Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[curlacious]

Lest we forget

 

[kthwlsn]

I only bash Levy when he's made mistakes, I also give him credit when he deserves it. I was merely suggesting that IF Conte was to walk, it would show fans that there is a lack of ambition at the club, I also literally said I think the club will back him and we will show ambition, so I have no idea why you are moaning about my post.

Got it. I'm wrong. Moving on.

Back to talking Conte in the Conte thread.

 

[matthew.absurdum]

Lest we forget

View attachment 111692

The GD is even more impressive. At the end we have +29 while Arsenal have +13

 

[Aphex]

The GD is even more impressive. At the end we have +29 while Arsenal have +13

GD is the biggest indicator of how good a team is, and it bodes extremely well for us next season.

I seriously think we will get minimum third next season.

 

[Snarfalicious]

Give him whatever he wants and let’s make some noise. Money, power, respect, land, an army, our firstborn children. Whatever.

 

[easley91]

Lest we forget

View attachment 111692

From 14 points behind Chelsea to THREE. Insane.

 

[defoes5]

Anyone else still feel like it’s not real that we’re actually in the CL. It’s felt like such a long project away for the last 2 seasons becuase of how inconsistent and genuinely poor we’ve been then all of a sudden with what on paper is our weakest side we’ve had recently we get a world class manager in second half of the season and bang champions league! Really is amazing

 

[C0YS]

PSG seems like an awful fit for Conte and vice versa. Can you imagine that squad of egos + Conte's disciplinarian approach? I doubt Mbappe and Neymar would be happy playing to Conte's strict patterns.

It's ironic, because Conte's winning mentality is what would finally win them a CL. But they'd cry off before they got anywhere near it.

I'm not sure it would you know. Conte generally has a habit of underachieving in the cups, though he seems to be getting better. It actually makes sense. Cup managers tend to require a degree of adaptability and opposition analysis. While Conte isn't bad at this, it's not exactly what makes him special.

There is little evidence to suggest he would be the man to take them to champions League success, he's made the last 16 only once. And has won only one major cup competition as manager (FA cup at Chelsea) compared to 5 league titles.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

It is a proper crossroads moment really.

Conte is of a level and of a certain drive to succeed, having already done so throughout his career, that he simply won’t accept anything less than a major attempt to at least give him personnel to compete properly with City and Liverpool. He knows we aren’t own by an oil country, and can’t blast 300m with just a snap of the fingers, but he will look at the how Liverpool have managed to match City, and will expect us to at least get him closer to those two clubs in quality and depth.

Liverpool had parts of a team and the correct manager. They identified 3-4 player to be the finishing touches and went and got their men.

I’d imagine that Conte will be expecting something similar this season. 3 absolute top quality guys of his and Fabio’s choosing even if it costs large fees, and also a group of other purchases to increase depth and replace departing players. Whether that be more experienced players on reduced fees or free, alongside promising players in the 20-23 year old range.


Levy is just going to have to open the coffers, if they are indeed there to be used. It’s time. Anything less and you can bet Conte will be looking around for the next challenge.

Having said all that, I believe Levy will do what we need. He’s not stupid. If the money is there it will be made available.

Lest we forget

View attachment 111692

27 points from our last 11 games...it's difficult to overstate how impressive that turnaround of form is. If we could sustain that form over a full season, we'd be right in the title race.

I'm expecting our form to be largely downplayed in the media though, with the teams below us criticised more heavily than we're praised.

Arsenal didn't finish the season quite as poorly as the media seems to be making out - had we averaged 2 points per game over our last 11 games (top 4 form), instead of 2.4 points per game (title race form), they would have finished 2 points clear of us. Man Utd, West Ham and Wolves did finish the season very poorly (all averaging less than a point per game), but even their better form earlier in the season wouldn't have been anywhere near enough to keep pace with us.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

I'm not sure it would you know. Conte generally has a habit of underachieving in the cups, though he seems to be getting better. It actually makes sense. Cup managers tend to require a degree of adaptability and opposition analysis. While Conte isn't bad at this, it's not exactly what makes him special.

There is little evidence to suggest he would be the man to take them to champions League success, he's made the last 16 only once. And has won only one major cup competition as manager (FA cup at Chelsea) compared to 5 league titles.

I agree, but someone who's more "glass half full" might view it as him having a 50% success rate in the FA Cup haha!

 

[Johnny J]

I'm not sure it would you know. Conte generally has a habit of underachieving in the cups, though he seems to be getting better. It actually makes sense. Cup managers tend to require a degree of adaptability and opposition analysis. While Conte isn't bad at this, it's not exactly what makes him special.

There is little evidence to suggest he would be the man to take them to champions League success, he's made the last 16 only once. And has won only one major cup competition as manager (FA cup at Chelsea) compared to 5 league titles.

You could well be right.

 

[SUIYHA]

Superb achievement from him to get us into the top four given where we were. Many managers would have written the season off and just used the poor start as an excuse to take the pressure off themselves, but he's dragged the club kicking and screaming back into the Champions League which seemed unthinkable when we were getting smacked 3-0 over and over again without even having a shot on goal as we were under Nuno earlier in the season.

Arteta and Klopp both took over in similar circumstances in their first seasons and both finished 8th, albeit reaching cup finals. Arteta came 8th again in his second season and in his third with plenty of money to spend he's still not been able to get top four. Conte has got us there at the first time of asking. Was talking to a Gooner mate last night who said that if Arteta had theoretically taken the Spurs job when Conte did, with the team struggling and a disinterested Kane, he would most likely have frozen him out, sold him in January, finished in mid-table and then complained that that was the best he could have done in the circumstances.

What's really impressed me that I wasn't expecting is the quality of some of the football. For all the talk from Klopp and others about how they don't like the way we play, we've been brilliant to watch at times - the best since at least the mid-Pochettino era. Some matches have still felt a little stiff and I think we have serious improvements in attacking quality to make with our wing-backs and midfield playmakers, but already we have ended up outscoring everyone in the league bar the top three which is pretty impressive given that we hardly had a shot on target in the early part of the season under Nuno. We've scored 3 or more goals in 11 matches since Christmas, average of about one every other game over a five month period. Not bad, not bad at all.....

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Superb achievement from him to get us into the top four given where we were. Many managers would have written the season off and just used the poor start as an excuse to take the pressure off themselves, but he's dragged the club kicking and screaming back into the Champions League which seemed unthinkable when we were getting smacked 3-0 over and over again without even having a shot on goal as we were under Nuno earlier in the season.

Arteta and Klopp both took over in similar circumstances in their first seasons and both finished 8th, albeit reaching cup finals. Arteta came 8th again in his second season and in his third with plenty of money to spend he's still not been able to get top four. Conte has got us there at the first time of asking. Was talking to a Gooner mate last night who said that if Arteta had theoretically taken the Spurs job when Conte did, with the team struggling and a disinterested Kane, he would most likely have frozen him out, sold him in January, finished in mid-table and then complained that that was the best he could have done in the circumstances.

What's really impressed me that I wasn't expecting is the quality of some of the football. For all the talk from Klopp and others about how they don't like the way we play, we've been brilliant to watch at times - the best since at least the mid-Pochettino era. Some matches have still felt a little stiff and I think we have serious improvements in attacking quality to make with our wing-backs and midfield playmakers, but already we have ended up outscoring everyone in the league bar the top three which is pretty impressive given that we hardly had a shot on target in the early part of the season under Nuno. We've scored 3 or more goals in 11 matches since Christmas, average of about one every other game over a five month period. Not bad, not bad at all.....

In our last 11 games (the period during which Klopp criticised us), we scored 32 goals and conceded only 5. Over a 38 game season, that would give us the best GD in the league by a significant margin.

Klopp's bitter interview has made it all the more satisfying that our draw against Liverpool prevented them winning the title. ?

 

[Snarfalicious]

I can finally say with pretty good certainty that Conte is a better manager than Nuno.

 

[jay2040]

He’s right. There’s a constant negativity around us perpetuated by the media which our fans buy into and revel in. It’s tiresome.

Agree,though I think it snowballed since Jose took over

 

[Finchyid]

I can finally say with pretty good certainty that Conte is a better manager than Nuno.

I can see he is better than all the 15 managers we have in last 20 years

 

[Ruffinthepuffin]

He makes me believe again as he comes across as an absolute winner.
Absolutely adore him. ???

 

[rossdapep]

Looking back at the first few pages makes you smile.

I still can't believe we got him in.

Last summer when it was rumoured we were talking to him it felt that it was something that wasn't going to happen, so I never really bought into it.

Then when we fired Nuno, it suddenly became the only possibility because of how much Levy needed it.

Even after he was announced I found myself double and triple checking because I just didn't see Levy going for it, even if he had to.

Which I realise contradicts itself.

But 7 months later and Levy must be feeling that it was absolutely the right call and FP can be trusted too.

 

[RuskyM]

First time since Madrid that I've really thought we're going somewhere. Never believed Mourinho was going to do it and Nuno was pretty clearly on a hiding to nothing. But we're well organised, we're scoring, and to give Paratici credit, his January signings got us over the line. Exciting.

 

[Japhet]

Conte has got Levy cornered and I'm sure Levy is very happy being in that corner the way things have panned out. Conte will keep the pressure on through the Summer and I'm confident that Levy will deliver. He has no choice. I'm sure Conte has been impressed at the way the players have turned things around and delivered an unlikely top 4 finish from where he started, but he'll want to rebuild to his own blueprint. I'm sure he's excited and fully onboard with this project and the prospect of throwing the cat amongst the pigeons next season. He'd be nuts to go to PSG with the latest Mbappe bullshit.