The highs and lows of Antonio Conte's Tottenham Hotspur career

With extensive silverware-winning experience on his resume, the Italian brought a familiar sense of fleeting optimism to a success-starved Tottenham side, who are still waiting to place another major honour next to the 2007-08 EFL Cup crown.

However, replicating his Chelsea and Inter Milan feats at Hotspur Way proved to be too tall of an order for Conte, who gave a new meaning to the term going out with a bang as he ruthlessly attacked his players for throwing away a two-goal lead at basement side Southampton.

Daniel Levy's short, sharp statement on Sunday evening was extremely telling - there was not a single mention of Conte in the chairman's comments - demonstrating just how badly the relationship between manager and board deteriorated in such a short space of time.

In a rather unprecedented move, Conte's former right-hand man Cristian Stellini will enjoy a foray into Premier League management before Levy searches high and low for a permanent successor in the summer, with Julian Nagelsmann, Luis Enrique and former coach Mauricio Pochettino being watched with eagle eyes.

Speaking of highs and lows, Sports Mole now takes the chance to look back on the pleasant and unpleasant moments of Conte's short-lived time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

High - Champions League qualification

Finishing above long-time adversaries Arsenal and pipping the Gunners to Champions League football will never get old for Tottenham fans, who possessed all the bragging rights at the end of the 2021-22 season under Conte.

Thanks to a richly-deserved 3-0 win over Mikel Arteta's side and the Gunners' humbling defeat to Newcastle United, Tottenham need only have avoided defeat against an ill-fated Norwich City side at Carrow Road to seal their return to the big time of European football.

In typical Tottenham fashion during the spring months, Conte's men did not rest on their laurels, putting five past the relegated Canaries without reply as Son Heung-min also earned a share of the Golden Boot - becoming the first Asian player to finish at the top of the pile in doing so.

Straight after accepting the call to replace Nuno Espirito Santo - whose forgettable reign lasted all of four months - Conte arrived at a Tottenham side who were languishing in eighth in the Premier League table, so forcing the Lilywhites' way into the coveted Champions League spots is nothing to be sniffed at.

High - Record-breaking starts

Prior to taking on a fresh challenge in North London, no Tottenham coach had ever gone unbeaten in their first seven league games in charge of the club, but Conte rapidly earned his place in the Lilywhites' history books thanks to the famed new manager bounce.

Few sparks flew in Conte's opening Premier League contest - a dull goalless draw with Everton - but the Italian would go on to oversee a nine-game run without defeat in the top flight, including a point against Liverpool and that Steven Bergwijn-inspired dramatic success at Leicester City.

While Bergwijn's extraordinary late brace at the King Power kept the Grim Reaper at bay for a little while longer, Conte's domestic luck ran out in a 2-0 loss to former employers Chelsea, denying him an unbeaten run into the double figures before more history was written only a few months ago.

Given the astounding happenings of the past couple of weeks, it is easy to disregard Tottenham's record-breaking opening to the 2022-23 season, which saw Conte collect 23 points from the Lilywhites' first 10 top-flight matches - their best-ever start in the Premier League era.

With seven wins, two draws and one North London derby defeat on their notebook from their opening 10 matches, Conte's crop beat out Harry Redknapp's 2011-12 contingent by one point, although it would not prove to be a sign of things to come for those in white.

High - Astute acquisitions

Many an eyebrow was raised when two differing minds in the transfer market shook hands at Hotspur Way, with Conte known for his unrelenting approach while Levy continued to face opposition from the Spurs faithful for a perceived lack of financial backing.

However, dipping into the Serie A talent pool during Conte's first January transfer window, Levy and sporting director Fabio Paratici carried out a hugely effective double raid of Juventus, as Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski swapped black and white for pure lily-white.

A permanent deal for Bentancur was struck straight away, while Kulusevski arrived on loan with an option to buy - which will become an obligation if certain conditions are met come the end of the season - and both men were integral components in the Champions League-chasing machine.

Immediately establishing himself as the all-action midfielder his side craved alongside Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Bentancur shone for Spurs while Oliver Skipp just could not catch a break on the injury front, and his long-lasting absence with an ACL problem was unsurprisingly met with widespread melancholy.

Meanwhile, Kulusevski had 13 goal contributions to his name from his first 18 Premier League games in a Tottenham jersey, and Conte would not have led the Lilywhites back into the top four with the boys from the Bianconeri.

Low - Seething at St Mary's

Forever displaying a calm, composed demeanour in press conferences - even in defeat - a rage-fuelled Conte brought out a side to him that few in the media room had ever had the pleasure of seeing at St Mary's earlier this month.

Tottenham were seemingly en route to a straightforward success on the South Coast, having established a 3-1 lead over the 20th-placed Saints, but a 34-year-old Theo Walcott ran Conte's men ragged as Southampton launched a remarkable late fightback.

After the ex-Arsenal man had tapped home, another Gunners loanee - to the increasing chagrin of Spurs fans - won Ruben Selles's side a last-gasp spot kick, as Ainsley Maitland-Niles went to ground following a swipe from Pape Sarr.

James Ward-Prowse did the rest from 12 yards, triggering a scathing post-game assault from Conte, who took aim at "selfish" players who "do not put their heart" into performances and also questioning the Lilywhites' distinct lack of trophies during the ENIC era.

Only a handful of Tottenham players directly responded to their manager's unforeseen comments - those that did held their tongue much better than the irate Italian - as rival fans humorously pointed out similarities between Conte's verbal attack and Giorgio Chiellini's "history of Tottenham" interview from 2018.

Low - Premature knockouts

While Conte was largely powerless to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak decimating the Tottenham squad and forcing their withdrawal from the 2021-22 Europa Conference League, Spurs' recent spate of continued cup failures lies on his shoulders.

Only a few weeks into the job, Tottenham were embarrassingly put to the sword 2-1 by Slovenian minnows NS Mura - a harbinger of doom for the North London club, who were denied a place in the EFL Cup final by Chelsea only a couple of months later.

Few Tottenham fans would have entered that semi-final against Chelsea with unbridled confidence of advancing, but the Lilywhites faithful could have been forgiven for expecting their side to win FA Cup fifth-round ties with Middlesbrough and Sheffield United. They did not.

Either side of successive 1-0 defeats to their Championship counterparts with plenty of starters on the field, a rotated Tottenham side were swiftly dispatched by Nottingham Forest in the third round of the EFL Cup this season, but the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with AC Milan was seemingly theirs for the taking.

However, content to sit back and quell Spurs' toothless attacks, Milan advanced to the last eight 1-0 on aggregate to condemn Tottenham to a 15th year without a major trophy - a barren run that not even Conte could bring to an end.

Low - Burnley blues

Turf Moor may be remembered as the location of the first cracks in Conte's time at Tottenham, as the Lilywhites' steady start to life under the 53-year-old soon came to a grinding halt during a foreboding month of February.

After Tottenham's initial nine-game unbeaten Premier League run, Conte oversaw three successive losses to Chelsea, Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers before miraculously galvanising his side to come away with a 3-2 win over Manchester City at the Etihad.

However, Sean Dyche and Burnley piled more misery onto Tottenham with a 1-0 win in Lancashire thanks to Ben Mee's goal, leading Conte to question his own ability to reverse the typical Tottenham trend as the Lilywhites quickly dropped back into eighth place.

With Spurs entrenched in the same spot they were when Santo was issued his P45, Conte admitted that his side should have been looking over their shoulder to the relegation zone rather than towards the top four, and there would be shades of his Turf Moor press conference at St Mary's 13 months later - although his Lancashire lamentations would not be quite as explosive.

In the end, Conte ended up crediting that terrible Turf Moor evening as the catalyst for his side's reignited top-four pursuit, but the Champions League-themed plaster that covered those wounds has now fully disintegrated.