Five radios of increasing size on a kitchen table, the largest blaring and rattling crockery, while a figure in a padded jacket and beanie covers their ears.

Paper TalkThe High Road Herald

Conte Interview Reaches Kitchen Table In Five Versions, Each Slightly Louder Than The Last

Philippa Crane · Media Editor6 October · Reading time: one pint

Antonio Conte told The Athletic what drove him mad during his 16 months at Tottenham, including a text exchange with Daniel Levy, according to Spurs Web, which was the first of five sites to carry it and the last to add anything.

A Tottenham man encountered Antonio Conte's reflections on his 16 months at the club five times before the kettle had boiled on Wednesday, the Herald can report.

The source material is an interview with The Athletic, in which Conte described what drove him mad about Tottenham, including a message he sent to Daniel Levy and the reply he received.

The first website to carry it, Spurs Web, reported that Conte had been driven "mad". The Herald has no quarrel with this, it being the word that was used.

The second site reported that Conte "unloads". The third said he "hits out". The fourth said he "erupts". By the fifth, the word mad had been replaced by a longer and more confident sentence containing the word fury.

It is understood that Conte was furious, with sources close to the interview.

The Herald has compared all five versions line by line and can confirm that no new information was added at any stage. The Levy text appears in each, in the same order, as does the remark about Arsenal losing 3-0 at Brighton and the jokes that followed. The only thing that changed was the adjective.

The man at the table, who read each one in full, said he had noticed the pattern around version three.

It's the same story. It's just got louder each time.

He has bookmarked the first version, on the grounds that it sat closest to the interview. He then opened the sixth.

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An illustration of a supporter on a stepladder drawing a football formation on the back of an enormous rota sheet while a colleague in a navy top watches from below.

LettersThe High Road Herald

Colleague Forced To Watch Supporter Redraw Spurs Web Eleven On The Back Of The Rota

Edith Marlowe · Letters Editor6 October · Reading time: one pint

The rota, which also records who is responsible for the milk, now has a goalkeeper written beside Wednesday.

Sir,

I sit opposite a Tottenham supporter, and have done since March, and I wish to place on record what I witnessed between nine o'clock and ten past eleven this morning.

He arrived with a printout of an article on Spurs Web concerning the eleven it is desperate to see against Manchester United. He read it aloud. It names Kinsky in goal, Gray at right-back, and a midfield three he described as "not even a debate". I had not asked.

He then drew the eleven on the back of the stationery cupboard rota, in the shape of a back four, three in midfield and three up front. By my count he did this fourteen times, each time with a different pen, each time remarking that Spurs are bottom of the table after a winless start, as though the information were new to both of us.

It isn't a prediction. It's what we're desperate to see. There's a difference.

I said I could see the difference. He said I couldn't, and drew it again.

He also referred to the fixture as El Sackiko, a name he attributed to some in the media. I asked which media. He said "some", and moved on to Udogie at left-back.

I was then asked for my own eleven. I said I was not aware I had one. He looked at me for a while and wrote one for me.

Just look at the midfield. Just look at it.

He has asked whether Roberto De Zerbi might see the rota. I said I thought it unlikely. He said he wouldn't be surprised.

Yours, from the opposite chair.

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