Antonio Conte stopped short of offering any guarantees over his future at Tottenham Hotspur, twice declining to assure supporters that he will be at the club beyond the next two transfer windows.

Conte has made it clear that he wants his squad to be upgraded in the January transfer window and has called on the club to build a team that matches the quality of their infrastructure.

The Italian met with chairman Daniel Levy and managing director of football Fabio Paratici earlier this week, with the trio agreeing to prioritise the signings of a right wing-back (Wolves star Adama Traore is the top target), a midfielder and an attacker.

At his press conference on Friday, Conte was twice asked whether he can guarantee he will still be at the club at the end of this transfer window and the summer window, irrespective of what happens in the transfer market.

He declined to provide those assurances on both occasions, saying instead that he was fully focused on the “present” rather than the “future”. Conte did go on to say that he is enjoying his time in north London and that he has a good relationship with Levy and Paratici, however.

‘The present is now, the future is later… later could be too much later for us’

“Honestly I like to live in the present and not to think a lot for the future,” said Conte. “And now it is important to live in the present, to try in the present to improve the situation, to try to get the best out of my players.

“The present is now, the future is later. And later could be too much later for us. We have to be focused on the present to try to improve the situation now. Then we will see but I repeat, now we have to be focused on the present because in the present we have to work a lot to try to keep Tottenham in the right position.”

Earlier in the press conference, Conte had laughed when asked whether he thought the size of his task at Tottenham would be as big as it is.

“When you are outside you can imagine the situation,” he said ahead of Sunday’s north London derby. “Then, when you are inside the situation, you can understand every aspect very well. Now, I repeat, it is time to work.”

Conte, who is yet to lose a league game since his appointment in November, went on to say that he did not join Tottenham because he had been given promises about how much money the club would spend.

“I accepted because I felt that Tottenham could be a fantastic situation for me to work, to try to bring my idea of football, to try to create something important for this club,” he said.

“I enjoy working at Tottenham because I found a fantastic environment, fantastic atmosphere, amazing stadium, fantastic training ground. For sure, I think maybe we have to bring the level of the team to the same level as our infrastructure. To try to match the situation now, I think we have to improve to match these two different situations.” 

Conte, who was speaking before the news broke of the game’s potential postponement, added that he believes Arsenal are “ahead” of Tottenham in their attempts to return to the upper echelons of the league.

“I think they’re doing a good job in this moment,” said Conte. “Maybe for this reason they’re ahead in the project than us because they started earlier with the same coach. Now they’re having good results.”