With hours until Tottenham plays its first match against Vitesse at White Hart Lane under its new manager, Antonio Conte has now chosen his new backroom staff. Conte announced the appointment of Cristian Stellini, Gianluca Conte, Costantino Coratti, Gian Piero Ventrone and Stefano Bruno as his new assistants.
His staff is familiar to him — Stellini will serve as Conte’s #2, Assistant Head Coach, and worked with Antonio while at Juventus. Gianluca Conte is Antonio’s brother and will serve as Technical & Analytics Coach, while the remaining three will all be fitness coaches.
But the real newsmaker in this announcement is the promotion of Ryan Mason to First Team Coach from his previous position as Head of Player Development U17-U19. Mason, of course, served as the interim manager between when Tottenham sacked Jose Mourinho and the appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo last spring. Despite his young age he has actually played with some of the Tottenham players including Hugo Lloris and Harry Kane, and is a well respected figure in the Spurs clubhouse.
Conte would’ve had the opportunity to watch Mason lead training the past two days. It’s a significant promotion and expression of trust from Conte to consider Mason for this important position (unless, obviously, Daniel Levy made it a condition of his employment… though that would be a rather cynical reading of this appointment). Mason is said to have a good brain for football, but he’s extremely inexperienced despite managing Spurs for seven games last season — what better way to learn than under one of the best current managers in world football?
Conte’s new staff will be in the dugout for this evening’s Europa Conference League match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium; Conte himself received his work permit this morning, allowing him to work with his players in training for the first time today.
