Antonio Conte wants certain guarantees from the Tottenham board if he is to remain at the club next season, according to reports.
The Italian replaced Nuno Espirito Santo at the beginning of November with the Portuguese coach losing five of his last seven Premier League matches in charge, leaving Spurs in ninth position.
Conte had overseen a turnaround in fortunes at Tottenham with the club now fifth and challenging for a top-four finish before the end of the season.
Big Weekend: Liverpool v Spurs, Man City, Jesse Marsch, Richarlison, EFL play-offs and final day
They are currently two points behind fourth-placed Arsenal – who they play in the north London derby next Thursday – and five points adrift of third-placed Chelsea.
Le Parisien claimed 11 days ago that Conte had ‘already offered himself up’ to Paris Saint-Germain with Mauricio Pochettino set to leave the club in the summer, while the French newspaper added that Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is ‘trying to convince’ Pochettino to return to Spurs.
Conte, who has another year left on his contract after this season, insisted a week ago that speculation he could leave Tottenham for PSG was “fake news”.
But now But! Football Club claims that Conte is ‘not opposed’ to staying on at Spurs but he will ‘demand guarantees’ from the club’s hierarchy.
Conte wants managing director of football Fabio Paratici and others in charge at Tottenham to ‘put their hand in their wallet’ with the Italian not afraid to ‘enter into arm wrestling match’ if his demands are refused.
They add that Pochettino has ‘failed to convince’ the PSG board that he can take the club forward with their top target still former Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane, despite his desire to replace France boss Didier Deschamps after the World Cup.
Meanwhile, Tottenham play Liverpool at the weekend at Anfield in a crucial match that could have implications on the title race and Spurs’ pursuit of the top four.
Speaking at a pre-match press conference, Conte said: “When you arrive at this point of the season and you are in a race for every target, it gives you a big, big push to do something incredible.
“I think Jurgen Klopp is doing a fantastic job with his team. It is not easy, especially for an English team to arrive at the end of the season to stay in the race for all the competitions that you compete.
“It is incredible, you can see Liverpool’s players run a lot, they have not had many injuries. Their enthusiasm is not 100 per cent it is 200 per cent.
“You don’t feel the fatigue when you reach this point. We want to go there to play our game and we know we are in a race for the Champions League and we need to find a way to get a point in every game.
“They know they are strong, they are one of the best teams in the world. It will be a good game for us. We prepared the game very well and I think we need to be very good without the ball, to be good defensively, but if we want to win we have to be very good with the ball.
“I said this to my players, we need to play a good game and be brave when we have the ball, don’t be scared for all the pressure and to find the solution.
“We have improved a lot. We are in this race for a place in the Champions League and for this reason we need to get points in every game. Every game is a big chance for us to improve the table. In this game we have to try and beat Liverpool.”
