Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[Rout-Ledge]

Well, I thought there were lots of positives to take from yesterday, bar the result, of course. We'll win more then we lose playing like that,

Stockholm Syndrome.

 

[RuskyM]

The fact that Conte hasnt committed his future is the problem.

Even Sir Alex face a massive drop off when he announced his first retirement date.

It remains baffling that we were talking about this being a problem that needed to be resolved back in November, and it's now March and it's still not sorted.

 

[Hotspur88]

I think what might be the most depressing thing about all of this is how much my standards of what 'good football' is have been lowered watching Spurs over the past few years.

If we put together any remotely coherent passing move I'm impressed. I actually came away from the first half going 'solid performance' but any fan of a team who has played attractive football at any point in the past few years (basically every other top team) it would've been deemed bang average at best.

It's like Stockholm Syndrome. Jose, Nuno then finally the knockout blow of Conte have made me almost forget what football we could be capable of. When I watch top Champions League teams at the moment I almost feel like I'm watching a different sport.

Brilliant post!

I was there yesterday, at half time I turned to the guy next to me and we both just shrugged our shoulders. We were the better team but we weren't anything spectacular, it was a boring half of football.

I think it may have been in something like the 88th minute and we put together a nice quick passing move which led to a corner. That was my first memory of the kind of football we should be seeing and it was the 88th ******* minute! We used to see regular patterns of play week in week out and now we are lucky if we see one a game.

It's just not good enough, the football we see week in week out is terrible. We are one of if not the most boring team to watch in the Prem.

 

[DiVaio]

Nothing will change as long Levy and Enic are still here.
We hear it year after year that Levy will back the manager and still he never does. Levy wanted Mourinho and when he finally had him he decided not to back him and instead firing him the day before a final. Yes most of the fans didn't want Mourinho but he was and still is a proven winner but somehow he failed at Spurs, how come ?

Then Levy got Conte and we heard form all kind of sources that Levy had promised to back him (or at least give some of the players) and again he failed to deliver. In January he got 1 player in loan for the position Conte wanted to improve (RWB) and it took us the whole window to get a loan...

I don't even care anymore about who might be our next manager as it won't matter. We will never win anything with Levy and Enic (i don't count Audi cup)

Conte was backed. What does it change Porro is only loan(with mandatory option to buy) anyway?

Also - Mourinho, considering the financial reality when he was our manager was also backed.

 

[RuskyM]

It's just not good enough, the football we see week in week out is terrible. We are one of if not the most boring team to watch week in week out in the Prem.

Said it to death but it's such a special irony that we've spent years on dull managers to "win" instead of playing good football and now we're seeing Arsenal do both.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Stockholm Syndrome.

Stella, more like, dulls the pain. It was a good watch, until the end, plenty to moan about, and plenty to praise. But not aimless, like it's been so often under Conte. We actually had quite a bit of possession in midfield, for one thing, like a proper football team.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

I’m still Conte in, but it’s a real struggle.

The only reason is because he can potentially force Levy’s hand and has enough clout and pedigree to hopefully instil some kind of change in the way we go about things but that’s looking more and more unlikely and more and more like DL doesn’t have the appetite for this experiment any longer.

The game management lately has been baffling, though. I can’t defend it. I don’t think anyone who is pro-Conte can, either. The decisions, lineups, subs (or lack of) have been shambolic. It’s not often I go along with the “all the fans can see it, why can’t the manager” schtick, but I can’t disagree with any fans that say the decision making lately has been nothing short of woeful.

The next manager is a dead man walking whatever happens due to those above him, though. So it’s all a bit of a moot point. Nothing will change regardless of who is at the helm.


My main overriding thought is essentially “What is the point in Spurs?” We are a completely pointless football club right now.

In fact, “football club” is a bit of a stretch. We’re barely one of those.

Keeping Conte will just be another few years of rinse and repeat. His football philosophy is stale, broken and boring. Fans won’t put up with it. The whole place is toxic now, big, brave changes are required from top to bottom.

 

[EastUpperDK82]

Conte in

the rebuild has started. It’s just been a rotten season with a lot of bad luck and to top it off our arch rivals might win the league. Of course we are all mad, but Conte isn’t solely to blame. We have missed some absolute sitters which we would have been finishing last season. I’m sick of the players more than anything. Poch, Mourinho and Conte all can’t get a tune out of them and produce enough fire in their belly to go and win something. Players like Dier, Davies, playing first team is just not good enough.

let Conte strengthen at the back this summer and see if he wants to finish what he started. Im sure when he returns we will see the fire back in him.

Give the guy a break. He’s probably just had one of the worse years of his life.

Let’s back him for Milan and welcome him back.

I'm also Conte in... but we can't continue all this uncertainty and blurry leadership... we are rudderless at the moment and I don't see how we can steady the ship... there is no clarity on and off the pitch... I would love for Conte to prove the doubters wrong. At the end of the day people will forget the ordeal he/we have been through this season.

And Levy will get his way...

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

I'm still waiting for the moment - his change in tactic and setup at chelscum when he lost to the scum then gone on to win the league.. But it's still not coming..

Time and football has moved on since then, unfortunately Conte hasn’t or is unable to.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Conte was backed. What does it change Porro is only loan(with mandatory option to buy) anyway?

Also - Mourinho, considering the financial reality when he was our manager was also backed.

So in your opinion, do you think the squad had enough quality in it when Poch left? That his talk of a painful rebuild was just some nonsense from a man tired out?

If you do, then fair enough.

I don’t though. The squad was a shambles back then already. The addition of Lo Celso and Ndombele was like putting a band aid on a bullet wound.

From there, we barely spent on any players of the required quality. Once again, we attribute any signing to “backing the manager” when in fact the SQUAD required rebuilding regardless of who was in charge.

We really need to make that distinction when we’re talking about backing a manager. Did both managers get a player or two that they wanted? Sure. But before they were even hired we probably needed to replace or upgrade 10+ players in the team, squad and first team combined.

Let’s just be honest here, the board up until we got Paratici, had no fucking clue how to keep us competitive with the right signings it was always and has always been about the financials first.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

I'm still waiting for the moment - his change in tactic and setup at chelscum when he lost to the scum then gone on to win the league.. But it's still not coming..

We had our ‘moment’ under Conte. It was about a year ago after we lost to Burnley and they suddenly started playing like a half-decent football team. We are now in the ‘second season’ phase of Conte’s time at Chelsea, only without the FA Cup.

 

[Japhet]

Stella, more like, dulls the pain. It was a good watch, until the end, plenty to moan about, and plenty to praise. But not aimless, like it's been so often under Conte. We actually had quite a bit of possession in midfield, for one thing, like a proper football team.

We only had control of the game because Wolves were so feeble - and then we went and fucking lost to them!

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

Who cares

I guess we should. Would Suggest it’s maybe not him it’s us or the owners, but we know that anyway.

 

[EastUpperDK82]

The fans are just drained... we have been running in circles for years... and now we are doing it again... I don't think anyone believes that Conte is the one anymore... it's like he's gone already.... frustrating

 

[spursfan77]

This is a reasonable article. I think the bit that stood out for me is the limbo situation we are in (and also why we are mocked by everyone. The other top 5 don’t want us dining at their table and the rest of the PL is pissed off that we are). Basically we have owners who won’t push us on and top four is their title. Trouble is for them, the fans have seen that top four doesn’t really do anything. We don’t use it as a platform to push the team on, quite the opposite, we use it to plateau and think we’ve made it.

 

[Stamford]

Conte was backed. What does it change Porro is only loan(with mandatory option to buy) anyway?

Also - Mourinho, considering the financial reality when he was our manager was also backed.

It's backing to scrape fourth nothing more than that. It's why we don't win anything because this is what constitutes being backed

 

[Wearegoingtowintheleague]

Whats done it for me is the FA Cup defeat.

We've been poor in the league all season.. But there was a chance our 'winning' manager got us a trophy.

That's the reason we got him in and put up with this joyless brand of football.

To then get knocked out to Sheff utd B team when we would have been a home tie to Blackburn away from the semifinal is criminal.

There is zero enjoyment in watching us play like this to scrape 4th and a place in the champions league. We were doing that and more undrr Poch and for long periods of time classed as the most enjoyable team to watch in the premier league.

I like Conte, i do think his brand of.football can work if you give him all the finished parts, but he isn't suited to our situation.

We need a manager who can adapt in game, change formation and tactics in game when necessary. Rather than someone who relies solely on his system.

It makes is very easy to play against ud and opposition teams know exactly what to expect.

Worse than all this is sticking to a defensive platform and giving lesser teams the initiative against us. The likes of Sheff Utd aren't going to fear us, we let them settle in and grow in confidence.

Sadly we have a little team mentality. We pack our defence and do anything to stop the opposition scoring, hoping to nick something at the other end.

Its certianly not been fun to watch and i wonder how the players feel having to play in such a structured way.

I was thinking about times I've got excited about watching us this season and thought of Gil coming off the bench. It wasn't because he was tearing up the league but because he offered something different and exciting and there has been very little of that recently.

Sadly he wasn't deemed suitable for conte system and was sent out on loan.

We have a winning manager, we have backed him to some degree but this season we are on the verge of just having 4th to play for.

I really hope we go all out to win the champions league, but the way we play i have very little hope of that.

 

[Nebby]

We only had control of the game because Wolves were so feeble - and then we went and fucking lost to them!

To be fair, we could have been out of sight by half-time. But they made a series of substitutions and tactical changes which allowed them to regain some control and put our back line under greater pressure. Our illustrious tacticians on the bench did absolutely nothing in response until we were behind, and by then it was too late.

 

[Japhet]

To be fair, we could have been out of sight by half-time. But they made a series of substitutions and tactical changes which allowed them to regain some control and put our back line under greater pressure. Our illustrious tacticians on the bench did absolutely nothing in response until we were behind, and by then it was too late.

Agree with that. Our use of subs has been diabolical. So much for tactical changes and fresh legs with the new sub rules.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

It baffles me that people say Conte
hasn’t been backed. It’s honestly crazy talk. He has been backed more so than any manager in the history of this club with player purchases and squad culling.

Since he arrived, the club have spent roughly £270m(including loan options + obligations) on transfers for him. They’ve taken huge losses on players they could’ve got better fees for E.g. Sissoko, Dele, Alderweireld, Doherty, Reguilon, Lo Celso & Ndombele albeit the last 3 are on loan as Levy/Paratici continues to be useless at actually selling players but that is beside the point as they still listened and got them out of Conte’s squad.

The only instances I can attribute to Paratici/Levy failing Conte is not signing him a top quality LCB and signing Spence when it was clear Conte didn’t want him. Even then, Conte’s complete refusal to even look at Spence let alone give him minutes on the pitch spoke volumes about his inability to actually coach players.

Yes, when we announced the “cash injection” I was expecting a considerably larger outlay but to simply say “Conte wasn’t backed, this is Levy’s fault” is wrong and agenda driven. Conte was backed enough to improve us. He’s made us much worse. That’s why he needs to go.