Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[Dazzazzad]

But what’s the point of giving Spence a 5 year deal if you have no plans on playing him for the first 3 years.

He's only been here 5 months, mate.

Conte could be gone end of season - then maybe it's good that we didn't ONLY buy players he wanted, no?

 

[Wig]

He's exactly the right fit for a club such as ours, just not for Levy imo. We have a world class stadium, a world class training ground and a world class front line, so why should we employ a two bit manager? Conte is a serial winner, we haven't won anything of real note for decades, yet he still came here, why? It wasn't for the money it was because he saw what we did have and believed with the right backing he could win here too. He's not asking for billions he just wants a different profile of player to what Levy wants, and he wants full autonomy of who goes.

I've been a big defender of DL in the past because he always spoke about the infrastructure being the problem and when we had that in place things would change. Well here we are, and it's just more rinse and repeat I'm afraid. The only way we move forward now imo is if Levy steps/is moved aside. He can still be chairman and deal with all the commercial shit(he's excellent at it) but it won't matter who we bring in as head coach if they are constantly held back on the football side of things because the chairman thinks he knows better.

I thought the whole point of bringing in Paratici was for Levy to step away from the football matters and let the expert handle everything football related. He just can't help himself can he.

 

[djhotspur]

Nail on the head.

We all saw what we done with the Bale money that summer. It’s a myth we don’t spend money - we clearly do!

It’s just not spent very well. It’s been going on for years, I appreciate recruitment is a spikey process, and you’ll get as many wrong as you do get right…

There’s been a few times when you’ve scratched your head and thought wtf in terms of signings.

The one that really sticks in my mind was Zokora. We sold Carrick (and it seemed like he wanted to go), so we have this gaping hole whereby we need a deep lying playmaker, someone who dictates play from deep with clever, well timed, progressive passes, someone in the Carrick mold (A round peg to fit the round hole left with Carricks departure).

His replacement….Didier Zokora?

I agree to an extent but son was 27m and that was years ago. The market has moved on massively.
We got very lucky with Kulu and bentacur and I highly doubt we could repeat that level of signing for so cheap.

 

[Wig]

I agree to an extent but son was 27m and that was years ago. The market has moved on massively.
We got very lucky with Kulu and bentacur and I highly doubt we could repeat that level of signing for so cheap.

That's why we have Paratici, to identify those gems that we can get good deals on. Even if you get a good price there's never a guarantee that the new player will work out, there's always some risk.

 

[allatsea]

That's why we have Paratici, to identify those gems that we can get good deals on. Even if you get a good price there's never a guarantee that the new player will work out, there's always some risk.

Paratici has brought us real gems in Bentancur, Kuluveski and Romero. Best thing is to let him just get on with his job.

 

[TPdYID]

I agree to an extent but son was 27m and that was years ago. The market has moved on massively.
We got very lucky with Kulu and bentacur and I highly doubt we could repeat that level of signing for so cheap.

“Lucky”? Or has the penny finally dropped?

Hundreds of players are transferred in/out of clubs from Europe every window. Signing 2 players who hit the ground running doesn’t make you “lucky”. It makes you efficient.

The more efficiency we show in recruitment the less we’ll have to worry about in terms of matching city / Chelsea pound for pound.

 

[Jamturk]

Conte came out the other day and stated that he doesn't want to be involved in developing anyone from the youth and that he wants ready made players.

Why does there appear not to be any compromise from Conte.

 

[Metalhead]

Conte came out the other day and stated that he doesn't want to be involved in developing anyone from the youth and that he wants ready made players.

Why does there appear not to be any compromise from Conte.

I guess because his priority in the short term is delivering trophies.

 

[For the love of Spurs]

Conte came out the other day and stated that he doesn't want to be involved in developing anyone from the youth and that he wants ready made players.

Why does there appear not to be any compromise from Conte.

Why should he, that is not who he is. He works with elite players that cost a lot of money to win trophies. That is who we hired, if we didn’t want that we should not have got him. This is not a meet in the middle situation, you hire Conte you spend many hundreds of millions to get top players and go for the title. To do anything else we can say goodbye Conte.

 

[TPdYID]

He's only been here 5 months, mate.

Conte could be gone end of season - then maybe it's good that we didn't ONLY buy players he wanted, no?

That’s never what I alluded to. If you read my other posts you’ll see that I favour an approach which harmonises the clubs philosophy with a DoF & manager who are tasked with aligning the clubs philosophy with recruitment and tactics.

Like the world and their wife continue to bang on about; there was no point in hiring Conte if you weren’t going to back him with what he wanted. Early signs suggest Spence isn’t what AC wanted.

 

[djhotspur]

“Lucky”? Or has the penny finally dropped?

Hundreds of players are transferred in/out of clubs from Europe every window. Signing 2 players who hit the ground running doesn’t make you “lucky”. It makes you efficient.

The more efficiency we show in recruitment the less we’ll have to worry about in terms of matching city / Chelsea pound for pound.

100% it was lucky. It came from paratici old club, a club who’s contracts he knew inside out. No way any other club let’s us loan a talent like Kulu for 2 years get real.

 

[TPdYID]

Everyone gets far too worked up about Spence, when really we should be trusting the judgement of our serial winning manager who sees him every day in training. Spence is a raw prospect from the championship who hasn't even been with us for half a season let alone "3 years", so let's temper our own expectations of the lad.

I'm all for the club/Paratici taking punts on upcoming young talent like Spence, Gil and Sarr, but it's then up to the manager to bring them into the first team when he thinks they are ready. The players need to earn the right to play. Conte isn't being deliberately obtuse in ignoring these talents... Kulusevski is just as young and proved he was ready to play.

In the short time that Conte has been with us we have risen up the league, we're through to the champions league knockouts, and between him and Paratici we have some serious pulling power to bring in the next wave of Bentancur, Kulusevski, Bissouma, Richarlison etc.

I like the direction the club is heading under Conte, and I really like that he wants us to act like a big club and is forcing the hand of Levy and the board to back him. I don't want him to compromise on his demands with Levy - we've had plenty of years of seeing how Levy's compromises have held us back from reaching the top.

Nobody from what I read doubts the pedigree of the manager. Most rationale thinking fans, can see & appreciate we have a really good manager.

What I have been vocal about debating is the process. Why hire a manager who wants full autonomy of transfers both in/out, if the club have other ideas and signs players the manager has no intention of playing.

It’s lose:lose:

•Club wastes money on a transfer fee/wages, signing a player who clearly isn’t fancied by the manager.
•Manager gets frustrated having to justify non selection of player.
•Player feels messed around having signed for a club whereby the manager doesn’t want him.
•The reputation of the club with young players worsens, making future prospects harder to sign.

 

[heinsmit]

Conte came out the other day and stated that he doesn't want to be involved in developing anyone from the youth and that he wants ready made players.

Why does there appear not to be any compromise from Conte.

Did he? Would you mind sharing the source of that?

What I did see the other day was stories (no quotes) regarding the youth team and how Conte wants them set up, to be ready to enter his system of playing and with the first team philosophy running through the lower teams, so that if needed someone can step up and integrate immediately, which of course would be a totally different thing

 

[TPdYID]

100% it was lucky. It came from paratici old club, a club who’s contracts he knew inside out. No way any other club let’s us loan a talent like Kulu for 2 years get real.

You have majorly contradicted yourself.

You say it’s “lucky” then credit the DoF with knowledge of the transfer market and players contracts.

If you’re crediting the DoF, that’s not “luck”. That’s good recruitment.

 

[Misfit]

So, we have the training ground, the stadium, lockdown in the rearview - even a sodding DOF and a win now manager with a track record of delivering.

Of course it all looks like it could easily turn into a mini disaster. Only with this soul-crushing club.

 

[KaribYid]

Conte came out the other day and stated that he doesn't want to be involved in developing anyone from the youth and that he wants ready made players.

Why does there appear not to be any compromise from Conte.

You're making things up. He's never said that.

 

[TPdYID]

So, we have the training ground, the stadium, lockdown in the rearview - even a sodding DOF and a win now manager with a track record of delivering.

Of course it all looks like it could easily turn into a mini disaster. Only with this soul-crushing club.

To add extra effect you could have also added a World Cup winning CB and the cherry on the top…One of the best CF’s in world & domestic football.

That is only, if you wanted to rinse every last drop from that half-full cup.

 

[djhotspur]

You have majorly contradicted yourself.

You say it’s “lucky” then credit the DoF with knowledge of the transfer market and players contracts.

If you’re crediting the DoF, that’s not “luck”. That’s good recruitment.

We’ll I’m not because It’s luck because he’s managed to exploit his old club which he cannot do with other clubs. It’s a club that’s been proven to be entirely corrupt.

 

[JayB]

The only way that Levy and Conte were going to mesh was if Levy started to operate differently than he had done in the past.

We all know Levy loves a signing such as Carrick, Berba, Modric, Bale, Walker, etc. -- sound investment in young talents to develop and sell on for massive profits, financing the next crop. That's why Poch was stuck with the likes of Nkoudou, Njie, etc. rather than the players he actually wanted. But that's never been how Antonio Conte builds his squads.

When we started to back Poch with real money in 2019, then followed that up with Jose, then (after a bit of a sojourn) brought in Conte, it all seemed to point to Levy having turned over a new leaf following the completion of the stadium. If we weren't prepared to invest to win rather than invest to reap financial gain, what was the fucking point of managers such as Jose and Conte?

 

[spurs mental]

We’ll I’m not because It’s luck because he’s managed to exploit his old club which he cannot do with other clubs. It’s a club that’s been proven to be entirely corrupt.

Its not lucky he has knowledge of his old club. He signed them for his old club as well, surely.

We hired him for his knowledge and he's using it well. Same with Romero.