Team prizes come before personal glories at Tottenham says Antonio Conte

Posted Saturday, August 20, 2022 by PA

Tottenham boss Antonio Conte says Harry Kane is more bothered about winning a trophy than personal achievements after the striker created Premier League history.

The England captain scored his 175th league goal – the most by a player for one club – to give his side a 1-0 win over Wolves.

Kane nodded home midway through the second half to climb above Sergio Aguero in the all-time scorers list and is just two behind Andrew Cole in third.

🎙 “Overall a really good day, a tough game but delighted with the three points”
Harry on today''s performance and breaking some more records! ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/eYJGSO4Sz7
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 20, 2022

It was also his 250th goal for the club and Jimmy Greaves’ record of 266 is surely under threat this season.

But for all of his goals over the last decade Kane has yet to win any silverware as Spurs have repeatedly fallen short in recent seasons.

Conte is the man hired to fix that and says any of his squad would give up personal achievements for winning trophies.

He said: “I know he reached another big achievement, a personal big achievement, but we’re trying to work together, with the team and always with Harry to have not only personal achievements, like last season for example when Son was top scorer in the league, but to try to have a big achievement together for the team and the club.

“I think every single player is ready to exchange a personal achievement to reach a trophy. We’re working on this aspect. The path is difficult, the path is long, but we have to try to do this.

“But Harry is a player who has to make the difference, for his quality, for his ability.

“We’re talking about a really world-class striker who can be dangerous in all aspects on the pitch. We tried to exploit him, to give him the possibility to score.”

Spurs needed Kane’s 64th minute intervention after they overcame a difficult first half to win the points after earlier hit the crossbar and post.

Team prizes come before personal glories at Tottenham says Antonio Conte — Harry Kane scored the only goal (John Walton/PA)

The win means they have taken seven points from games against Southampton, Chelsea and Wolves, having lost all three corresponding fixtures last season.

Conte says the progression in his team is obvious.

“I have to be very clear. In my opinion last season this type of game, you weren’t so prepared to find this difficulty and probably this type of game you’re going to lose at the end,” he said.

“In fact last season we lost at home against Southampton, at home against Wolverhampton and against Chelsea. Now against these three teams, I was really worried when I saw the schedule.

“Instead to get seven points showed that this team is improving in many aspects, but we want to continue to improve because for sure, this is not enough to be competitive, to fight for something important, but we have one year in front of us to continue to work, to implement our tactical knowledge.

“I’m confident because this group is a really good group of people. There is great chemistry between us and I think this is important because when there is chemistry you are able to overcome the difficulty.”

Wolves boss Bruno Lage has a sense of deja vu after another game they played well in past them by.

In a similar start to last season, Wolves have let missed chances cost them with new signing Matheus Nunes headed their best opportunity wide in the first half.

“It happens so many times that I don’t want to have that feeling,” Lage said. “It’s hard when you work for the result. It’s hard the way we start the season, were a bit unlucky.

“It is a question of time the new players to adapt to the club, to the Premier League, to the new team-mates. It looks like the same beginning we had in the first season, the feeling is the same.

“Today we played very well and played with this fantastic team with a tip manager. The first half was very good for us, we controlled the game with and without the ball.

“In the end we didn’t have any points, we go home with frustration of the result but we go home with confidence we can play in this way. I said the same one year ago that the goals would come and with a performance like this we can have a good season.”