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Antonio Conte - officially NOT the coach of THFC

Klopp and Tuchel both came from Dortmund. Their whole philosophy is to buy young and sell for a high price. Dortmund constantly have to rebuild. Liverpool's team now is aging. Front 3 all over 30. Throughout the team there are players in their later 20's.
Pep's last squad at Barca had Puyol, Xavi, Villa, Iniesta, Valdes, Masch. He's never built or rebuilt a young team in his career.

I'm not even saying Conte is a guaranteed success. However some of the things being used to point out why he might not be don't ring true to me. If anything he's a better fit for us than some of the other elite managers he's being compared to.

We have the buy young strategy and it fits our club size, problem is we don’t do the sell as players peak and rebuild parts well. Dortmund and Atletico stay competitive by following the whole cycle.
 
I think we all know that if levy tries to go for cheap options conte will walk. Sure levy does too. But we have paratici as dof now. If levy can give paratici a budget and step back and let the 2 of them get on with it. I can see it working.
If not,well it will get ugly.

We are in a sort of same situation as when rddknapp took over. The team is on a low not working at all. Enic did a share issue and raised funds (increasing their stake in the club too), this was given to redknapp and we turned it around completely. Hopefully the same can happen.

Surely Levy has been aware that if he doesn't back his managers they are more or less going to get sacked or walk ... but here is to hoping.
 
True...our past is not linked to Conte, but our future (and his immediate one) will be directly effected by him..so the conditions he works under will be key in determining both


I agree that we have indeed employed on paper our biggest ever managerial appointment in the modern era (at least in the PL era).

However, Jose was that at the time, even with the fact that he was past his best and this is still a risky move given the way Conte typically operates (quick expensive building of squads, blaming ‘lack of support’ when things go wrong etc) and the way we typically operate (not known to be decisive in transfer market when we go up against clubs of similar money or status, not known to get transfers done in the way a Conte or Jose would like, believe in using youth/academy to build/supplement squads etc). Unless we are REALLY going to change how we do things as a club it’s another risky move given how we’ve spoken about the ‘club’s DNA’ and the fact it’s known we prefer a manager who can both handle/attract top stars but also coach and mould younger players.
If we are honest we will have to acknowledge that Conte overall is a chequebook manager who has fallen out with his previous clubs over the issue of buying more and more players (see the sheer number at Inter). At Chelsea it’s easy to forget how many second string players were bought that hardly played or were outright duds (Bakayoko, Zappacosta, Barkley, Emerson etc).
We of course will acknowledge that he is a better coach and man-manager than Jose.

However, the likes of Pep, Klopp and maybe even Tuchel all seem like squad builders for the long-term in comparison to Conte. Hence my hesitation to go overboard with any excitement just yet, though again I acknowledge again that on paper this is quite a coup of an appointment.

For now, I’m just excited and looking forward to the games on Thursday and Sunday to see what immediate impact Conte might have.

Looking further forwards, as I’ve said, we will have to change how we have typically operated for this to work and imo we’ll know whether we really have changed on 1st February 2022 in the same way we (imo) got an idea on 1st February 2020..

Jose was in name only, that's the difference and why it doesn't really have any comparison with this appointment.
 
I think we all know that if levy tries to go for cheap options conte will walk. Sure levy does too. But we have paratici as dof now. If levy can give paratici a budget and step back and let the 2 of them get on with it. I can see it working.
If not,well it will get ugly.

We are in a sort of same situation as when rddknapp took over. The team is on a low not working at all. Enic did a share issue and raised funds (increasing their stake in the club too), this was given to redknapp and we turned it around completely. Hopefully the same can happen.
It's not necessarily about cheap options, rather the options he wants to allow him to play his style. As others have pointed out there are a number of quality young players in Italy available on frees next summer or probably cheap in January. They might be players he would be interested in. I'd be fairly sure him and Paratici already had discussions around targets before Nuno was even sacked.
 
It's not necessarily about cheap options, rather the options he wants to allow him to play his style. As others have pointed out there are a number of quality young players in Italy available on frees next summer or probably cheap in January. They might be players he would be interested in. I'd be fairly sure him and Paratici already had discussions around targets before Nuno was even sacked.

Agree.
 
I suppose it is easier to blame the manager for not delivering rather than highlight the lack of funding. Unfortunately many companies are using this model
 
True...our past is not linked to Conte, but our future (and his immediate one) will be directly effected by him..so the conditions he works under will be key in determining both


I agree that we have indeed employed on paper our biggest ever managerial appointment in the modern era (at least in the PL era).

However, Jose was that at the time, even with the fact that he was past his best and this is still a risky move given the way Conte typically operates (quick expensive building of squads, blaming ‘lack of support’ when things go wrong etc) and the way we typically operate (not known to be decisive in transfer market when we go up against clubs of similar money or status, not known to get transfers done in the way a Conte or Jose would like, believe in using youth/academy to build/supplement squads etc). Unless we are REALLY going to change how we do things as a club it’s another risky move given how we’ve spoken about the ‘club’s DNA’ and the fact it’s known we prefer a manager who can both handle/attract top stars but also coach and mould younger players.
If we are honest we will have to acknowledge that Conte overall is a chequebook manager who has fallen out with his previous clubs over the issue of buying more and more players (see the sheer number at Inter). At Chelsea it’s easy to forget how many second string players were bought that hardly played or were outright duds (Bakayoko, Zappacosta, Barkley, Emerson etc).
We of course will acknowledge that he is a better coach and man-manager than Jose.

However, the likes of Pep, Klopp and maybe even Tuchel all seem like squad builders for the long-term in comparison to Conte. Hence my hesitation to go overboard with any excitement just yet, though again I acknowledge again that on paper this is quite a coup of an appointment.

For now, I’m just excited and looking forward to the games on Thursday and Sunday to see what immediate impact Conte might have.

Looking further forwards, as I’ve said, we will have to change how we have typically operated for this to work and imo we’ll know whether we really have changed on 1st February 2022 in the same way we (imo) got an idea on 1st February 2020..


In all honesty the biggest single positive of conte for me is that regardless of what happens we will know where we stand as a club and a team.
He will make or break this group of players, there are some hiding behind spurs and there's some using spurs "failures" to mask their own.
Whatever happens i can only see this appointment as a good thing.
 
The one thing about Conte is he will speak his mind if he isn't getting what he demands from players or chairman. He is pretty transparent so we will soon see what the issue is
In all honesty the biggest single positive of conte for me is that regardless of what happens we will know where we stand as a club and a team.
He will make or break this group of players, there are some hiding behind spurs and there's some using spurs "failures" to mask their own.
Whatever happens i can only see this appointment as a good thing.

I absolutely agree that one of the main positives of hiring Conte is highlighting issues behind the scenes we might never normally hear about.....however, i thought this when Jose was hired too haha...
 
I absolutely agree that one of the main positives of hiring Conte is highlighting issues behind the scenes we might never normally hear about.....however, i thought this when Jose was hired too haha...

Jose was a fool, we could all see that squad wasn't up to it or up for it, but he couldn't.
That in itself should have been enough to preclude him from the job.
A fool mind you that walked away with a handsome payment.
 
The one thing about Conte is he will speak his mind if he isn't getting what he demands from players or chairman. He is pretty transparent so we will soon see what the issue is

Im sure Levy has put a gagging order in his contract
 

Tottenham Hotspur’s players have been left in no doubt that the hard work has started, even though Antonio Conte was only able to watch the first training session of his reign as head coach.

Conte was forced to watch from the sidelines on Tuesday afternoon after being confirmed as Tottenham’s new head coach while he waits for a work permit that is expected to arrive this afternoon.

But the Italian was able to address his players and made it clear that he expects them to give everything in training and in games. And even though Conte was only watching, Tuesday’s session was said to have been the most intense the squad has been put through in weeks.

Other than making it clear there will be no rest under him, Conte also immediately moved to start healing the divide in the squad that had been created by his predecessor Nuno Espirito Santo.

Conte told the players that he will treat them all equally, warning there will be no favourites, and he will do everything in his power to improve each and every one of them as long as they give him everything.


That is in contrast to Nuno, who left his first-team squad at home for the Europa Conference League defeat to Vitesse Arnhem in Holland that prompted Harry Winks to publicly question the approach of the Portuguese.

Conte addressed the Spurs squad in English and plans to continue to do so, partly to help keep everybody on an even footing, even though some of his players can speak Italian and would be able to translate on his behalf.

Assuming there is no delay over his work permit, Conte’s first game in charge will be Thursday night’s visit of Vitesse to Tottenham when the 52-year-old could make an immediate switch to his favoured three-at-the-back system.

Conte enjoyed incredible success at Juventus, Chelsea and most recently Inter Milan playing with three central defenders and Tottenham’s players believe he will set up the same way at his latest club.

Tottenham’s players were said to be “buzzing” by the end of Tuesday’s training session, despite also being physically tired, with many immediately struck by Conte’s aura.

Despite his fearsome reputation as one of football’s hardest task masters, Conte was also in good spirits on the sidelines during his first training session, smiling and conveying the message that the players can smile and enjoy themselves while also pushing themselves to the limit.
 
@Grays_1890 you often have interesting ITK or other tidbits...any additional stuff on this and the events leading up to this?

Sorry I was at my folks celebrating their 40 years together.

Well I was out by 3 months but Conte is here, was nailed on in the summer but there was alot going on and the time not right is a good cover story. Conte was coming but the assurances were not there and also Levy is back in love with Poch and when he flew over for his summer holidays there was hope we would have him back but PSG although agreeing to let him go wanted paying, so it all led to the mess which was missing our targets and eventually ending up with Nuno. Apparently Fab and Levy met and Levy agreed to do what was needed to get Conte which includes future investment, apparently from what I have been told is that the every decreasing fans in the stadium and those staying in the ground after has gone some way to prompt that, its ok saving 150m on transfers but not if your not making money in the ground and slipping further away from what is the promised land of the CL.

I saw your other post about Everton and its much the same, you cant talk to Levy sometimes but what will become apparently is that the mess on the pitch and the balance sheets on Monday will talk to him and its done the trick.

He still wants Poch back BTW...
 
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