Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[Japhet]

I'm not at all interested in all of the talk now. It's just saying what people want to hear, but in my case I've heard enough and am now not listening. What I do know is that I've had gut full of boring, negative football and the useless 343 formation. I've had enough of the same rubbish on rinse and repeat and I definitely don't want us to be investing large amounts of money for more of the same, even if it improves us (which I doubt). Football should be about entertainment and we've now had 3 managers in a row who don't know how to do that. Give me spontaneity over automations any day of the week. Let the players play. They must all be sick to the back teeth of being micro-managed too.

 

[TEESSIDE1]

You would think by the way Conte harps on that we’ve either just missed out on relegation or we’re a small fish in a big mean ocean. Ignoring the fact with exception of the odd season that we’re consistently qualifying for the Champions League or the Europa League. He can’t say we’re miles off the pace but then able to produce the goods against City and Chelsea. We’re inconsistent due to a mixture of woeful tactics, injuries and a few weakness in the squad. We’re not however miles off the pace as he keeps reminding us every week.

 

[soup]

I'm not sure whose press conferences I hated more, Poch's cryptics, Jose's, or these miserable ones.

At least we had that period when Nuno livened things up with his inspirational words.

 

[Mr Pink]

Why does he keep going on about being so far off and needing patience?

There's nothing to like about our football....zero.

Whats he on about

 

[matthew.absurdum]

At least we had that period when Nuno livened things up with his inspirational words.

I like Nuno always said: "Alasdair don't ask me about that"

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Harsh on our fans who’ve put up with shit football for 3 years and highest prices in the league for many years with no glory to show for it.

Fans well within their rights to ‘moan’ until better positive change has been made.

It’s a choice at the end of the day, and we have to bare the good and the bad that comes with that choice. We don’t have a “right” to anything. They only thing we have the right to do is to stop buying tickets, to stop watching the team etc. that’s it.

 

[arthurgrimsdell]

"I'm ready to die for this club (until the end of the season), but I'm not going to kill myself." If that is not a plea to be put out of his misery I don't know what is.

 

[Styopa]

Maybe he meant it's a miracle how high we are in the table, given how poorly we play most weeks?

 

[Styopa]

It’s a choice at the end of the day, and we have to bare the good and the bad that comes with that choice. We don’t have a “right” to anything. They only thing we have the right to do is to stop buying tickets, to stop watching the team etc. that’s it.

Maybe this is what he had in mind when he was talking about patience. The patience to keep watching.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Maybe this is what he had in mind when he was talking about patience. The patience to keep watching.

Patiently waiting for the final whistle.

 

[ilikeost]

You would think by the way Conte harps on that we’ve either just missed out on relegation or we’re a small fish in a big mean ocean. Ignoring the fact with exception of the odd season that we’re consistently qualifying for the Champions League or the Europa League. He can’t say we’re miles off the pace but then able to produce the goods against City and Chelsea. We’re inconsistent due to a mixture of woeful tactics, injuries and a few weakness in the squad. We’re not however miles off the pace as he keeps reminding us every week.

When he talks about doing something "important" he means winning the league, not the FA cup, not the league cup, he doesn't give a shit about those competitions. We are miles off winning the league, so I guess in that sense he is correct.

But I don't share his idea of what is important and even if I did I don't think he can get us there based of what I've seen. Maybe it's impatience on my part, but we will never know since he'll be gone in the summer at the latest.

 

[Duke of Northumberland]

He’s saying that the club and fans need to taper their expectations to their reality and he’s not going to kill himself trying to convince us of that.

And as soon as we have a new manager in place we’ll find out how true that is.

JM said similar things after being sacked and guess what? He wasn’t wrong was he.

As annoying as this may sound, he has nothing to prove to any of us. He’s been paid to do a job and he hasn’t done a good job but he’s still achieved things doing exactly what he’s done here before and he’ll definitely achieve things with the same methods again.

Just be glad it’ll be over soon and don’t pay it much mind.

Shambles of a presser- clearly not thought about his message at all. However I see the “I won’t kill myself” stuff in the context of his health and life and he won’t carry on after the summer under these conditions. (See previous comments on how you need £80m players and not the £20-60m bracket….).

 

[ilikeost]

The thing that bothered me the most about the press conference was the last answer about the Sanchez substitution. Such an intellectually dishonest answer filled with mockery. Yes, the fans wanted an unbalanced team as a last ditch attempt to get a goal in the last minutes of the game. No one would have booed if we equalized and then brought Sanchez on to balance the team. Such a ridiculous answer from that absolute clown of a man.

 

[mil1lion]

Exactly. The way our fanbase latch onto something and from then on nothing that person says or does is right in anyway is fucking idiotic. Zero critical thinking or balance involved. Just moan moan moan, whinge whinge whinge. It's been happening to Levy for a while but now it's Conte.

It's just confirms to me that a lot of fans default position on being a supporter is to moan and whinge. Because there is literally no point in crying about Conte's comments. He's leaving the football club at the end of the season, if not before. He's tried his best and it hasn't worked. He's not trying to purposely antagonise anyone. You'll probably even find he's more pissed off with himself than anyone that hasn't worked out.

This is what annoys me when people just read everything he says with a negative spin. There's definitely a lot to criticise him for but it kind of invalidates any criticism when people also add their own spin on what he says. He does speak sense at times and I do believe he has come into a really difficult situation. He came into a squad that was a real mess after years of poor recruitment. He came into an environment where the fans have been more and more restless and patience was already running out. Those are not his fault but rather the long running issues we've had in the last 4 years that have carried over.

However he does need to do more with the quality players he has. He does have a better squad now and he does need to find out how to get the best out of the better players. He needs to give the fans something to cheer and we really did blow a good chance to go for the FA Cup.

I think the big issue is that Conte calls for patience from fans who have had to be patient for a while now. If he came in after Poch it would have been very different. Its just built up since the CL final and going through Jose and Nuno has now carried over to Conte.

I really would have loved for things to work for Conte. It just feels the timing of him coming in has not worked out. It's over 3 years of poor football now, really 4 years and he's not a manager to get that back. His football needs to win plenty of games otherwise fans are not going to accept it.

 

[soup]

You would think by the way Conte harps on that we’ve either just missed out on relegation or we’re a small fish in a big mean ocean. Ignoring the fact with exception of the odd season that we’re consistently qualifying for the Champions League or the Europa League. He can’t say we’re miles off the pace but then able to produce the goods against City and Chelsea. We’re inconsistent due to a mixture of woeful tactics, injuries and a few weakness in the squad. We’re not however miles off the pace as he keeps reminding us every week.

He’s just full of mixed messages.

He apparently won’t choose certain players as he doesn’t trust them to carry out their role properly, so sticks with the players he does trust.

Then, the players he does trust, he likes to tell the press they aren’t competitive.

So we’ve got half a squad who won’t play and the other half being told they’re not competitive enough to beat Sheffield United and have no chance in the CL.

He then plays boring tactics and tells us he doesn’t ask the players to play this way.


Tell me you’re throwing players under the bus without telling me you’re throwing your players under a bus.

For all his bluster he acts like a coward.

 

[Shanks]

3 places higher and 9 points closer to 3rd place is factually not going backwards!

Even if all you look at is points - we are the same - that is not going backwards either.

Judgement is clouded by the turgid football.

Oh 100% by the football, along with a fair few other factors too

 

[Duke of Northumberland]

We played exciting fooball last season, then backed him and we aren't playing exciting football anymore

this is the big puzzle of all this and the biggest regret- why haven’t we improved or even matched last years impressive run? The cagey first halves? I think Stellini actually said it was a deliberate thing to conserve energy due to the WC but it hasn’t worked, there have been injuries but also our very best players have been surprisingly ever- present. Management failure.

 

[GioW]

Reckon Levy has hopes of holding on until the end of the season for sure.

But imo the incoming results are not going to be pretty so International break change.

 

[TOLBINY]

Guys, please! We need time and patience in order to beat Sheffield United! It will take years to get to that point!

Poch had over 5 years and still couldn't beat Colchester

 

[Spursfan1414]

Poch had over 5 years and still couldn't beat Colchester

And he delivered in so many other ways that Conte hasn't, after coming into a much worse situation.