‘This season has been s***’: Benched $108m Spurs star calls out coach in explosive interview

Tottenham’s record signing Richarlison has taken aim at coach Antonio Conte for leaving him on the bench in an extraordinary interview, labelling the Spurs’ season so far as “s***”.

It comes as Conte said Tottenham still need time to become a European force after bowing out in the last 16 of the Champions League 1-0 on aggregate to AC Milan after a 0-0 draw.

Speaking with TNT Sports, the Brazilian Richarlison said he had asked his coach about the selection calls but was offered no explanation, only further adding to his frustration.

“That’s what I don’t understand,” he said.

“It was going well. Two wins against West Ham and Chelsea . Suddenly, he put me on the bench against Wolves. He put me on for five minutes. I asked why, they didn’t tell me anything.

“Yesterday, they asked me to take a test at the gym, that if I was good I would go to the game and, at the time of the game, they left me on the bench. These are things that it is not possible to understand.

“Let’s see what he will say tomorrow, but there are no fools here either, I’m a professional, I work every day and I want to play. When I enter the field, I give my life. I came from two games well. I should have played.

“This season, sorry for the word, it’s been s***, because I don’t have minutes.”

Richarlison completed his move from Everton to Tottenham in a £60 million ($A108m) deal last year but has struggled to find the back of the net in the Premier League.

As for Conte, he apologised to fans post-game as they booed and started to turn against the head coach.

“I’m really sorry for the fans, but we cannot invent the win or to hope for a miracle one day that a trophy goes into our training ground,” said Conte.

“We have to build and have patience. I understand the fans don’t have patience as for a long time Tottenham is not winning.”

Conte’s contract expires at the end of the season and he did little to quash speculation that he will leave at the end of the campaign.

“The situation is really clear. It is one year and three months since I became coach of Tottenham, I always said the same things,” added Conte.

“We need time and patience because we don’t have a solid foundation to be competitive to win in my opinion.

“At the moment the club knows very well my thoughts and I have a great relationship with my chairman, with (sporting director) Fabio Paratici, but it doesn’t mean I don’t tell them my vision.

“Now we have to finish the season. I’m happy to work in Tottenham but at the end we’ll make a decision.”

Conte gambled by switching to a front four for the final 20 minutes with Richarlison joining Harry Kane, Dejan Kulusevski and Son Heung-min up front.

But Kane’s only chance to save his side came deep in stoppage time when his header was well saved by Maignan.

By that point, Spurs were a man down due to Romero’s indiscipline.