experience, I am improving by training with world class players every day. I am using the six months I have there to try and get better, to try and understand the game better and improve my overall game.”