Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

philll said:

You jest but I saw him next to Levy in the recent video and even Levy makes him look tall.

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Isn't that like saying Peter Dinklage makes people look tall?

So can we now kill the myth that ENIC "has no ambition"?

I'm as excited as anyone, but the sheer number of fair weather fans we have is depressing.

Trix said:

It really isn't. I'd say very few Ftse 100 companies CEO's have much of a clue on how things work on the shop floor. They don't need to, and as such they wouldn't get involved, they employ people that do understand it to do it for them. That's where Levy has been going wrong, and what needs to change.

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This 1,000,000x and hopefully now with Paratici as Managing Director of football it will be changing and with this set-up it will benefit our managers as we will be more aligned and consistent on strategy.

PLTuck said:

So can we now kill the myth that ENIC "has no ambition"?

I'm as excited as anyone, but the sheer number of fair weather fans we have is depressing.

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No

This is a start, but let’s not pretend the slate is clean just by this one thing.

PLTuck said:

So can we now kill the myth that ENIC "has no ambition"?

I'm as excited as anyone, but the sheer number of fair weather fans we have is depressing.

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Yep, it's always been a ridiculous accusation.

It's not a lack of ambition, it's been a total lack of understanding of how to achieve that ambition.

Johnny J said:

Maybe, but our total net spend over the last five heads is £95m. We rank 17th for total next spend over that period for the current PL clubs.

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But in comparison to other elite mangers conte spends far less

Trix said:

Yep, it's always been a ridiculous accusation.

It's not a lack of ambition it's been a total lack of understanding of how to achieve that ambition.

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Seems odd with Levy being such a smart man.

Trix said:

Yep, it's always been a ridiculous accusation.

It's not a lack of ambition it's been a total lack of understanding of how to achieve that ambition.

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A lack of willingness to do what's required to achieve that ambition, hopefully that's changed. We'll see.

Archibald&Crooks said:

No

This is a start, but let’s not pretend the slate is clean just by this one thing.

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So do you honestly believe Levy/Enic don't care if we win things, and are content to just take part?

Aphex said:

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Goosebumps, not been this excited since we signed Van Der Vaart haha.

He just oozes class and confidence.

Surely he must be buzzing when walking around the facilities they are absolutely phenomenal to be fair, everything is so pristine and jokes aside we do still have some top class players in our squad, we certainly need a good 3-4 top class signings but I think we will see just what a top top class manager like Conte can do in improving what we have now.

COYS

Cheeky buggers.

Levy and Co must now realise that we as fans, aren't the hardest bunch to get back on side. All we have wanted is the level of ambition off the field is met on the field. People were skeptical of Mourinho because he has a love him/hate him personality but everyone could see the ambition behind it in employing one of the greats of the management game.

We all, I'd imagine, also have accepted a Ten Haag / Potter type manager in the summer aswell as it would have been a step in the right direction for a club seemingly in transition. However, with Nuno there was immediate negativity with the club & the patience was nil with the fans ultimately resulting in that horrible hostile environment on Saturday.

It all just seemed strange to have the best Stadium & Training ground, and hire a well respected & experienced DoF and then have Nuno at the helm. However, as seen by every single comment on here, Conte has reignited everyone, as finally the club has realised we need someone at the very top of their game to take us forward and get these players playing football.

Welcome to the club Antonio! Cannot wait to see how we start to play under his watchful management.

Dov67 said:

So if City had made a proper bid for Kane and got Kane, they wouldn’t have gone for Ronaldo

If City hadn’t gone for Ronaldo, Man U wouldn’t have gone for Ronaldo

If Ronaldo hadn’t gone to Man U, they would have about 6 fewer points and would be on the brink of CL elimination at the group stages again.

If Man U had 6 fewer points and were about to get dumped out of the CL, OGS would have been sacked

If OGS had been sacked, Man U would have gone for and got Conte

If Conte had gone to Man U, we would be left with Fonseca and we wouldn’t be so excited for the rest of the season.

So thanks Man City for your derisory piss tame bid of £75 for Harry Kane.

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My personal opinion is that if they don't get Ronaldo, Man Utd are sitting higher in the table

Sancho, all of a sudden makes sense without Ronaldo, Fernandes and Greenwood both kick on

Trix said:

Yep, it's always been a ridiculous accusation.

It's not a lack of ambition, it's been a total lack of understanding of how to achieve that ambition.

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Have to agree. You don't invest 1.2bn in the stadium without ambition even if ENIC are safeguarding their investment

PLTuck said:

So can we now kill the myth that ENIC "has no ambition"?

I'm as excited as anyone, but the sheer number of fair weather fans we have is depressing.

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I agree. But i'm sure some of the doom mongers will find a way to twist this appointment to make it seem it's all about ENIC making money or something else equally ridiculous.

Archibald&Crooks said:

No

This is a start, but let’s not pretend the slate is clean just by this one thing.

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You really are a hater, A&C.

We need more money to be competitive - Levy builds multifunctional, world class Super Stadium as the catalyst

We need better Facilities - Levy builds state-of-the-art Training facilities, now known world over and a away camp for many top national sides and their players.

We need a top manager - appoints one of the top 5 coaches in the world.

We need to show ambition - see all three points above.

We need to spend money - spends £500m on players in last 5 years whilst building new stadium.

I know you have information coming in from all angles regarding Levy, but please, tell me what else he has to do to convince you.

Trix said:

So do you honestly believe Levy/Enic don't care if we win things, and are content to just take part?

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I've always believed that they do want to win things but Levy has just made some mistakes on the football side of the club and we've had to get the new stadium up and running to generate the revenues to be competitive.

Even if ENIC only care about profits then surely they'd want us to be as successful as possible on the pitch as more success = greater prize money, bigger recognition/exposure, bigger sponsorship deals etc etc I suppose the question is are/were they just happy enough with us coming in the top 4 each year as opposed to really investing that extra bit to get us over the line for trophies?

However having said that I feel like we have always spent reasonably within our means its just that we can't afford to make mistakes on managers and signings like Chelsea etc can because we don't have billions to just keep throwing at it and that is where Levy/ENIC have gone wrong especially recently by not having a clear coherent strategy on the football side.

I'd also question as you've raised before Trix about Levy being too involved on the football side, even sacking Jose for example, completely fine decision but surely wait until after the cup final and its these types of decisions as well as in the past mabye pennypinching a bit too much on certain deals like Grealish etc or hiring the wrong managers or poor scouts/DofF's which have caused us to be so up and down.

I really get the feeling that by hiring Paratici who hopefully will be with us for a long long time and also by making his title 'Managing Director of Football' not just 'Director of Football' and by releasing a video saying Paratici is in charge of all football decisions that Levy is finally finally stepping away more so from the football side and letting a football person create the strategy.

Alongside that now events are kicking in at the stadium etc we should see the purse strings being opened more and hopefully Paratici's signings will continue to be good compared to the money we've wasted previously quite recently on Ndombele, Lo Celso, Clarke etc as we cannot afford to get as many signings wrong as the richer clubs.

Some of Levy's football decisions have absolutely baffled me over the years but if he had no ambition etc I don't think he'd have made the stadium and training ground such a priority etc, I think he's had this long-term vision which was interrupted a bit due to the pandemic but with Conte and Paratici now in place I think this could hopefully be a watershed moment for the club and for Levy etc.

Ideally we don't need new owners etc we just simply need a better football strategy in place and Levy to be less involved, if that is now the case then we should start to reap the benefits on the pitch as well as off it.

bubble07 said:

Have to agree. You don't invest 1.2bn in the stadium without ambition even if ENIC are safeguarding their investment

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Indeed. A 60k stadium is only making money if you get people to fill it every week. You only fill it if people want to watch what's going on inside, and they are only going to want to watch long term if it's entertaining and you are winning.

CantSmileWithoutYou said:

You really are a hater, A&C.

We need more money to be competitive - Levy builds multifunctional, world class Super Stadium as the catalyst

We need better Facilities - Levy builds state-of-the-art Training facilities, now known world over and a away camp for many top national sides and their players.

We need a top manager - appoints one of the top 5 coaches in the world.

We need to show ambition - see all three points above.

We need to spend money - spends £500m on players in last 5 years whilst building new stadium.

I know you have information coming in from all angles regarding Levy, but please, tell me what else he has to do to convince you.

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I don't think its about convincing its more that he's got so many black marks against him over the years its very hard to forgive and forget all of those.

Trix said:

As I posted yesterday bringing in Conte is not down to Levy It's Paratici with the financial support of Lewis. The package Conte wanted may not have been an option in the Summer without the Lewis's getting behind it like they have. I'm not defending Levy here because lets face it the Summer was a disaster, but he's not as much involved with this as many seem to think.

Really hoping now that this is the case with all footballing decisions bar appointing the DOF, which it's starting to look like it is.

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That, my friend, is some of the best info you've ever posted!
I've always appreciated what Levy and Enic have done for us as a club but the big issue was Levy's lack of football knowledge.
To hear that he's finally leaving it to the professionals, while he concentrates on what he's good at, is possibly the best news ever.

Levy deals with the business side, actual proper football people deal with the football. Happy days.