Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Harry Winks has claimed that his Spurs career could have been "dead and buried" without the arrival of Antonio Conte.
The 26-year-old struggled for consistent opportunities under Nuno Espirito Santo's tutelage and was tipped to head elsewhere in January amid his lack of action.
However, Winks has since started each of Tottenham's last three Premier League matches under Conte, and the midfielder has credited the Italian with rescuing his Lilywhites career.
"The manager's come in and given me a chance, given me confidence again. Every game I play, every training session I have that hunger to try to impress him and do everything I can to try to improve," Winks told reporters.
"Like I said before, my career at Tottenham was probably dead and buried but he's come in and given me an opportunity to show myself and prove myself.
"And for that, every time I get an opportunity I really want to impress the manager and show myself and repay that faith he's shown in me and put it back to me.
"I wouldn't say it was completely dead and buried, but chances at Tottenham were looking slim. I wasn't getting opportunities and it might have looked like I would need to leave the club.
"But as I said, the new manager's come in and given everyone an equal opportunity, which is all I wanted under the last two managers. And now it's down to me to take that. So I wouldn't say it was as strong as that but it was looking slim because the facts were that I wasn't playing as much as I wanted to."
Winks played the full 90 minutes as Tottenham fell to a 3-2 defeat against Southampton on Wednesday, and the 10-cap England international has registered one goal and two assists in 20 appearances across all tournaments this season. body check tags ::
