Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has affirmed that he is "ready to die" for the North London club, but he will not be so stupid as to "kill himself".
For the 15th year running, Spurs are destined to end the season without adding to their trophy cabinet in the wake of Champions League and FA Cup eliminations this month.
Following Wednesday's Champions League stalemate with AC Milan, who knocked Spurs out of the last 16 1-0 on aggregate, Conte's future came under more scrutiny than ever before.
The Italian is out of contract at the end of the season, and despite initial talks over a new deal last year, the consensus is that he will say his goodbyes in the summer.
Speaking to reporters during Friday's pre-Nottingham Forest press conference, a fervent Conte evidently grew frustrated with more questions surrounding his future beyond the end of the season, but he insisted that he will lay down his life for Tottenham while he is in charge.
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"In every interview you ask me the same question and I have to always give you the same answer. I think I say it. The club knows very well which is the situation, I speak every day with [Fabio] Paratici and Paratici knows very well and also I have a good relationship with the chairman. They know very well which is the situation," football.london quotes Conte as saying.
"I repeat my future now is not important. The most important thing is the club, to try to push the players until the end and to finish in the best possible way. I think this is the most important thing.
"I am repeating this for a long time. I say it we need time, we need patience. I see that here the environment [the fans] has no patience, no patience or maybe the environment doesn't want to understand the reality. If no one wants to understand this and for sure I don't speak about my future because the club knows very well which is my situation, which is my thoughts.
"I am not so stupid to kill myself. For sure this has to be clear. If you ask me now are you ready now to die for this club? Yes. Until the end I am ready to die for this club and then we will see because I am not so stupid to continue to kill myself."
The likes of Luis Enrique, Marco Silva, Thomas Tuchel, Thomas Frank and ex-Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino have all been tipped to take over from Conte, who also revealed a couple of fresh injury concerns ahead of the visit of Forest.
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Emerson Royal and Ivan Perisic have both emerged as doubts for Saturday's game, with the former missing training on Friday, while Hugo Lloris, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ryan Sessegnon and Yves Bissouma are all long-term absentees.
"Emerson didn't have training session today because he had a kick. Today he wasn't available for the training session. Tomorrow morning we will try him to see if he is available at least for the bench at least to help us," Conte added.
"Another situation we have to monitor is about Perisic. He had training session today but tomorrow for sure I want to speak to him to understand if also he is available for the bench. And then we have some injuries. Lloris out, Bissouma out, Bentancur out, Sessegnon out."
The Tottenham boss was also questioned on Richarlison's explosive post-Milan interview in midweek, and he agreed with the forward's assessment that he has endured a "s***" debut season.
Tottenham remain fourth in the Premier League table but are at risk of being knocked out of the Champions League spots by Liverpool, who are only three points behind with a game in hand and a far superior goal difference.
Ben Knapton
