Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has affirmed that he is "really proud" to be in charge of the Lilywhites following their 1-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Spurs travelled to their London rivals for Monday's Premier League clash having suffered three defeats from their opening four top-flight games of 2023, leading to increased speculation surrounding Conte's future.
The Italian has fewer than six months left to run on his current contract with the North London outfit, and it has been claimed that he is certain to depart at the end of the season.
However, Conte's side responded to their recent setbacks in ideal fashion with a hard-fought victory over Fulham, where Harry Kane scored the only goal of the game on the stroke of half time.
The result leaves Tottenham still sitting fifth in the table, but they are now just three points adrift of Newcastle United and Manchester United, both of whom have a game in hand.
Speaking to Sky Sports News after the game, Conte expressed his pride at managing a club like Tottenham, who are working to tie the ex-Chelsea and Inter Milan boss down to a new contract.
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"I am really proud to be Tottenham manager. I had the possibility of being the manger of an important club, it makes me proud and this has to be clear to everybody," Conte said.
"For this reason I want to fight until the end with my players. We are a team that works a lot and under this aspect I can't tell anything about my players.
"I spoke with my players and I have good players, but especially good men. They understand we have to fight until the end for the important positions, we have to be ready to suffer."
Kane's solitary strike at Craven Cottage was his 266th for Tottenham - seeing him draw level with Jimmy Greaves at the top of the Lilywhites' all-time goalscoring charts.
After receiving the ball from Son Heung-min, Kane smartly turned into space away from Tim Ream and fired a sumptuous low effort into the bottom corner from just outside the area.
During his post-game press conference, Conte revealed that Kane had been struggling with an illness before the London derby but believes that the England captain's goal could only be executed by a "world-class" player.
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"Yeah but today he was amazing. I think he scored a fantastic goal, the execution to control the ball, then to kick it in that way, only a world-class striker can score this type of goal," football.london quotes Conte as saying.
"About the spirit that I spoke before, I want to underline Harry today played with a fever and he was not so good but he wanted to play because he understood the moment. He understood that he is a point of reference for us, for me, for the other players."
Kane is yet to win a major trophy with Tottenham and is out of contract in 2024, but he is supposedly still open to signing a new deal, and Conte is determined to help the 29-year-old fulfil his silverware ambitions.
"We are talking about a player that has fantastic ability and skills. For sure, I would like to help him and me also and his team-mates to try to do something important, to win something with Tottenham because he loves Tottenham," Conte explained.
"Tottenham is in his heart and it should be good if together we were able to win something because then it is important to have this record but I think it could be more important if you are good to lift a trophy."
Kane - who now has 199 Premier League goals to his name - could break Greaves's Tottenham record when the Lilywhites take on Preston North End in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday evening.
Ben Knapton
