Will it end in tears or trophies if Spurs lure Antonio Conte?

Antonio Conte: Expected to sign deal to take over at Tottenham until 2023. Picture: Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

As surprises go, Nuno Espirito Santo's sacking by Spurs on Monday morning hardly registered on the Richter scale, but it will take a seismic shift for Antonio Conte – or whoever else takes over – to get Tottenham challenging for trophies again.

The reaction of most Spurs fans in the summer was “No, no, Nuno” when it was announced that the former Wolves manager was the latest in what is becoming a very long line of appointments by Daniel Levy.

After starting his coaching career by taking Valencia to fourth place in La Liga in 2015 before a trophyless season with Porto, Nuno's track record was hardly stellar. Admittedly he won the Championship with Wolves in 2018, but despite major investment overseen by super agent Jorge Mendes, finished no higher than seventh (twice) and ended up in 13th place last season.

Few Tottenham fans believed he was the man to take them back to the heady days when Mauricio Pochettino made them regulars in the top three and Champions League finalists.

Despite high hopes after beating Manchester City on the opening day, and workmanlike wins over Watford and Wolves, Tottenham's campaign went downhill fast.

A disastrous and embarrassing run of derby defeats to Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Arsenal and West Ham was interspersed with victories over Newcastle and Aston Villa. Saturday's 3-0 home defeat by Manchester United was the final straw, not just because United had been in crisis themselves after a 5-0 home thrashing the week before, but also because of yet another dire display, without a single shot on target.

The body language of the players and touchline demeanour of their manager suggested there was no chemistry between them, no tactical masterplan, no future for Nuno.

The big question now is this: can Levy get it right with his latest appointment? History suggests he has got more of them wrong than right.

Nuno was the ninth manager to be put in charge by Levy since he succeeded Alan Sugar as the club's chairman in 2001, following ENIC's takeover, and most of them have failed.

Only three men matched the fans' expectations of exciting and attacking football with some measure of success. Martin Jol, Harry Redknapp and Pochettino all had the fans' full support and went close to success. But none of them won anything with Spurs, with the only trophy secured in Levy's two decades, the 2008 League Cup, coming under the short and ill-fated leadership of Juande Ramos.

Even that serial winner Jose Mourinho could not bring silverware to Tottenham, so how will Conte fare, if he takes over as expected?

The Italian has an exceptional track record as a winner, as well as a fearsome reputation as a tough taskmaster, taking no nonsense from players.

His successes speak for themselves – three Serie A titles in three years with Juventus, a Premier League title and FA Cup in two seasons at Chelsea, and another Serie A crown with Inter last season, having finished second on his return the year before.

But can he turn around Tottenham's fortunes so quickly? What marked Pochettino's period as the most successful of the modern era, albeit without winning a trophy, was the fact that the Argentinian managed to take Spurs from a low base on modest resources and still make them competitive against the giants of English and European football.

Tottenham's outlay in terms of transfers and wages has long been way behind those big-spending clubs who dominate the league titles – Chelsea, Manchester United and City, Arsenal and Liverpool have all had far more financial muscle than Tottenham over the past decade or so.

Levy is notoriously parsimonious in his financial dealings, hardly surprisingly given he has directed close to a billion and a half Euros into building the club's state-of-the-art training ground and stadium.

But just as Arsene Wenger discovered, when investment is prioritised towards infrastructure rather than the team, results suffer. Arsenal never seriously challenged for a league title since moving to the Emirates in 2006, when they also lost a Champions League final.

Conte has been a big spender wherever he has gone, and it was suggested one of the reasons he turned down the chance to take over at Tottenham in the summer was the modest transfer budget. The difference now is that Fabio Paratici, who worked successfully with Conte's at Juventus, is established as director of football at Spurs and oversees transfers rather than Levy. 

He has already made some signings to strengthen weak areas, and it could be argued his own plans in the last transfer window hinged heavily on whether Harry Kane would be sold for Levy's asking price, thought to be around €150m. Manchester City never came close to that valuation, Kane stayed reluctantly, and currently looks a shadow of his former self. 

Conte's priority is to get the England captain firing again, most likely by creating the right team structure. Nuno's side looked to be lacking in ideas and a plan, and they also recorded the lowest distances covered among top-flight teams. Conte will certainly insist they get much fitter and put in more miles on the pitch.

He famously declared at the start of his Chelsea era that he demands three things from his players: “Work, work and work.” It worked in his first season, as he switched to a 3-5-2 formation that allowed the Blues to romp home in the league, followed by Tottenham in second place. By the second season, though, some of his players were getting tired of his tough-guy methods and training sessions, most notably leading scorer Diego Costa, who went on an extended 'holiday' in Brazil before being sold back to Atletico Madrid.

Conte led Chelsea to the FA Cup but there were few tears when he left Stamford Bridge.

Will it end in tears or trophies at Tottenham? It could be both, or it could be neither.