Tottenham ‘to be forced to pay out STAGGERING severance package’ to Antonio Conte with boss set to be axed this week

TOTTENHAM may have to pay Antonio Conte £15MILLION if they sack him before the end of the season, according to reports.

News emerged on Monday evening that Spurs are preparing to dismiss the Italian, 53, later this week.

It comes after Conte's astonishing outburst on Saturday - which followed his side relinquishing a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3 with lowly Southampton.

According to , there is a clause in the manager's contract that means he must be paid £15m - the sum of his yearly salary - if he were to be sacked before the end of his deal.

Conte's contract expires at the end of June.

Even if Spurs are able to get away with paying him his salary up to the end of the season, that will still mean a £4m pay-off.

This makes it an extortionately expensive decision for Tottenham if they do decide to axe him before the campaign's conclusion.

Conte has previous for securing lucrative severance payments.

When he was sacked by Chelsea, he ended up being awarded £26.6m for unfair dismissal after taking the case to a tribunal.

The Lilywhites will be desperate to avoid a similar scenario.

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Spurs sit fourth in the Premier League table but have played more games than Newcastle, Liverpool and Brighton below them.

Meanwhile, their wait for silverware has extended to more than 15 years after they were knocked out in the last-16 of the FA Cup by Sheffield United and last-16 of the Champions League by AC Milan.

After the draw with Saints, Conte exploded with rage in his post-match press conference, saying: "They [the players] don’t play for something important.

"They don’t want to play under pressure, they don’t want to play under stress.

"It is easy this way. Tottenham’s story is this.

"For 20 years there is the owner but they never won something but why?

"The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stays here?

"I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench.

"Until now I try to hide the situation but not now because, I repeat, I don’t want to see what I have seen today because this is unacceptable and also un- acceptable for the fans."