Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[midoshairband]

it's a shame we never really got to see that post World Cup masterplan where he had us conserving energy beforehand so we could come on strong.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

Keeping conte at the club after Southampton wouldn’t have done us any favours, even if he was willing to stay. The man is more trouble than he’s worth.

 

[archiewasking]

Keeping conte at the club after Southampton wouldn’t have done us any favours, even if he was willing to stay. The man is more trouble than he’s worth.

I don't think he is. He just doesn't like taking a job with promises made to him which are then reneged on. He's only trouble if you don't do what you've said you'd do for him. Which I don't think is unreasonable.

 

[Ribble]

Biggest mistake was appointing him in the first place. Anyway reports doing rounds it was more of a case of Conte refusing to come back from Italy.

That report was in The Sun. If they said the sky was blue I'd go outside to check.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

Truth hurts

 

[glacierSpurs]

Truth hurts

You can bet he will lead his next team to some glory, like what Mourinho is doing with Roma. They knew first hand the problem is bigger than just changing managers. But our owner, and depressingly some of our fans as well, stubbornly chose not to believe that.

 

[samspurs92]

You can bet he will lead his next team to some glory, like what Mourinho is doing with Roma. They knew first hand the problem is bigger than just changing managers. But our owner, and depressingly some of our fans as well, stubbornly chose not to believe that.

Let’s give Eric Dier a new contract though.

 

[Styopa]

You can bet he will lead his next team to some glory, like what Mourinho is doing with Roma. They knew first hand the problem is bigger than just changing managers. But our owner, and depressingly some of our fans as well, stubbornly chose not to believe that.

More is required than just changing managers. But part of that is selecting the right manager for the job.

Conte was a big name - probably the biggest name available to us then. But it was a blatant PR move by Levy to appease fans, sponsors etc in the wake of the Nuno debacle. It was a short-term fix which predictably blew up in our face.

 

[Oh Teddy Teddy]

Let’s give Eric Dier a new contract though.

Didn't Conte say Dier could become one of the best CBs in the world?

 

[chas vs dave]

Didn't Conte say Dier could become one of the best CBs in the world?

He did, he also played him every minute, and stuck with the same core 13 players.

conte may go back to Italy and win something there.

 

[glacierSpurs]

More is required than just changing managers. But part of that is selecting the right manager for the job.

Conte was a big name - probably the biggest name available to us then. But it was a blatant PR move by Levy to appease fans, sponsors etc in the wake of the Nuno debacle. It was a short-term fix which predictably blew up in our face.

I would respectfully disagree. He led us to 4th last season. Don't wish to be a revisionist, but it is only predictable if he was still here and we are at the same position as now (which was worse than last season), or the interim coaching staff brought us to better position than he did before he left.

 

[Chris Flynn]

Didn't Conte say Dier could become one of the best CBs in the world?

lets hope he gets a new job in the summer and signs him

 

[Styopa]

I would respectfully disagree. He led us to 4th last season. Don't wish to be a revisionist, but it is only predictable if he was still here and we are at the same position as now (which was worse than last season), or the interim coaching staff brought us to better position than he did before he left.

I just meant it was predictable that things would probably implode after a couple of seasons.

I think a lot of people expected there to be some blow-up between Conte and Levy sooner or later. Both of them have a history of this kind of thing. And It's not that surprising we're doing worse this season, either. Look at Chelsea's second season under Conte.

Overall, I think many people expected things to go wrong sooner or later but hoped we would win something along the way. That was why the surrender in the cups was such a gut punch.

 

[Whazam]

Truth hurts

But there is a way of speaking the truth without sinking the ship you are supposed to be steering.

Most on here seemed to agree with at least part of the things he said. That doesn't change that he used his words as ammunition to force his way out of the club and alienate himself from the players. Seems like a lot of people have forgotten about that part the last couple of days (that's not aimed at you directly, btw).

 

[RuskyM]

Might be unpopular but the love-in and the retrospective "he was right" crowd need some self respect. He doesn't give a shit about us. He played absolutely shambolic football, routinely belittled the club and talked about how we weren't winners whilst pathetically going out of almost every cup competition. Oh, and claiming we couldn't possibly compete with Milan because of their history in the competition like we don't have a better record in it than Conte does.

Fact is if he wanted to still be here, he would be.

 

[Trix]

Might be unpopular but the love-in and the retrospective "he was right" crowd need some self respect. He doesn't give a shit about us. He played absolutely shambolic football, routinely belittled the club and talked about how we weren't winners whilst pathetically going out of almost every cup competition. If he wanted to still be here, he would be.

You can think all of that and still believe it would have been better to keep him until the season ends, when he would have left anyway. It was right to get shot of him if there was a realistic alternative to steady the ship until the Summer. Just getting CS to take over was the mistake not getting rid of Conte. It was an idiotic decision and we should have just limped on in pain, rather than cutting the leg off and hoping the wound just healed on it's own.

 

[DanielCHillier]

You can bet he will lead his next team to some glory, like what Mourinho is doing with Roma. They knew first hand the problem is bigger than just changing managers. But our owner, and depressingly some of our fans as well, stubbornly chose not to believe that.

But this was mid-season, I could understand this after an unsuccessful transfer window, but what's the ownership supposed to do mid-season?

 

[PCozzie]

...routinely belittled the club and talked about how we weren't winners whilst pathetically going out of almost every cup competition.

I generally try to keep out of the managerial post-mortems, but this bit does rankle. Very few of us expected to be league champions, or CL winners this season even with Conte, but we had a better than decent chance of a domestic cup the way the draws panned out. We treated Forest and Sheffield United with disrespect and deservedly got dumped out of both. It was clear we should have focussed more heavily on what was achievable.

 

[A Bit Much]

You can bet he will lead his next team to some glory, like what Mourinho is doing with Roma. They knew first hand the problem is bigger than just changing managers. But our owner, and depressingly some of our fans as well, stubbornly chose not to believe that.

He may lead his next team to glory, but I guarantee you it won't be in the PL with a side similar in standing to us. I agree that we need to work much harder to win trophies, but Conte didn't show himself in a good light this season and I'd question whether his approach would do the business at a team of our level.

 

[RuskyM]

You can think all of that and still believe it would have been better to keep him until the season ends, when he would have left anyway. It was right to get shot of him if there was a realistic alternative to steady the ship until the Summer. Just getting CS to take over was the mistake not getting rid of Conte. It was an idiotic decision and we should have just limped on in pain, rather than cutting the leg off and hoping the wound just healed on it's own.

Hiring Stellini was daft, but I'm not really sure how Conte could continue his job after his rant. After weeks of him being absent and the team fighting for him, his reply of "I absolutely hate all of these cowards and the board (oh no not the board actually)" wasn't going to be workable. He must've known this. No one forced him to do that interview.