Tottenham Hotspur sack manager Conte shortly after Southampton result

Conte departs with Spurs fourth in the Premier League table and have won three of their last five league matches. But in that time they have also been eliminated from both the Champions League and FA Cup.

Those disappointments, coupled with growing discontent behind the scenes and amongst the Spurs fanbase, led to the North London club pulling the trigger during this second week of the international break.

Spurs took a 3-1 lead into the final quarter of an hour at St Mary's but a strike from Theo Walcott and James Ward-Prowse stoppage-time penalty saw the spoils shared. 

Following the draw, Conte launched an astonishing tirade at his own club, saying: “I think it’s much better to go into the problem because the problem is that, for another time we showed that we are not a team.

“We are 11 players that go into the pitch. I see selfish players, I see players that don’t want to help each other and don’t put their heart (in).

“Why? Because they are used to it here, they are used to it. They don’t play for something important yeah. They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress.

“It is easy in this way. Tottenham’s story is this. Twenty years there is the owner and they never won something but why? The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stays here. I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench.

“You risk disrupting the figure of the manager and protecting the other situation in every moment.

“Until now I try to hide the situation but now, no because I repeat, I don’t want to see what I have seen today because this is unacceptable and also unacceptable for the fans.

“They follow us, pay for their ticket and to see the team another time, to have this type of performance is unacceptable. We have to think a lot about this.”

Conte's former assistant Cristian Stellini will take charge at Spurs until the end of the season.