Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[Clockspur]

Well Pep has taken City to CL final. Antonio Conte at CL is a joke around Europe. There were memes again after he crashed out rather early yet again.

Not the Memes, whatever shall we do.

Pep has spent over £1bn at City and has one CL final to his name - Poch did it after a zero spend summer window, knocking Pep out in the process.

The Guardian over the years has run a lot of stories about Pep in Europe, mostly pointing out he is the architect of his own downfall because he makes strange tactical decisions in the knock out rounds - the final they did make and lost to Chelsea - that was the only time in the entire season that he played 1 holding midfield player instead of 2 and of course they got over run in midfield - I mean fancy doing that against Kante.

Give him the Napoli team and they are third in Serie A currently.

 

[Mr Pink]

Their bank balances?

They get finishing top 4 bonuses.

I doubt its that much of a bother when they're already earning more than most people dream of...

 

[talkshowhost86]

You leave Chirpy out of this. That's our next manager you're talking about!

Honestly if he knows more than one formation he'd be an improvement

 

[eppingyid]

He said exactly the same things at Chelsea, who have much more than we do, so maybe he just can’t be pleased?

After getting top 4 I think he deserved a top LCB and RWB. Two positions that are vital for his system and clearly needed upgrading. I don’t doubt he can probably be hard work at times but I think most of us on here were underwhelmed with lenglet and could see Spence would not get in the team straight away

 

[easley91]

Can see it's all rosey in here.. somewhat glad I have a new game to distract me at the moment.

 

[Clockspur]

Their bank balances?

They get finishing top 4 bonuses.

They are multi millionaires - what’s another £500k

You cannot expect them to think like we do - they don’t.

 

[Clockspur]

If your boss called you selfish and lacking desire, how would you react?

If I had performed like they had I would think - he has a point

If I was Kane I would think what a priiick, I will show him and up my game even more

 

[delawarespur]

I think you’re speculating there.

Also as for ‘players complaining’ every squad for every team ALWAYS will have some players who complain about something mabye because they don’t get on with the manager, find the training too intense, boring, not intense enough, because they don’t get played, they don’t like the tactics, blah blah blah, for me if you and others are trying to make out that this group of players are weak mentally because one or two of them have been rumoured to be complaining about Poch when he was burnout after 5 years of effort or about 3 of the most boring negative managers you will find then that doesn’t really say anything at all, sorry.

I’m not calling the players weak mentally. I promise to get to the top level of football or any other field doesn’t happen unless you are very strong mentally. What I’m saying is that I think the culture allows for the players an easy out and to have too much input in decisions where they should have less/none. Why continue to live in a negative environment when you can just complain to the owners and then, bam, a new manager. I’m not a mentally weak person, but if I’m at work and can make things more favorable for myself by complaining to my boss about the environment or my colleagues, then obviously I’m inclined to do so. That’s what I believe to be the issue. If I knew I had zero influence on things, then I’d knuckle down and deal with it. Failing to suck it up, now that would be mental fragility and weakness. That’s not what I think is happening.

Also, these reports could come from just one player/agent, or they could come from the whole squad. Same with Jose and Poch. That is where I’m speculating. You’re never gonna have a squad where everyone is happy as there’s always gonna be too many players to satisfy. Guessing where they come from or from how many is pointless. But these reports keep coming out towards the end of managerial stints. And time after time, change follows these reports pretty quickly. That to me says the players can get this out in public/voice this to the owners and effect change. And that is something that shouldn’t be allowed to happen.

 

[DenverSpur]

Complete boo lacks.

In our current squad we have:
-Captain of France
-Captain of South Korea
-Captain of England
-Brazils n.o9 who single handedly fought and gave 110% to keep Everton up last season
-PEH who gives 110% every game and who is a leader and ex captain of Southampton
-Emerson who is spending all
his money and time and efforts on private chefs and personal trainers to improve his game and give all his efforts to the club
-Eric Dier & Ben Davies model pro’s who have been incredibly loyal to us
-Perisic, Bentancur and others have won trophies and are stalwarlts for their national teams

etc etc etc

Sorry but these players might not be perfect but they are certainly not spineless losers.

All that may be true but irrelevant to the fact that when they are put under pressure in a Spurs shirt they bottle it time and time again. That to me makes them spineless losers and they don’t like people, especially managers, pointing that out to them.
All onions of course.

 

[nailsy]

Complete boo lacks.

In our current squad we have:
-Captain of France
-Captain of South Korea
-Captain of England
-Brazils n.o9 who single handedly fought and gave 110% to keep Everton up last season
-PEH who gives 110% every game and who is a leader and ex captain of Southampton
-Emerson who is spending all
his money and time and efforts on private chefs and personal trainers to improve his game and give all his efforts to the club
-Eric Dier & Ben Davies model pro’s who have been incredibly loyal to us
-Perisic, Bentancur and others have won trophies and are stalwarlts for their national teams

etc etc etc

Sorry, these players might not be perfect but they are certainly not spineless losers.

Besides which plebs like me could only dream of being a multimillionaire spineless loser playing for Tottenham.

 

[Clockspur]

Depends what experience you want in watching and supporting the club I suppose. If we only ever played polished players then you're deprived of...Modric, Bale, Eriksen, Alli, Kane...

Or you do what the other top teams do and let those players develop away from the club on loan then bring them back.

Arsenal loaned out Saliba for 3 seasons and then brought him back when he was ready.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

I’m not belittling Pep - I’m just putting his achievements into context - Prime Messi Barca, One horse town Bayern and Oil state funded Man City.

If people can’t see that his achievements pale in comparison to Klopp then they know nothing about football

I think saying that Peps achievements ‘pale in comparison to Klopp’ is a bit OTT as is saying that if people don’t see it that way they know nothing about football…

I personally agree with you that what Klopp achieved with Dortmund and Liverpool is more impressive that what Pep has achieved with Barca, Bayern and City but the way pep got those teams to play and be so utterly dominant is still very very impressive, they don’t just win they absolutely suffocate and dominate teams and obliterate leagues and records and points totals, that isn’t easy.

Just like we shouldn’t belittle Conte taking Chelsea from 10th to 1st or Juve from 7th to 1st or Inter from 3/4th to 2nd to 1st.

But I think the word you’re looking for is context. And yes you’re right every achievement should be looked at with context. For example the context of how competitive was the domestic league at the time, how good was the squad the manager inherited, how did they do across all competitions, did they improve players, how big was their transfer budget, how long did it take them to achieve success, did the sustain success, did they leave the club in a stable state etc etc etc.

 

[Impspur1]

Spot on, who’s he actually talking about here?

This isn’t like 2014 when we had the likes of Kaboul, Capoue, Adebayor etc.

We may have some players who aren’t good enough but I really don’t see many ‘bad apples’.

Is he talking about Son, Kane, Dier, Davies? Those are the guys who start regularly and have been around for the longest. Anyone saying Kane isn’t trying has lost it, he’s a model pro. Son clearly cares about the club. Davies and Dier are limited but you can’t say they don’t try.

The players may just be drained by the defensive and negative football we’ve been playing since mid 2019.

Exactly. With some I think it’s talent or lack of rather than not trying and if they haven’t been trying for 6 months why is he picking them?

 

[Clockspur]

Milan was resourcewise big player at that time, Everton and Napoli were more of a tests. Ancelotti got Everton 12th and 10th. 3 seasons before him Everton finished 7th, 8th and 8th. His reign can be seen as start of their fall.
[/QUOTE]

No it can’t - they were steady under Carlo ask any Evertonian. The rot set in at Everton when they let Koeman and Brands piss obscene amounts of money up the wall on useless players - they bought 4 number 10’s one summer and none of them worked out. They paid mental amounts for players long past their prime like Walcott and Iwobi.

Moshiri was the beginning of the end for Everton. Now they have a half built stadium they are struggling to finish due to finances, a team that quite frankly Dyche has already performed a miracle with and the only fan base in the Prem that hates their owners more than we do

 

[spursfan77]

On Alasdair Gold’s video he says that Conte didn’t speak to his players at all after the game because he was so angry (he’s done that before). So the first they’d have heard of all this would have been from the press conference! He didn’t even have the balls to say it to their faces ffs!

 

[Clockspur]

But it’s nothing to do with the fact the last 3 managers have all sucked the life out of the enjoyment of them playing for the last 3 years ?

What’s was their excuse at the end of Poch’s reign when we were 12th and again struggling to beat Sheffield United?

 

[Trent Crimm]

If your boss called you selfish and lacking desire, how would you react?

Depends if your capable of actual introspection and context.

 

[Impspur1]

Might well be the case but I don’t see it being any different if Mason is in charge. Maybe for the first few games but i really don’t see us getting top 4 if Levy expects Mason to see out the season. Not that Conte necessarily will ether. But if it’s a choice between the two neither is an attractive option.

If mason is appointed says to me that we’ve written off this season

 

[parj]

Conte won the league and FA cup in 2 years at Chelsea on a fraction of what Pep spent.

Chelsea were tenth the season before he took over.



I would sincerely question whether you have been paying attention

Pep never finished 5th. Conte did. Conte won the title playing one game a week and then finished 5th the next season with more games to play. Blamed everyone but himself

 

[mil1lion]

Manager calls out players for their weak mentality
Weak minded players take offense and want the manager out