The Antonio Conte era at Spurs appears to be crumbling to pieces after a poor Champions League exit on Wednesday night - and now big-money signing Richarlison has come after the Italian coach.
The Brazilian striker was signed by Spurs for £60 million last summer from Everton, but is yet to score a single Premier League goal for the club. His only goals so far came in September when he scored both in a 2-0 Champions League win over Marseille.
Since returning from a recent injury lay-off he has found minutes hard to come by, and manager Conte plumped for Dejan Kulusevski to start up top alongside Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min on Wednesday night against Milan.
Richarlison was only brought on with 20 minutes to go, and could not affect the result on a night which saw 10-man Spurs crash out of the Champions League after a dire two-leg performance.
With Conte's future up in the air, he has now come under fire from his most expensive signing, with Richarlison slamming the Italian and his coaching staff in an astonishing interview with Brazilian media.
Richarlison questions Antonio Conte's team selection after dire Champions League loss
It's safe to say that Richarlison has not lived up to his £60 million price tag so far at Tottenham Hotspur.
Despite starring at the World Cup mid-season, Richarlison has found both goals and regular game time hard to come by at Spurs. Just two goals in 25 appearances so far in 2022-23, and two lengthy injury lay-offs, have defined his season thus far.
Nonetheless, Richarlison appears to have taken issue with the Spurs coaching staff for his recent absence from the starting XI.
With the mood around North London utterly despondent after the team were booed off the field on Wednesday night, a sullen Richarlison went in on Antonio Conte and the Spurs staff for what he saw as dishonesty in the selection process. He said that he could not understand his recent lack of minutes, despite admitting his season had been "shit":
I don't understand. I was playing well and we won against Chelsea and West Ham - suddenly I was on the bench. I played five minutes against Wolves. I asked why and they didn't tell me anything.
They asked me to take a fitness test in the gym and told me I was going to start if I passed it - and I was on the bench. There are things I can't understand. There was no explanation again, let's see what he [Conte] wil say tomorrow. I'm not silly, I'm a professional that works hard every day and I want to play. There are minutes left, time left.
There haven't been enough minutes for me. This season - and forgive my langugage - has been shit.
We have 12 games to play now and the focus is that. I'll try to score as many goals as I can because the club has paid a lot of money for me and I haven't given enough back on the pitch yet.
With Spurs struggling to maintain form in the Premier League, and out of every cup competition, the last thing Antonio Conte needs is for players to start losing faith in him and his coaching staff.
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