Will Conte’s return lift listless Spurs?

After three weeks away, the big man is back. The bang needs to come.

LOOK WHO'S BACK: Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte. Pic: Zac Goodwin/PA Wire.

For an insight into the mindset of Antonio Conte, the survival mode that he has adopted during this most traumatic of seasons, look no further than when he was given his gallbladder surgery diagnosis in January.

The Tottenham manager was in excruciating pain and, until he was told what was causing it, his mind ran with dark possibilities. Conte, remember, had recently lost three close friends — Gian Piero Ventrone and Sinisa Mihajlovic to leukaemia; Gianluca Vialli to pancreatic cancer.