Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

[0-Tibsy-0]

I think he’s playing his part in us being shit. But I don’t actually begrudge him these comments.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

How can you think the club isn't the problem at this point? And I don't mean the fact that it's purely that we are Tottenham; that view is just bollocks; of course we (Tottenham) can be successful. I mean the structure within the club, the chairman, the recruitment, and everything that enables the manager to be successful?

Mourinho AND Conte. Both failed here. Successful EVERYWHERE else.

What?

 

[itsameeAntonio]

I'm not going to lie mate I feel like you maybe a little bias in this current debate.

Was definitely excited to get conte but that doesn’t sway my opinion. None of dier, davies, lenglet, lloris, royal, sanchez or sess get anywhere near a top 7 club

 

[mil1lion]

Maybe stop picking the same players that constantly let us down then.

The subs let us down too

 

[JCRD]

If you think the abject failure of this club over the past 20 years is “as much” to do with Antonio Conte, then you should stop paying all that money for those tickets, because you’ve clearly not understood what you’ve been watching.

Who is talking about 20 years - im talking about now and the progress from last season. We all know Levy and ENIC have been an issue footballing wise for the last 20 years. But Levy and Enic are not to blame for the last two pathetic cup exits and pathetic performances against bottom half teams. That is on Conte

Absolutely misdirection again from fans. There are two debates running concurrently and this is a Conte thread which would indicate he isnt doing very well given he still has a decent squad.

Now the guy should have his bags packed by the time he gets back to Hotspur Way.

 

[felmani26]

Once again the real point gets fogged by petty fuck all complaints that he didn't blame himself. Yes, of course he should go. But moaning about him not blaming himself? Really?To what end? How would that make things better?

He's a dead man walking, we all know it. Blames himself, doesn't blame himself, so fucking what. Move past the irrational hate and take notice of what he said because he's spot on.

This is it.

Futile debating the merits of whether he's sacked now or not - it's irrelevant!

This outburst is the symptom of a deep sickness at this club and until the spotlight is well and truly shone on it rather than paying lip service to whoever is in the hotseat then we'll be repeating the same mistakes ad nauseam and we'll be back in the same shit situation soon enough.

 

[talbot64]

I am not his biggest fan, but I think he should stay, there is a plan to refresh the squad and if he wants to stay he can fix it, the passion is certainly there

 

[jurgen]

Press conference is more entertaining than anything else the club has served up lately..

Can't wait to see Tommy Tuchel's version of this in 18 months' time..

 

[Oscar22]

Once again the real point gets fogged by petty fuck all complaints that he didn't blame himself. Yes, of course he should go. But moaning about him not blaming himself? Really?To what end? How would that make things better?

He's a dead man walking, we all know it. Blames himself, doesn't blame himself, so fucking what. Move past the irrational hate and take notice of what he said because he's spot on. And it's about fucking time someone said it.

Jesus, where to even start with that

 

[freeeki]

It will never not be funny to me that some of our fans genuinely think we’re the club which has exposed Mourinho and Conte as massive frauds.

 

[noiseboy55]

tick tock tick tock

 

[HodisGawd]

Once again the real point gets fogged by petty fuck all complaints that he didn't blame himself. Yes, of course he should go. But moaning about him not blaming himself? Really?To what end? How would that make things better?

He's a dead man walking, we all know it. Blames himself, doesn't blame himself, so fucking what. Move past the irrational hate and take notice of what he said because he's spot on. And it's about fucking time someone said it.

No, he's not spot on, because it was precisely his job to change things. And he hasn't. Either it's the club's fault because it shouldn't have appointed him in the first place (something nearly everyone was happy about at the time), or it's his fault for failing. Can't have it both ways.

 

[thecook]

A manager is calling out our rotten chairman, rotten club, and rotten culture.

Something we are ALL aware of.

Which - according to our fanbase on here - makes him the bad guy.

It is pathetic.

This press ocnference may well be the best thing he's done for our club

 

[13VanDerBale13]

What, or who, exactly would you be protesting?

Obviously our incompetent board, who time & time again, lead us down this path.

 

[Joe Bjorn Hotspur]

He's right here anyway

Before the pitch forks come out en masse I couldn’t disagree with Conte, however, clearly having another Al Pacino Scarface moment before he departs. Just like Jose protecting his reputation before he goes back to Italy. Roll on the barrel….

 

[soup]

Today's comments:

Pros - He echoes everything we've been saying about the board. Good points and needed saying in public. Although I've wanted him out for a while and still do, but not for the comments on the board. These comments achieve (anti?) hero status for me.

Cons - 'Those 11 players only play for themselves...and I've wanted to say that for a long time'... you pick the team dude! And there's no way he could ever include Porro in that statement already, after him only being here a month, so there's clearly some needless hyperbole thrown in for shock and awe tactics.

 

[talkshowhost86]

If we move quickly we could replace Conte with a more modern thinking and progressive manager

Roy Hodgson is apparently available

 

[Metalhead]

If you play negative, grinding football that sucks the enjoyment out of the game and burns players out emotionally then there's not much chance of it working at a club who's mottos are "The game is about glory" and "To dare is to do".

After Pochettino burned out we needed a manager to bring the enjoyment back into the club and for the club to intelligently invest big money into fixing the defence which originally had been the foundation on which Poch had built his success. Instead we brought in two "winners" to try nick some silverware but who play negative, grinding football that sucks the enjoyment out of the game and burns players out emotionally. We failed to fix the defence and still heavily rely on the likes of Dier, Sanchez and Davies while also spending long periods of time with miserable full back options.

To compound that failure to fix the defence, both managers played to our weakness in defence rather than to our strengths in attack. Add in the fans becoming progressively turned off or even hostile to the lack of attacking footy and you get a toxic spiral.

We brought in two head coaches who play negative, grinding football. Two coaches but one constant behind the scenes who made those appointments plus Nuno.

 

[Spurs4CL]

Im not sure any player after this will be listening to him anymore

Only the ones not worth keeping . Anyone with an ounce of self respect will listen and give everything.

 

[danielneeds]

Who are these players though that he claims are selfish and letting down manager after manager after manager?

We got a boatload of new ones for Jose, and the same for Conte. The last two/three years there has been chop and change to about 75-80% of the squad.

People will say it's the Dier/Davies/Sanchez's, or the lingering ghosts of your Winks or Ndombele's, but the three main ones who have been there throughout all this and are the dressing room leaders/seniors are Lloris, Kane, and Son. If there is a continuing problem of culture/attitude they surely have a big part in it.

And actually you know what, you can see that in the performance today. I've skimmed through a few bits on here and straightaway it's the predictable fucking useless Dier and Davies this, fucking useless Perisic and Hojbjerg that...... Go back and watch the second half of that game, it's some of your "star boys" who cause as much of a problem and completely fail to set any standards themselves.

This was another match where when the going started to get tough, Son and Kulu decided to stop running back to help and hung their central midfielders out to dry. Kane lets himself get bullied far too often when the chips are down and in the last 10 mins at least three times put in zero effort to collect a ball that was dropping about a yard away from him, just letting Soton have it to launch another wave of attack on us. Even Romero, in the moments after us going 3-1 up he twice got caught dawdling on the ball putting us under pressure and spent the last 15 mins rampaging about and getting taken out of the game left right and centre and causing issue after issue.

Weaker players might not have the ability, may also have the wrong attitude, and need replacing. Some of our best/established players might well be that ability and even importance wise out on the pitch but if we accept these criticisms of the team as true then they have to be the ones who are also culpable for rotten culture amongst the players.

Conte might not be wrong in what he says.... But he still picks these players who he thinks have a bad attitude and commitment and personality. He probably doesn't help the atmosphere amongst the players by constantly picking his favourites and only certain rotations. And in any case should in no way mitigate against the deficiencies in which he is going about his work in terms of the football, tactics, and whatever else.

I don't see any selfish players in this squad. I see some who aren't good enough and who fold when teams press and harry them, dumping the ball away cheaply or hiding from receiving it. But there are plenty who are really good, even though the squad has glaring holes like creativity. I don't see any belief, though. Players are like any people in any workplace.. You can't kid them with bullshit and expect elite motivation and results. You need honest targets, real communication and management, and maybe you'll get real productivity.

It's just easy to see that the players don't really like the passive tactics, don't really believe Conte's committed, so there's no reason to be scared of him anymore either. It happens at every club where the manager is gonna be sacked or leave.