Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[Timbo Tottenham]

I think I have a fairly good idea of the point Tolbiny was trying to make but he’s more than welcome to add any context I may have missed.

So do I, but they were insisting on doing it in the wrong thread. It should either be in here or in the Levy thread.

There’s plenty of relevant threads to vent frustrations about Levy/Enic. It gets tiresome reading them in other threads, which also seem amplified after bad results/performances.

 

[McFlash]

I think Conte left for all sorts of reasons, tbh.
Levy being a big part of that but I think Levy realised he'd made a mistake hiring him and lost confidence in giving him what he was asking for.
There were also his health issues, the deaths of close friends and being away from his family.

While Levy has to take a certain amount of responsibility, he hired him in the first place, I don't think he shoulders all of the blame.
Some falls onto Conte and some is just down to life and circumstances.

I think @TOLBINY is looking to fully blame Levy but I'm not sure that's fair because things were more complicated.

 

[easley91]

Conte, for various reasons, was mentally burnt out. His contract was ending in that summer any way and he wouldn't commit (for his own reasons which I do not blame him for). I think every party has a part to play in this.

There isn't one simple answer to cover it all.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Shouldn't this be in general football at this point?

I bear no grudge to Conte. He gave us a brilliant 6 months, dragged us to CL, and ultimate it didn't work out for various reasons.

Those who call him a "dinosaur" dont have an opinion worth listening to.

Hell probably join a Serie A club and win the league again.

But that's still more of a general football thing than a spurs thing.

 

[Gassin's finest]

Joined Milan hasn't he?

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Joined Milan hasn't he?

Pioli hasn't got the tic-tac yet.

Will be a summer job.

 

[TOLBINY]

I’ll humour you.

It was well reported by ITK that certain promises were made and not kept at the board level, the club showed little faith in his philosophy and didn’t back him adequately yet expected him to sign an extension to his contract.

I’m not sure about you, but if my employer promised me things when I joined the company, failed to deliver and then expected me to sign an extension this would most likely cause tension between us and I would eventually look to move on. I still remember at the time there were members here crying “why would they back him if he wants to leave” completely forgetting that the club hadn’t back him in the first place, so he had no faith in them doing so if he had signed an extension.

Regardless of his salary, if the club weren’t willing to give him the exact tools he needed to do the job to his standard they shouldn’t have hired him in the first place. Blame the man all you want for HOW he went out, but don’t forget the main reason WHY.

That's a fair shout and IMO the crux of his departure lies in what you have posted. Maybe he was promised things he didn't get and just 'rage quit' / refused to sign a new contract, maybe he wanted to stay but after the Southampton outburst Levy wanted him gone, maybe he relaised that fiannces dictated it was a much longer term project and he didn't have the will to go through with it or maybe he felt the support from the fans would not sustain a long term project.

The latter is my guess and I want to point out that my angle is not Levy bashing, it is aimed more at getting all fans to accept that like it or not - the club is unable or unwilling to spend at the very top end of the transfer market (eg. 100M + for Rice etc.) therefore in order for any manager to rebuild a squad it is going to take more time than we would like.

Pure maths tells us that if you need a 600M rebuild and can only spend 120M per transfer window, you need 5 windows and then a bit of time for everyone to gel. If you can spend 200M per window you need 3 windows and a bit of time.

If we are going to lose faith / patience with a manager every 12- 15 months then we will never get anywhere. So I say that if the manager is doing ok and we are not in danger of relegation we must give him time to build the squad he wants and see where that leads us.

 

[SlotBadger]

Just learned that Gianni Vio is with the US National Team - since October.

Wish we'd kept him. We're shite at attacking set pieces and embarrassing when defending them.

 

[muppetman]

That's a fair shout and IMO the crux of his departure lies in what you have posted. Maybe he was promised things he didn't get and just 'rage quit' / refused to sign a new contract, maybe he wanted to stay but after the Southampton outburst Levy wanted him gone, maybe he relaised that fiannces dictated it was a much longer term project and he didn't have the will to go through with it or maybe he felt the support from the fans would not sustain a long term project.

The latter is my guess and I want to point out that my angle is not Levy bashing, it is aimed more at getting all fans to accept that like it or not - the club is unable or unwilling to spend at the very top end of the transfer market (eg. 100M + for Rice etc.) therefore in order for any manager to rebuild a squad it is going to take more time than we would like.

Pure maths tells us that if you need a 600M rebuild and can only spend 120M per transfer window, you need 5 windows and then a bit of time for everyone to gel. If you can spend 200M per window you need 3 windows and a bit of time.

If we are going to lose faith / patience with a manager every 12- 15 months then we will never get anywhere. So I say that if the manager is doing ok and we are not in danger of relegation we must give him time to build the squad he wants and see where that leads us.

I cannot see that we will be dropping £100m on any player with the way that FFP and the like are now biting.

I absolutely agree that all managers need time to implement their ideas and build a squad that suits how they want to play.

However, the manager needs to want to be here and see it through also and for a variety of reasons that didn't look to be the case. In any leadership position, there needs to be an element of PR - selling the dream and so far (and it's very early days) Ange is doing that better than Conte did.

I have a lot of sympathy for Conte, with his health issues, the death of several close friends and what have you, but he didn't help himself either.

 

[whitechina]

Pioli hasn't got the tic-tac yet.

Will be a summer job.

A summer job~ that's short even for Conte!