‘A sublime mess’: Tottenham drop embarrassing social media clanger as Londoners announce Conte as manager

Tottenham proudly unveiled Antonio Conte as their manager on Tuesday but the Spurs social media team might want to work on their language skills after an embarrassing error in welcoming the Italian.

Conte was announced on an initial deal until June 2023 but with the option of an extension as the 52-year-old replaces the sacked Nuno Espirito Santo.

Capturing Conte – who guided London rivals Chelsea to the Premier League title in 2017 – is seen as a major coup for Spurs, who initially missed out on securing his services in the summer.

But things didn’t get off to the most auspicious start on Twitter as the club posted a welcome message to Conte in the wrong language.

The initial tweet from the official Spurs English-language account showed Conte holding up a shirt with the caption ‘Bienvenido a Tottenham Hotspur, Antonio Conte’.

The only problem was that it was in Spanish rather than Conte's native Italian.

The tweet was later deleted, with a new message in English reading: “Welcome to Tottenham Hotspur, Antonio Conte.”  

There was also a message for Conte in Italian which read “Buongiorno Antonio.”

But merciless football fans on social media were not about to let the famously trophy-shy club get off lightly. 

“The Spurs official admin has just deleted the biggest manager announcement in our club's history, this is what Conte is joining,” wrote one fan.

“Having announced the arrival of Italian Antonio Conte in Spanish, Spurs have now deleted it and re-announced their new manager with an Italian caption. What a sublime mess,” wrote a popular account.

UK retailers Specsavers even chimed in, joking: “We sponsored the announcement.”

Conte will hope that the Twitter slip is not a sign of things to come on the pitch as he looks to turn Tottenham around from their recent slump which has seen them lose five of their last seven Premier League games.

The abject 3-0 home defeat to Manchester United at the weekend was enough to seal Nuno’s fate after the Portuguese manager had spent just four months in charge.

The notoriously demanding Conte has enjoyed significant success at club level, guiding Juventus to three successive Serie A titles in his homeland before winning the Premier League and FA Cup in a two-year spell at Chelsea.