Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[Ginola+Tonic]

Haven’t we got Brighton in the week before we play West Ham

Yes we do, I stand corrected.

West Ham will be off the back of a double header V Sevilla in the Europa league to.

 

[wadewill]

Don't think he can, pressure on him from above as well as below now and has been since last Summer. I don't want to/can't go into detail but it's been a little bit game of thrones as far as his position is concerned for a while, and lets just say there's ambitious significant other, very much with Uncle Joe's ear ready and very willing to jump into the breech so to speak.


Probably said too much there but hey ho.

It’s Harry Winks isn’t it, snidy little fucker

 

[spursfan77]

If we’re to assume the narrative of Conte’s teams struggle with two games a week, we could definitely do with Southampton knocking West Ham out of the FA cup tonight.
Because Tottenham v West Ham is scheduled in for the quarter final weekend so we’d have all week to prepare.
If West Ham go through tonight it’ll get moved to a couple of weeks later in a midweek slot.

So basically come on the saints.

I just saw this on Reddit that could well explain our patchy/shit form and Arsenal/wolves good form. Us with our small squad have played 5 more games than the scum. That has to have an effect. Especially as a large amount of our first XI had covid before Christmas.

Plus 9 of the games we played had less than 4 hours between fixtures. Comparatively Arsenal played 8 games this year and have only had 2 of those games with less than 4 days between them. Now it should level out. Man U have had the same problem as us.

 

[mil1lion]

Sorry to say I agree. All very well saying he wont go as long he's backed in the Summer but do any of us really believe he will be because I don't. Really hope I'm wrong but we have never seen anything to suggest he will be. Nobody else has ever been backed properly so why now change direction.
If I was Conte or Kane I'd be halfway out the door now. Clubs a fucking bad joke.

I have a little bit of hope that with the stadium built and generating money we'll be in position to really back the manager. It makes no sense to hire Conte if we're not going to back him. There really is no point whatsoever when we know full well that he doesn't hang around if he's not happy. Getting Paratici in to run the transfers with Levy taking a back seat was also a massive move. He's already signed Romero, Kulusevski and Bentancur. The signs are promising, another half dozen on that sort of level and we'll have a team Conte can really compete with. Maybe just maybe the plan was always to limit spending while we built a new stadium and then once that's built we can push on from there. It was always difficult for a club that is not financially doped to spend big with a 36k capacity stadium. Now we have an extra 30k and other events to be hosted outside of football. Everything is set up for us to go big now. It's a long process to do things the way we have in an organic way but if we start to win things from it then the wait will be worthwhile.

 

[danielneeds]

Don't think he can, pressure on him from above as well as below now and has been since last Summer. I don't want to/can't go into detail but it's been a little bit game of thrones as far as his position is concerned for a while, and lets just say there's ambitious significant other, very much with Uncle Joe's ear ready and very willing to jump into the breech so to speak.


Probably said too much there but hey ho.

I really hope it’s his son Josh trying to fuck him Kendall Roy style.

 

[stevel]

The only way he's gone is if he doesn't get the backing he's been promised in the Summer. Levy did exactly what he was asked to do in January(which was unprecedented), so lets see if he follows through with what he's promised. If he does and we get who we are looking to bring in, I think we'll all be happy including Conte.

To what extent do you think our ability to bring in who we are looking at will depend on whether we secure CL football next year?

 

[Styopa]

I have a little bit of hope that with the stadium built and generating money we'll be in position to really back the manager. It makes no sense to hire Conte if we're not going to back him. There really is no point whatsoever when we know full well that he doesn't hang around if he's not happy. Getting Paratici in to run the transfers with Levy taking a back seat was also a massive move. He's already signed Romero, Kulusevski and Bentancur. The signs are promising, another half dozen on that sort of level and we'll have a team Conte can really compete with. Maybe just maybe the plan was always to limit spending while we built a new stadium and then once that's built we can push on from there. It was always difficult for a club that is not financially doped to spend big with a 36k capacity stadium. Now we have an extra 30k and other events to be hosted outside of football. Everything is set up for us to go big now. It's a long process to do things the way we have in an organic way but if we start to win things from it then the wait will be worthwhile.

Your logic is entirely sound. What worries me is that over the last few seasons we have sacked Poch, and hired and sacked Mourinho and Nuno. There doesn’t seem like any sensible strategy behind those appointments and Levy (at least as far we can tell) has not really supported any of those managers. What was the point of bringing in Mourinho unless we were going to bankroll him like he has needed at virtually every other club where he been successful? What was the point of appointing Nuno- who nearly everyone believed was the wrong person for the club- only to sack him a few months later? I really hope Levy can see that appointing an elite manager like Conte is counter productive unless we back him with elite signings. But given his behaviour of the last few years, we should by no means assume Levy will back Conte with quality signings even it seems like the sensible thing to do.

 

[Hakkz]

I’m starting to properly question my support of the club for the first time in over 30 years. I just can’t be fucked with the constant disappointment and being let down. I’m really starting to question my own intelligence investing my own emotions, time and money into this club. It’s results like that (again) that makes me think the club is making mugs of us all. I know it’s not good for me so why do I do it?

Start by not spending any money on it. Also, miss some games and do other things, it's healthy.

 

[dudu]

Your logic is entirely sound. What worries me is that over the last few seasons we have sacked Poch, and hired and sacked Mourinho and Nuno. There doesn’t seem like any sensible strategy behind those appointments and Levy (at least as far we can tell) has not really supported any of those managers. What was the point of bringing in Mourinho unless we were going to bankroll him like he has needed at virtually every other club where he been successful? What was the point of appointing Nuno- who nearly everyone believed was the wrong person for the club- only to sack him a few months later? I really hope Levy can see that appointing an elite manager like Conte is counter productive unless we back him with elite signings. But given his behaviour of the last few years, we should by no means assume Levy will back Conte with quality signings even it seems like the sensible thing to do.

This is where some translation gets lots between what Conte wants and what Spurs fans (not you necessarily) want.

Conte doesn't need elite signings, he just needs the signings he needs.

Apart from Lukaku, and arguably Eriksen, though, let's not pretend any other "elite" club were in for him - who were his elite signings at Inter?

Same at Chelsea - the best signing he made was Kante in my opinion - obviously, Danny Drinkwater is up there too but yeah, I'm not seeing the pattern here of Conte demanding elite signings at all....

In fact, he has spent 50M+ on a player twice in his managerial career.

 

[slartibartfast]

I have a little bit of hope that with the stadium built and generating money we'll be in position to really back the manager. It makes no sense to hire Conte if we're not going to back him. There really is no point whatsoever when we know full well that he doesn't hang around if he's not happy. Getting Paratici in to run the transfers with Levy taking a back seat was also a massive move. He's already signed Romero, Kulusevski and Bentancur. The signs are promising, another half dozen on that sort of level and we'll have a team Conte can really compete with. Maybe just maybe the plan was always to limit spending while we built a new stadium and then once that's built we can push on from there. It was always difficult for a club that is not financially doped to spend big with a 36k capacity stadium. Now we have an extra 30k and other events to be hosted outside of football. Everything is set up for us to go big now. It's a long process to do things the way we have in an organic way but if we start to win things from it then the wait will be worthwhile.

No it doesn't. But then we dont do things that make sense do we?
It made no sense not backing Redknapp when we were chasing top 4.
It made no sense to be chasing the title and not back Poch.
It made no sense to go 2 windows without strengthening the squad when we were nicely settled in the top 4 and moving into a new stadium.
It made no sense to bring in Jose without backing him properly either.
It made no sense spending £40m on a cb years ago who was a prospect especially in light of the above.
Not making sensible decisions is what we do.

 

[danielneeds]

This is where some translation gets lots between what Conte wants and what Spurs fans (not you necessarily) want.

Conte doesn't need elite signings, he just needs the signings he needs.

Apart from Lukaku, and arguably Eriksen, though, let's not pretend any other "elite" club were in for him - who were his elite signings at Inter?

Same at Chelsea - the best signing he made was Kante in my opinion - obviously, Danny Drinkwater is up there too but yeah, I'm not seeing the pattern here of Conte demanding elite signings at all....

In fact, he has spent 50M+ on a player twice in his managerial career.

The problem is that Chelsea and Inter were far closer to being competitive before he came and just needed his coaching and an extra boost of quality to launch a genuine challenge. Juve was a bit different and was a longer term build but they still had the cache of being Juve to attract players like Pirlo and Tevez.

 

[slartibartfast]

I’m starting to properly question my support of the club for the first time in over 30 years. I just can’t be fucked with the constant disappointment and being let down. I’m really starting to question my own intelligence investing my own emotions, time and money into this club. It’s results like that (again) that makes me think the club is making mugs of us all. I know it’s not good for me so why do I do it?

What I'm angry with, and this has been an issue with me for a while under different managers, is not the fact that we're struggling, I followed Spurs when we we're mid table and loved going to matches. It's the lack of effort or trying to win. I cannot accept that and will not be watching us anymore until that changes. I'm not prepared to waste my time, money and energy on a team that goes up against a Champioship team in a knockout game and plans to sit back, hit on the counter, and goes 45mins without having 1 fucking shot. Thats not football for me, thats dogshit.
The squad is a shambles and has been poorly managed with no direction or leadership, wasting millions on below average players, Sanchez, Doherty, Gil, Emerson, Ndomble, LoCelso, the list goes on.
I can take being average. I cant take not attacking and not trying to win.

 

[dudu]

The problem is that Chelsea and Inter were far closer to being competitive before he came and just needed his coaching and an extra boost of quality to launch a genuine challenge. Juve was a bit different and was a longer term build but they still had the cache of being Juve to attract players like Pirlo and Tevez.

Regardless of who he brought in.... that inter team was not full of 'elite' players..... maybe 3 of them? 4?

 

[mil1lion]

Your logic is entirely sound. What worries me is that over the last few seasons we have sacked Poch, and hired and sacked Mourinho and Nuno. There doesn’t seem like any sensible strategy behind those appointments and Levy (at least as far we can tell) has not really supported any of those managers. What was the point of bringing in Mourinho unless we were going to bankroll him like he has needed at virtually every other club where he been successful? What was the point of appointing Nuno- who nearly everyone believed was the wrong person for the club- only to sack him a few months later? I really hope Levy can see that appointing an elite manager like Conte is counter productive unless we back him with elite signings. But given his behaviour of the last few years, we should by no means assume Levy will back Conte with quality signings even it seems like the sensible thing to do.

Although we didn't spend big money we did back Jose and sign a good number of players for him. He also accepted the job knowing that he would have a limited budget. The covid outbreak came at a bad time though and there's every chance we would have spent more for him ahead of the 2nd season. We still got the likes of Reguilon and Bale on loan even during the pandemic. The Nuno appointment always felt like a short term one after a mess of a manager search. The bigger appointment in the summer was Paratici. Something had to change on that front. The stadium had to be open and generating regular money to put us in a position to back the manager more financially. That's what I'm hoping the situation is anyway. We've just had some set backs the last few years with the stadium delayed for almost a full season, then the covid outbreak which stopped fans attending for a while. Still pretty crazy to think we haven't played the NLD in the league with a full capacity yet.

 

[mil1lion]

No it doesn't. But then we dont do things that make sense do we?
It made no sense not backing Redknapp when we were chasing top 4.
It made no sense to be chasing the title and not back Poch.
It made no sense to go 2 windows without strengthening the squad when we were nicely settled in the top 4 and moving into a new stadium.
It made no sense to bring in Jose without backing him properly either.
It made no sense spending £40m on a cb years ago who was a prospect especially in light of the above.
Not making sensible decisions is what we do.

I think there's a fair bit of nonsense there I'm afraid. This idea that we didn't back the managers is way overplayed. We clearly backed Redknapp and signed plenty of players for him. We signed players in their late 20s and into their 30s. We even managed to get VDV for him which was pretty impossible for us. Let alone bringing back players like Defoe who we had sold previously. He took us as far as he could because he's not an elite manager but fair play did great to even get into the CL. He got us top 4 twice but we were never in position to attract top players let alone afford them.
I'm also not sure how people are so convinced Poch had nothing to do with our lack of signings. It's funny that when Jose arrived we made several signings. Maybe he was just more decisive where Poch was very particular about who he wanted. Lets not forget that Poch wanted full control and we didn't have a director out making signings for him. I will absolutely agree the year we signed nobody was a real mess. However it still falls in line with the fact we were working on a £1b stadium project.
We absolutely backed Jose, signed plenty of players for him. We just didn't have massive money to spend like he's used too but then he knew that anyway.
Not sure why you mention Sanchez when that surely shows that we did back Poch by splashing big on a young centre back. He just hasn't worked out how we wanted, much like spending 30m on Sissoko. They were badly judged signings but we still backed the manager.
If these managers were not backed as much as you claim then why were they all sacked and not walk away?

With all that being said we are in a different position now. The stadium is now open and we have full crowds again. It's certainly possible we can now afford to back Conte with what he needs.

 

[mil1lion]

What I'm angry with, and this has been an issue with me for a while under different managers, is not the fact that we're struggling, I followed Spurs when we we're mid table and loved going to matches. It's the lack of effort or trying to win. I cannot accept that and will not be watching us anymore until that changes. I'm not prepared to waste my time, money and energy on a team that goes up against a Champioship team in a knockout game and plans to sit back, hit on the counter, and goes 45mins without having 1 fucking shot. Thats not football for me, thats dogshit.
The squad is a shambles and has been poorly managed with no direction or leadership, wasting millions on below average players, Sanchez, Doherty, Gil, Emerson, Ndomble, LoCelso, the list goes on.
I can take being average. I cant take not attacking and not trying to win.

Sorry but this is nonsense. We cover more ground than anybody and create a lot more than we did under Nuno. The players are trying but they lack the quality to win games. The bigger issue with Spurs at this moment in time is the ticket prices. Until we go and sign top quality players I can absolutely understand why people don't want to go. It feels like the cost of a ticket is to go to the stadium rather than to watch a top team. The ticket prices don't reflect where we are as a club. If we back Conte in the summer and get the quality to match the work rate we will be worth the cost.

 

[shelfboy68]

Sorry but this is nonsense. We cover more ground than anybody and create a lot more than we did under Nuno. The players are trying but they lack the quality to win games. The bigger issue with Spurs at this moment in time is the ticket prices. Until we go and sign top quality players I can absolutely understand why people don't want to go. It feels like the cost of a ticket is to go to the stadium rather than to watch a top team. The ticket prices don't reflect where we are as a club. If we back Conte in the summer and get the quality to match the work rate we will be worth the cost.

I've said this a couple of times about ticket prices, that I don't mind paying top prices if my team genuinely competes and wins alongside the other big clubs.
What we are enduring is the opposite expensive tickets but competing at best for sixth spot that is not good enough.
I don't see the club lowering prices to reflect our status so it comes down to what each of us are willing to accept it's either a top team or average fayre.

 

[Delboy75]

Genuinely never been so confused about a Spurs team in my life. On one hand you have an elite top 5 world manager. On the other hand you have ridiculously inconsistent form. It just all feels a bit weird.

 

[EastUpperDK82]

Fun fact: ... Since Antonio Conte took charge, Spurs have had six or more days to prepare for seven games under his watch and they have won six and drawn once. Compare that to their recent record of four days or fewer between games and you find six defeats from seven games in all competitions.

 

[stormfly]

Fun fact: ... Since Antonio Conte took charge, Spurs have had six or more days to prepare for seven games under his watch and they have won six and drawn once. Compare that to their recent record of four days or fewer between games and you find six defeats from seven games in all competitions.

So we need to stay out of the European places and we win the league next year?