Tottenham left in a mess after failed attempt to make Antonio Conte their new manager

Well, it was nice when it lasted. For a day or two, it seemed as Antonio Conte was bound for Tottenham. He appeared proof of their pulling power.

A team that laboured to a seventh-place finish could have its potential unlocked by a tactically brilliant manager who had inherited sides which had come seventh, 10th and fourth respectively and taken them to league titles in either his first or second seasons. Or both.

If Conte could win the Premier League with Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses, what could he do with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min?

And yet the breakdown of their talks, with each side suggesting they had withdrawn from them, underlined how improbable it had been. Conte and Tottenham had felt a complete mismatch. The feeling was that neither had done their due diligence.

Spurs may have wanted the coach but not the character; managers who forever demand more money and more players and are constantly at war with their boards tick very few of Daniel Levy’s boxes.

Clubs who have a £1 billion ($1.41bn) stadium to repay, who have a limited budget and who may lose their best player, in Kane, scarcely figure on Conte’s wishlist. This did not require someone to compromise as much as to do a complete U-turn but Conte can be uncompromising; Levy too.

Circumstances may have initially promoted a rethink. When Jose Mourinho was sacked, Conte was still engaged in his successful quest to win Inter's first Scudetto since 2011.

His transformation of Chelsea in 2016-17 was one of the great managerial feats in recent Premier League history. He is the manager Mourinho used to be – combustible, demanding, short-termist but with a guarantee of glory – and the one Levy may have thought he was hiring when stardust blinded him to the Portuguese’s decline.

Perhaps the prospect of a coup, of getting a worthy rival to Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, meant it was logical to explore the option of Conte. But it is no secret that he is not a manager for times of austerity. He left Inter because they were cutting costs. Tottenham are unlikely to find next season's Europa Conference League hugely lucrative.

Spurs 2020/21 season ratings

And it is only three weeks since Levy issued a rare mea culpa, admitting Tottenham had lost their way – references to Mourinho and the European Super League were implied rather than implicit – but where he talked of a “return to playing football with the style for which we are known – free-flowing, attacking and entertaining – while continuing to embrace our desire to see young players flourish from our academy.”

It scarcely sounds like Conte. Indeed, the blueprint for a Mauricio Pochettino-style manager both highlighted what Spurs were looking for and, along with the Argentinian's apparent unhappiness at Paris Saint-Germain, prompted talk of another reunion in a summer of managerial returns.

If the French club keep their man, however, it leaves Spurs in a mess. Targets have gone elsewhere – Julian Nagelsmann to Bayern Munich, Hansi Flick to Germany – or pledged their loyalty to their existing employers, like Brendan Rodgers at Leicester.

It will be hard to present whoever Spurs eventually appoint as even their second or third choice; nor, when they have veered from their original idea to pursue Conte, to offer much evidence of a plan.

They have at least secured Fabio Paratici’s as sporting director and he was instrumental when Juventus established a reputation as savvy recruiters (before, in a parallel with Spurs, regressing with poor decision-making in recent years).

It will be required; so, too, a manager with the capacity to revive the careers of the talents who declined under Mourinho, conjure improvement from young players and form a more compelling, coherent team.

But in a period when many other clubs – Bayern, Inter, Real Madrid, RB Leipzig – have contrived to find a new manager, Spurs haven’t. Mourinho’s reign was a waste of 18 months. The time since his sacking feels a waste of seven weeks. Their search goes on.

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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi

From: Dara

To: Team@

Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT

Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East

Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.

Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.

I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.

This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.

It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.

Uber on,

Dara

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The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.

In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.

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Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
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