Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[Japhet]

Basically we’ve been in a constant state of flux ever since Poch left , just crisis after crisis and it’s draining just bring Poch back ffs and fingers crossed hope beyond hope he can recreate what he did before

Not sure he can to be honest. When he came in before his aggressive pressing style was pretty new and not at all common in the EPL. We rode that wave for a while and then everyone else caught it. Once that happened it all began to unravel as that style became the norm. Does he have a new plan, because trying to press aggressively with Kane and Son up top really won't cut the mustard. I never really paid much attention to what he did at PSG and with the players there it would be hard to ascertain whether they were following instructions or just going with their own script. I guess my concern is that Poch doesn't have anything new up his sleeve.

 

[beats1]

Is Reguillon worse than Perisic and Sessegnon ?

There was this myth that reguillon performed poorly under conte, he didnt

He just didn't perform to the level we saw under Mourinho

The reason why we let him go, was because he was never available and always injured

 

[Timberwolf]

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.

 

[Hitch]

Reckon we'd challenge for the title under Conte next year - if only we conspired to completely crash our season and finish out of the European places. Albeit I doubt our Daniel would share such vision. Oh well, purgatory it remains.

 

[lis spur]

Celtic Manager please

 

[spurs-r-us]

Please, please, please just tell him not to come back. Ship his things over in a crate to Italy, it's where he wants to be anyway.

 

[spurs-r-us]

Reckon we'd challenge for the title under Conte next year - if only we conspired to completely crash our season and finish out of the European places. Albeit I doubt our Daniel would share such vision. Oh well, purgatory it remains.

This is satire, right? Tank what remains of our season to give an uncontracted manager no European football in the faint hope he'll stay and deliver us the title that he's so clearly incapable of.

ENIC out, they want us to be too competitive

 

[Hitch]

This is satire, right? Tank what remains of our season to give an uncontracted manager no European football in the faint hope he'll stay and deliver us the title that he's so clearly incapable of.

ENIC out, they want us to be too competitive

Satire? I wish! Happy to get into a deep, dark technical analysis of my possibly semi-serious point tomorrow. For now though I remain still entirely discombobulated by the thoughtfulness and rationality of your response. Allow me recovery time please.

 

[Hotspur33]

Yeah I mean there really isn’t one logical explanation especially considering our next three choices were Fonseca, Gattuso and Nuno. What a farce

I’m a levy supporter, but I can’t even defend the decision to pass up on Ten Hag. What’s really weird is Levy has a thing for snatching talent that impresses vs us. (Porro being the most recent case)
That Ajax team were one of the most impressive teams I’ve ever watched, and he would have likely been chicken feed in terms of expense compared to Conte.
Really odd and out of character.

 

[Hotspur33]

This ethos people keep on about. WTF is it? And do people seriously expect Daniel Levy to be on board with it. Or even know what it is.

I mean, I remember when we were about doing it with a swagger, skill and entertaining. That's what we expected. But now? It's a whole different era I suppose.

So this ethos................I can't help but feel it's a bit of a pipe dream. ENIC and Levy have had 20 years and if there isn't one now, I can't see how anyone can expect one to all of a sudden be plucked out of thin air.

That’s because it’s all bollocks, the same way the ‘West Ham way’ is. The most entertaining football, is winning football.

 

[Tezza1978]

We don’t need to drop out of champions league. We just need a couple defenders and a creative midfielder.

This is another key point.

The idea that we should "burn down" the majority of the playing squad and aim to be focussing on appointing a project manager who wants to build a young team of academy prospects and hot prospects from the Championship .....that are raw and love to attack, with Bielsa style tactics.....is utterly ridiculous. The people calling for this as they "want to feel happy watching Spurs again" would swiftly scream for that manager's head if we are sat in 9th or 10th in January 2024 with a squad and "tactics plan"/"tactics truck" like that. Doesn't matter how "pretty" the football is if that is the outcome.

That approach is - small time - and would not be tolerated by ANYONE - chairman or owner wise - and that includes Levy who we all rightly have major issues with. The Levy of now despite his interfering and meddling and failures doesn't have the same goals as Levy back in the Jol days when our entire aim was to somehow break in to the top 4. I don't want him anywhere near football /on pitch matters but as a commercial /property director he has been excellent in growing the club in that area, despite us being perennnial trophy dodgers.

We have to start acting like a big club if we want to progress and gain respect. That doesn't mean emulating Brighton or Brentford FFS!! We have the all the foundations - training ground, world class stadium, huge money generating events, yes even a poxy go kart track on its way. We are hugely appealing to investors. Keeping top 4 or at the absolute worst Europa League football is absolutely key to retaining key players such as Romero, Bentancur, Kulu....and I include Richarlison in that list as am certain he will come good with confidence and an injury free few months. Kane staying or not is an open question.

Ditto in terms of attracting Tier 2 players (players who can be developed to Tier 1 standard as are RELATIVELY young (early - mid 20s), with a couple of more experienced heads if available on good deals/free transfers)

To go back to the point by dtxspurs - we just need a couple of quality center backs , a creative midfielder / another Son or Kulu type player and a top goalkeeper. To clear the decks of the deadwood / loanees and then bring in a couple of prospects as backup to fill out the squad. Then - whether its Conte still ....or a new manager next season with a less pragmatic philosophy - we really have a chance of going places.

 

[Timberwolf]

I’m a levy supporter, but I can’t even defend the decision to pass up on Ten Hag. What’s really weird is Levy has a thing for snatching talent that impresses vs us. (Porro being the most recent case)
That Ajax team were one of the most impressive teams I’ve ever watched, and he would have likely been chicken feed in terms of expense compared to Conte.
Really odd and out of character.

Yeah not sure what happened there.

If it's true we interviewed him and were the ones to turn him down then it's pretty unforgivable. The vast majority of Spurs fans would've been very behind that appointment and he would've fulfilled Levy's promise of attractive football.

Given the options that summer, he was surely by far the best punt (I mean, most of us said it on here at the time).

 

[rossdapep]

This ethos people keep on about. WTF is it? And do people seriously expect Daniel Levy to be on board with it. Or even know what it is.

I mean, I remember when we were about doing it with a swagger, skill and entertaining. That's what we expected. But now? It's a whole different era I suppose.

So this ethos................I can't help but feel it's a bit of a pipe dream. ENIC and Levy have had 20 years and if there isn't one now, I can't see how anyone can expect one to all of a sudden be plucked out of thin air.

Oh no, not at all.

I think I know what are ethos is, or at least SHOULD be and so do many of us. Jol, Redknapp and Poch all hit close to it or maybe even typified it.

If you look at them 3, I'd say its being brave, trying to win games by getting at the opposition etc.

It doesnt have to be nailed on or pigeon holed totally but I can say that coaches like Jose and Nuno are not it and should have been avoided at all costs. I like Conte's style in some ways, because his teams do go for the kill at times but Conte doesn't really work with the constraints we've given him.

Which is obviously a bigger issue here and many coaches have and will struggle under our overlord.

But that's why Levy should always appoint a coach who is on the way up, cause they will potentially overachieve and be more willing to work under the constraints, for a while at least.

It's probably all futile with them in charge anyway. They are clearly a deluded bunch who are to set on their ways to even understand how change works in football or as you say a footballing ethos.

We can at least try to tell them though.

 

[rossdapep]

This is another key point.

The idea that we should "burn down" the majority of the playing squad and aim to be focussing on appointing a project manager who wants to build a young team of academy prospects and hot prospects from the Championship .....that are raw and love to attack, with Bielsa style tactics.....is utterly ridiculous. The people calling for this as they "want to feel happy watching Spurs again" would swiftly scream for that manager's head if we are sat in 9th or 10th in January 2024 with a squad and "tactics plan"/"tactics truck" like that. Doesn't matter how "pretty" the football is if that is the outcome.

That approach is - small time - and would not be tolerated by ANYONE - chairman or owner wise - and that includes Levy who we all rightly have major issues with. The Levy of now despite his interfering and meddling and failures doesn't have the same goals as Levy back in the Jol days when our entire aim was to somehow break in to the top 4. I don't want him anywhere near football /on pitch matters but as a commercial /property director he has been excellent in growing the club in that area, despite us being perennnial trophy dodgers.

We have to start acting like a big club if we want to progress and gain respect. That doesn't mean emulating Brighton or Brentford FFS!! We have the all the foundations - training ground, world class stadium, huge money generating events, yes even a poxy go kart track on its way. We are hugely appealing to investors. Keeping top 4 or at the absolute worst Europa League football is absolutely key to retaining key players such as Romero, Bentancur, Kulu....and I include Richarlison in that list as am certain he will come good with confidence and an injury free few months. Kane staying or not is an open question.

Ditto in terms of attracting Tier 2 players (players who can be developed to Tier 1 standard as are RELATIVELY young (early - mid 20s), with a couple of more experienced heads if available on good deals/free transfers)

To go back to the point by dtxspurs - we just need a couple of quality center backs , a creative midfielder / another Son or Kulu type player and a top goalkeeper. To clear the decks of the deadwood / loanees and then bring in a couple of prospects as backup to fill out the squad. Then - whether its Conte still ....or a new manager next season with a less pragmatic philosophy - we really have a chance of going places.

I see this phrase a lot and I think its a little wrong.

We dont need to start acting like a big club. A big club hires coaches like Conte and Jose and signs players for 60m.

We need to behave like club that is aligned and understand how to get success.

United are a big club and for the 10 years after Sir Alex they brought in big coaches, big name players for 80m etc. I'd say they behaved like a big club but not one with a clear structure or idea.

 

[Snarfalicious]

I don’t think a manager change is what is going to flip this thing around. I don’t really care if it happens right now or in the summer, I think our problems run wayyyy deeper than just the guy on the touch line.

We need just about a full clear-out. It’ll never happen because the first person who should be out is going to be the one leading us into our next managerial appointment and will probably take on an even bigger role when Paratici leaves. I have zero faith he can put together a coherent managerial search, let alone a complete restructure of our recruitment team while somehow managing the transfer market. It may turn into an absolute nightmare once we find ourselves looking for a new coach. Which is why he will likely take the “easy road” and hire Poch back.

 

[rossdapep]

Feels like a lot has happened since January so I keep forgetting this but that last window really made it clear that Conte is not going to stay on.

 

[g_harry]

So every manager that comes to Spurs fails. Must be the manager then. Let's try a new one.

The 3 best managers under ENIC time, Jol, Redknapp and Poch. All ultimately failed in end has they weren't given the tools/players to push on. Granted Harry got his head turned, but Nelson Saha window when we really appeared to have genuine chance to go at the league.

Really wouldn't motivate you as manager would it.

 

[piedpiper]

I’m really worried by all who want Poch back as if he’s the messiah!
Be careful what you wish for.
Hopefully Conte will be renewed after his mini break and we can get back on an even keel

I'm more worried that you believe in Conte

 

[piedpiper]

The World Cup was such a nice break because I didn’t have to watch us. Now I can’t wait until the end of the season so I don’t have to watch us either. A football club isn’t meant to make a person feel that way.

Even when we were mid table shit, I wasn’t as fed up with the club as I am now. Why does it feel different now? Because we were so close to glory and fucked it up the only way we know how I suspect. It really hasn’t felt the same since losing that final. Maybe I should have walked away then because it’s been all downhill since.

The best period in this season was that 6 week break.

 

[DCSPUR64]

The best period in this season was that 6 week break.

Until Harry missed the England penalty, another disappointing time.
Perhaps Antonio back in the morning will make all the difference!!!