Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[carlosspurs]

The long-term goal as I understand it is to be competing for all the main trophies every season, and winning a good proportion, using extra funds generated organically by the new stadium. This has been added to by a £100 million (£150 million down the line?) by ENIC and possible further outside injections of capital.

The first part of this has been achieved regularly in my view, and the second part is a failure. This failure can be explained in very large part by the unexpectedly early close calls on trophies by Pochettino at a time when funds were scarce because of the new stadium and Hotspur Way developments taking up all available funds, then by the Covid debacle which threatened the club's very existence, which fans tend to conveniently forget.

The strategy as I understand it to achieve this goal is to incrementally improve the playing squad both by improvements and replenishment of the first team squad and a much improved academy set up, and employing high quality coaching and back up teams. The academy took a massive hit in my opinion with the departure of John McDermott, who I don't think has been adequately replaced, and Fabio Paratici has been tasked with a root and branch overhaul of the set up, which hopefully will see discernible improvements over time. This will of course will only be achieved when players can see a pathway to the first team which includes more than being on the bench.

What the hiring and firing of consecutive managers indicates (to me) is that Daniel Levy too often thinks like a fan with his headline appointments and therefore goes for a "name" manager, and in doing so goes against the footballing philosophy of the club. To my mind this applies to both the Mourinho and Conte appointments, but also AVB, Ramos, Santini, and possibly Hoddle, plus (unsuccessfully) Van Gaal.

I regard Nuno Espirito Santo as a panic appointment when all other avenues had been exhausted.

This to me is a massive fault of Levy's. He has a mission statement and a strategy to achieve that, but in purely footballing matters lacks the courage of his convictions and makes appointments to excite the fanbase. However in all other matters relating to the Club he is single minded, purposeful and excellence orientated.

I suspect he understands this fault and therefore has always preferred the Director of Football model, where he can keep away from purely footballing matters, but goes against this when coaches do well, such as Martin Jol and Mauricio Pochettino, by changing their title to manager, but expecting them to continue to act as Head Coach. With Fabio Paratici's appointment in a more senior role than DOF perhaps Levy can distance himself more.

The fact that you continually refer to "managers" rather than "head coaches" does make me wonder though whether we see what is going on in the same way. Conte is not a Manager. He is Head Coach, with a different set of responsibilities.

Great response by the way !! If your interpretation is right, and the plan is as articulated. Then it feels to me that Levy either needs to communicate the above very clearly .. As I would hazard a guess that most (including me) do not believe he gets out of the way of the DoF and is unable to remove himself from the most important item that will ultimately lead to team success - player recruitment/selling etc etc .

I think it’s strange how FP is nowhere to be seen or heard. How former DoF or equivalent staff Mitchel etc all left (the question as to why needs to be considered). Guess is the interference by Mr Levy, maybe I am wrong.
The way the predictable negotiations are reported with player Y or Z .. It’s the same old, same old as to not paying the price required regardless of “game changing” infrastructure. This I struggle to believe is FP (although nobody can be sure) although this was happening before FP was at the club.

The removal of Jose before the Cup Final , to me suggests that him thinking as a fan is not likely. Who wanted Mason to be in charge of that game and jeopardise a trophy ?

Regardless of manager or head coach - success requires everyone to understand the plan, get behind it and focus on their areas of responsibility. Do i believe Levy has set a clear strategy for Paratici, Conte and not changed as things have progressed, no I don’t. Think this is why there has been a change AC demeanour and FP is nowhere to be seen.

Levy has a achieved a lot , but he’s getting in the way of further progression in my opinion. The next 2 weeks will be interesting and telling.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

World of Hotspur is easily the worst Spurs account on Twitter, but must admit sometimes he's very funny.

Going back to 2011 as he used Iago Falque as an example of failure in signing young players(made a profit on him btw) and then missing a lot of successive transfers made under this policy since 2011.

From mentioned article I will also say that "How three years after Christian Eriksen, their sole creative midfielder, left the club, do Tottenham still have a single attacking midfielder in the squad?" fails to mention that we had 3 permanent managers since then and all 3 of them weren't using attacking midfielders in their tactics.

"or why a derisory offer of £12m was submitted for Leandro Trossard, when both players could, and should have been in the squad to face what is likely to be a defining run of fixtures in the coming days and weeks."


Only 4 days earlier the same guy was moaning about Spurs interested in Trossard and before then I had no idea textbook Levy signing was 28 years old or out of favour at current club(genuinely can't remember the last Spurs transfer that fits this)

In that article it bemoans us only putting in a bid of only 12 mil for Trossard. That article read like it was written at 2.30pm after several glasses of red wine. I have no issue with it because, as someone else pointed out, it’s essentially the other side of the coin to the pro Levy anti Conte propaganda article circulating. But it was pretty clearly based in emotion not fact.

Also on a side note, I hate how people are writing off Gil and Sarr as a failures. Gill is only 21 and Sarr 20, how anyone can write off a 20 or 21 year old as a failure is beyond me. Anyway, I know that’s not for this thread.,

 

[agrdavidsfan]

I’ve honestly been Comte out for months but more I’ve thought about it if he goes we’ve been warned by Trix and co it just rewards levy

so he goes we still have the other evil until levy goes nothing changes so why panic let him have the season

 

[davidclarke]

What is going on, I am so confused. Why can’t we be normal for a while

 

[Adam456]

Interesting for all the bitching and moaning we chad an xG of 2.32 against arsenal. Yet we are apparently some crap attacking side according to people on here

Semantics perhaps but good attacking sides also actually score goals

On a serious note - I really like xG as a measure of our general play. But I suppose within it you could also argue that Arse basically marked Kane out of the game and let probably the 2 best chances fall to Sessegnon who is not much of a scorer and Son who is woefully out of form. Hence expected 2.32 - actual zero

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

I know someone is going to say their tactics are the same and that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Agree. And anyone who does simply doesn’t know much about football.

 

[wattothfc]

Indeed individually all our defenders can defend, and they aren't too bad in 1v1 situations. What they struggle to do is pass out, they make simple clearances look difficult and fail to track runners at times. The last part I think is in part down to the coaching although when you consider the coaches we've had are all defensive minded I wonder if they are just failing to adapt and understand where they should be.

No they can’t defend. Not being able to track runners, is not being able to defend.

 

[Gb160]

so he goes we still have the other evil until levy goes nothing changes so why panic let him have the season

This will last until about 20 minutes into the City match

 

[daveduvet]

Back Conte… not loving the football currently. But I reckon it’s a game of brinksmanship with him & Daniel. At least give AC the opportunity between now and the summer.

 

[Meercat]

When I think back or sack (no crack) I think back to what excites me about Jose becoming manager and the profile he brought, and how that was only increased by one of the worlds top 3 managers at the time… and that was the quality of player that would be attracted purely because of the Conte factor. That’s the thing we surely have to cash i on, so I’m back, all the way.

 

[George94]

Really quite sad quotes in the guardian about him considering his future due to losing 3 close friends in such a short space of time...

 

[cjbyid]

 

[snakehipsspurs]

Really interesting quotes in here. He's clearly a very emotional and sensitive guy underneath the bravado, and there's no doubt this season has really had a toll on him. But great to hear him say he still gives his all and is passionate for the club and his work.

I think part of what makes Conte special is the fact he does wear everything like this on his sleeve. You know exactly how he feels and if he looks flat just now, it's because he probably is. Let's hope a big window and some good results start to turn things around for him and get us back on track.

 

[Meercat]

What I never understood was why, on the back on multiple losses, we never gave him compassionate leave and let Mase take couple of the fixtures, etc.

 

[DanielJohnCosta]

look the club would know more than anyone else but there’s a reason you employ conte and don’t fully back him and that’s if you’re unsure on his long term intentions and these quotes just confirm it

 

[rossdapep]

This just came up on my YouTube feed.

Agree with a lot of what she says, even if she gives me a headache! ??

fuck off with this shit

 

[punkisback]

What I never understood was why, on the back on multiple losses, we never gave him compassionate leave and let Mase take couple of the fixtures, etc.

Agree with this but he has an assistant for a reason. Want Mason nowhere near influencing the squad as he sabotaged our league cup final by picking his favourites.

 

[Meercat]

Agree with this but he has an assistant for a reason. Want Mason nowhere near influencing the squad as he sabotaged our league cup final by picking his favourites.

Yeah, you know what I meant, someone in the backroom stepping up for a few games, leading training etc, I just picked the shortest name to type

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Aside from all the Levy not properly backing him with the quality players he needs and questioning of his tactics etc recently, there is no doubt that the loss of these 3 close friends in the space of about 6 months would’ve had a huge effect on him and as a result his demeanour when coaching, when giving team talks etc, the loss of Gianpiero will have effected our players too, add to that the quite toxic atmosphere in the stadium, the weather and time of year, our recent poor form and the players and Conte are probably all just pretty down and fed up at the moment tbh.

Sounds like he is strongly considering moving back to Italy next summer and I don’t blame him at all, when you have not one but 3 big losses so quickly then your outlook and priorities change. ???

Most important thing is that Antonio is ok, but we are now inbetween a rock and a hard place as Conte needs to be properly backed in Jan and next summer but there is no point laying down £35-40mil on Porro a specialist RWB and potentially more money on an AM etc this window if Conte is off in summer and we are going to bring in a manager who plays a back 4. But Levy will love this if conte is going this summer as it’s an easy out to not buy anyone this January ?‍

 

[the yid]

I genuinely think Conte wants to be here a d cares about the club, why on earth would he bother going to war with Levy, why not just walk? Most people who didn't care would just walk