EPL: No excuses for failure under Conte, Kane warns teammates

Harry Kane is adamant that Tottenham’s players can have ‘no excuses’ for under-achieving under Antonio Conte.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy pulled off a coup by hiring the Italian, who won league titles with Chelsea, Juventus and Inter Milan, to replace the sacked Nuno Espirito Santo.

And England skipper Kane, who has scored just once in the Premier League this season and who asked to leave Spurs this summer, has hailed the ‘ambition’ of his club and the ‘passion’ of his new manager.

Kane said: “This shows great ambition. His resume speaks for itself, everyone knows how highly thought of he is and what he has done as a manager.

“It’s about us and how we take it in because he has done it, he has nothing to prove. He has done it on the biggest stage with the biggest teams so he will give us everything he has to improve us and now it is down to us as players to have no excuses.

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“We have to make sure every minute of our lives we are trying to improve and win for this team and that is the only way we are going to move forward.

“You have to respect that. He will work as hard as he can to improve us but it is about us, as players, taking it in, learning, doing more on the pitch, doing more in training, doing more away from training. And making sure we give ourselves every opportunity to win.

“We have a manager and a club that believe in us and this appointment definitely shows that.

“It has only been three days but he is a fantastic manager. We haven’t reached the standards we have wanted to over the last couple of years, but we hope that this manager can help us turn it around.”

Kane admits he is unhappy with his own start to the campaign.

He said: “I am a player that always believes in myself. I am 28-years-old, I still have a lot to learn, a lot to improve on.

“It’s not been the start I wanted, the team wanted or the club wanted so we all know that. We all have to take responsibility for that as players.

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“It is not something I am worried about, I will keep working and I am really excited about working with this manager, I am sure he can improve me and that is an exciting thing.

“When you have done what I have done in the game so far and still feel like there is more to come, that is definitely exciting so I am looking forward to it.”

But Kane says Conte has shown bags of passion and belief in his first few days in charge – adding extra motivation for his new players.

He said: “I think the biggest thing for him was that he said he came here because he trusts the players, he came here because he wants to win.

“He has been fantastic. He was as good as a manager can be, coming into a difficult situation and everyone is really looking forward to getting to work with him on a daily basis, getting to learn, getting to work and trying to improve.

“He definitely brings a lot of passion, a lot of determination, whether that’s on the training pitch or in meetings, in the dressing room.

“His resume speaks for itself, he has won trophies at the highest level with the biggest clubs so everyone is excited to learn, excited to work under him and that passion he shows every day, every meeting, every training session is what you thrive on.

“You go into games wanting to put your body on the line for him and you can feel that already.”