Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[Rout-Ledge]

This thread is never this active after a win - even against city. The people who want him out are so loud constantly. It's so boring.

Surely not as boring as our performances this season though…

 

[mattstev2000]

If we had won the conference league with mourinho the football would still have been terrible, the league position would still have been mediocre and I would still think that poch's period of 'no trophies' was a much greater success and much more entertaining to boot.

Winning any old trophy just for the sake of it isn't what I want for the club.

 

[RuskyM]

They all won something though? Football is about winning and I couldn’t care what cup that is at present. If you would rather win nothing you are a part of the reason with what’s wrong at the club imo.

Right, but this is the most competitive league in the world. If football is only about winning, then why watch it at all? I went to Charlton this weekend, who aren’t going anywhere this season. Why did anyone show up?

No one’s saying they’d rather win nothing. I’m suggesting we’re not cursed because Al Ittihad could win a trophy and we couldn’t beat a financially doped Manchester City.

 

[Scot-Spur]

If we had won the conference league with mourinho the football would still have been terrible, the league position would still have been mediocre and I would still think that poch's period of 'no trophies' was a much greater success and much more entertaining to boot.

Winning any old trophy just for the sake of it isn't what I want for the club.

How would it have been more of a success? One person would have won something and the other nothing? Trophies go down in history not playing pretty football for a couple of season and coming up short.

 

[Scot-Spur]

Right, but this is the most competitive league in the world. If football is only about winning, then why watch it at all? I went to Charlton this weekend, who aren’t going anywhere this season. Why did anyone show up?

No one’s saying they’d rather win nothing. I’m suggesting we’re not cursed because Al Ittihad could win a trophy and we couldn’t beat a financially doped Manchester City.

While I agree you want to be entertained the main aim is to win. We haven’t done that in years, we are perennial losers at this point. While I agree winning is harder here we sacked a manager who has won everywhere he has went a week before a final? That is just bizarre and sums us up.

 

[carpediem991]

How would it have been more of a success? One person would have won something and the other nothing? Trophies go down in history not playing pretty football for a couple of season and coming up short.

Depends how you look at things. Personally I really want to win any trophy, mainly to stop the lame jokes about us not winning sh*t. On the other hand I get the argument what drives you on as a fan? What makes you spend fortunes to visit games or time to watch the club. You want to be entertained...in a positive way. That does not mean full offensive and losing games 3-5, but to see a decent plan that works for the team and is in best case a good watch.

 

[Harrier]

View attachment 122600
This is really really really concerning. We are so bad atm and are continuing to regress. Not right after a 150m summer spend.

I thought that was your ECG trace from the Leicester game! ?

 

[Scot-Spur]

Depends how you look at things. Personally I really win any trophy, mainly to stop the lame jokes about us not winning sh*t. On the other hand I get the argument what drives you on as a fan? What makes you spend fortunes to visit games or time to watch the club. You want to be entertained...in a positive way. That does not mean full offensive and losing games 3-5, but to see a decent plan that works for the team and is in best case a good watch.

No of course, I mentioned above it is an entertainment sport. However the way in which we have acted like sacking Mourinho before the final is baffling. We need to win something to get over the hump and shouldn’t be turning our nose up at any competition.

 

[mattstev2000]

How would it have been more of a success? One person would have won something and the other nothing? Trophies go down in history not playing pretty football for a couple of season and coming up short.

Poch made us competitive for the first time in my life, we had our best league finishes, got to a champions League final, competed for the premier League, continually beat rivals that we didn't before and haven't since and did it all while playing some great football.

If that's less valuable to you than coming sixth in the league and winning the ECL by playing a few matches against the dregs of Europe all the while playing some of the most negative and boring football I've witnessed at this club, then I suppose all I can say is different strokes for different folks.

 

[13VanDerBale13]

I just don’t see any optimism on how he turns this around, his style of play is so outdated, we were awful to watch before Bentancur’s injury, & now it’s only going to get worse, due to his inflexibility.

 

[Scot-Spur]

Poch made us competitive for the first time in my life, we had our best league finishes, got to a champions League final, competed for the premier League, continually beat rivals that we didn't before and haven't since and did it all while playing some great football.

If that's less valuable to you than coming sixth in the league and winning the ECL by playing a few matches against the dregs of Europe all the while playing some of the most negative and boring football I've witnessed at this club, then I suppose all I can say is different strokes for different folks.

Yup and it feeds into the loser attitude the floods over this club. I want to be entertained and Poch certainly was a revelation but you can’t say you would rather not win anything and finish 2nd that’s a ridiculous statement.

 

[carpediem991]

No of course, I mentioned above it is an entertainment sport. However the way in which we have acted like sacking Mourinho before the final is baffling. We need to win something to get over the hump and shouldn’t be turning our nose up at any competition.

Definitley I agree the sacking was a weird timing, but thats the past. Also like Poch throwing national cups away.

The present has us play terrible football most of the time, something most people could deal with if its a compromise to be succesful but for a few weeks now there is next to zero indication the way we are on is leading to anything. Again I hope to be proven wrong.

 

[rossdapep]

We won the league cup under George Graham.

Great day but we went back to being shite and with no hope the week after

 

[glacierSpurs]

If we had won the conference league with mourinho the football would still have been terrible, the league position would still have been mediocre and I would still think that poch's period of 'no trophies' was a much greater success and much more entertaining to boot.

Winning any old trophy just for the sake of it isn't what I want for the club.

Wow. Sorry but I'm so done with such argument and mentality. Have no idea what rights we have to deem any proper tournament trophy as worthless.

I guess Poch's previous position of taking only the League and CL seriously got some fans to idolise him so much. But it's exactly that arrogance which I still truly couldn't forget and feel so embarrassed about.

 

[Dazzazzad]

Yup and it feeds into the loser attitude the floods over this club. I want to be entertained and Poch certainly was a revelation but you can’t say you would rather not win anything and finish 2nd that’s a ridiculous statement.

That's not the point at all.

The point is there are achievements that are greater than winning any old trophy.

If we beat Sheff Utd in the cup, Burnley in the quarters, Southampton in the semis and United in the final - would that be a greater achievement (adding in our epic wins over Preston and Portsmouth) than the CL run where we came second?

To me in would be laughable to even begin to compare them. People will be talking about our CL run in decades, most years I can barely remember who won the previous year's FA cup.

More than happy to win minor trophies but maintain that league and CL form is a much greater sign of achievement. But each to their own.

 

[TOLBINY]

Inter Milan last 8 years league finishes before Conte was appointed;
4th
4th
7th
4th
8th
5th
9th
6th

Our last 8 years league finishes prior to Conte
7th
6th
4th
3rd
2nd
3rd
5th
6th

We had a slightly better average league position.

When people on here state that Conte is not a project manager, I think it depends upon what your 'project' is.

If it is building a squad over a number of years filled with mainly low cost players who you get to perform as a team, then maybe Conte is not your man, but if your 'project' is trying to win something in the next 18 months, then he has a pretty good record of delivering trophies quickly and so I can understand why he was appointed.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

If we had won the conference league with mourinho the football would still have been terrible, the league position would still have been mediocre and I would still think that poch's period of 'no trophies' was a much greater success and much more entertaining to boot.

Winning any old trophy just for the sake of it isn't what I want for the club.

I would rather we win any credible trophy (let’s not pretend the conference doesn’t count just because it’s a new trophy, everyone on here would lose their minds if we won it) and then focus on having entertaining football again.

Obviously I would prefer to do it whilst playing entertaining football, but if one has to give I’d take the trophy every single day of the week and I’m sure a large majority of the fans would too.

We need to get that chip off our shoulders, it could be the catalyst that pushes us on to greater things. Being entertained should never take priority over being successful.

 

[wadewill]

I just don’t see any optimism on how he turns this around, his style of play is so outdated, we were awful to watch before Bentancur’s injury, & now it’s only going to get worse, due to his inflexibility.

This is it for me, we can all see what is going to happen here and we can all see, without getting paid millions and millions, what needs to be done to combat it. But Conte will stick with his formation, with Sarr or Skipp alongside Hojbjerg to get totally out run game after game.

 

[Oh Teddy Teddy]

That's not the point at all.

The point is there are achievements that are greater than winning any old trophy.

If we beat Sheff Utd in the cup, Burnley in the quarters, Southampton in the semis and United in the final - would that be a greater achievement (adding in our epic wins over Preston and Portsmouth) than the CL run where we came second?

To me in would be laughable to even begin to compare them. People will be talking about our CL run in decades, most years I can barely remember who won the previous year's FA cup.

More than happy to win minor trophies but maintain that league and CL form is a much greater sign of achievement. But each to their own.

I agree that football is more than just winning any trophy. How many teams compete each season and how many teams lift something at the end of the season... does it mean every team that doesn't lift a trophy has failed that season? Of course not.

But winning the FA Cup this year trumps that CL run for me. The FA Cup is still a massive trophy in this country and would be a big achievement. Let's not kid ourselves; for me, it should be our sole focus this year if/when we're booted out the CL. I just can't see a consistent run for the T4 and I think it would hamper chances in the cup. But just my opinion, that.

 

[Joely410]

Depends how you look at things. Personally I really win any trophy, mainly to stop the lame jokes about us not winning sh*t. On the other hand I get the argument what drives you on as a fan? What makes you spend fortunes to visit games or time to watch the club. You want to be entertained...in a positive way. That does not mean full offensive and losing games 3-5, but to see a decent plan that works for the team and is in best case a good watch.

Whilst you ain't wrong, those lame jokes will just turn into "yeah but this is why that trophy is devalued" even if we were to win something. Just the nature of being a football fan in the age of mobile phones.