Ex-Manager watch: Antonio Conte

FinnYid said:

Most amusing is that we lost to reserve team of Nottingham Forest. They changed 9 players from previous PL fixture.

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And we lost to a rotated sheff united if I recall?

Trix said:

Professional pride? Ambition of playing in Europe's highest competition? More money in bonuses? A genuine will to win imbedded inside of them?

I mean I get the point that the manager needs to coach and motivate, but fuck me if that's the only reason the players have to push themselves, then that right there is the reason we'll never win anything regardless of who the manager is.

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Yeah absolutely...but even the smallest drop off could be significant.

But if the Club don't do enough due diligence regarding character/mentality....fucks knows where we go from here.

Stoof said:

Trix do you think it’s come to the point where even if he is backed to the extent he himself requires, people (match-day going fans) won’t tolerate his idea of football anyway?

It really is a dismal day out at the moment.

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Mate I don't know. I think a winning team is easier to like and we were far from boring back end of last season.

I genuinely don't know how this ends up. Saturday evening I thought he was gone. Sunday morning he met with Levy and he wasn't going.

I expected the players to pile in on him and some have gotten behind him. I've then(and I know this as fact) heard a prominent figure with Daniels ear has told him to ignore the media and get behind him fully, as this cycle needs to be broken.

FinnYid said:

Most amusing is that we lost to reserve team of Nottingham Forest. They changed 9 players from previous PL fixture.

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Not sure of your point tbh. I was pointing out the irony, not making excuses. Those teams should have beaten both Forrest and Shef u and they fell way short.

Scot-Spur said:

I personally want him to continue and heck even fire out some more truths until then end of the season. Hopefully those higher up heed his message then part ways in the summer and clean the decks.

Some short term pain for the long term gain.

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You and I are in an ever decreasing minority - but it is exactly what this club needs.

I personally think this is past the point of no return, certainly for a large % of the fan base and now, it seems, some of the players also.

I don't think this is recoverable which is why i am surprised that the club have not made a decision.

FinnYid said:

Club is at fault for hiring a manager that doesn't suit a club a bit. Not culture, not existing squad, nothing. Besides club has brought in more than fair share of players to back up Conte. Thing is if clear Conte signings like Perisic are worst flops tells a lot.

More like historically a whining manager. However it is clear that our best chances of winning something is cups. Now this serial winner managing Juventus, Inter and Chelsea has as many cup trophies as Ben Davies as Swansea player. Now let that sink in.


I'd take a near team of Poch over League Cup and relegation dogfight like Ramos any time of the week. Our weakness is plying after trophies instead of trying to be best footballing team we can be. Pining after trophies leads constantly to obviously wrong managerial choices, we are looking at plain CVs instead of compability. That doesn't work in any line of business.

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Im not sure you understand what the term "relegation dogfight" really means. its not a dogfight after 8 games. in any event you like Poch and hate Conte....we get it, but unless you can objectively define "compatibility" then what you are suggesting won't work.

Trix said:

See I do wonder if things just haven't become a bit too comfortable for some of our players. They are very pampered at Hotspur way and I do question how much pressure is put on them to get results from the very top.

Some aren't going to like this but I'll say it anyway.....

I'm not as convinced Conte goes as others are if I'm honest. He still has people fighting his corner and saying he should have the kitchen sink thrown behind him as we really need to break this cycle. If the big hitting players are behind him I can't see Levy pulling the trigger if I'm honest.

Something 100% needs to change though, and they all really need to get on the same page either way with or without Conte.

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As much as I’m not a fan of the football I definitely see the logic in keeping him. I’ve always been of the opinion that if we have enough patience to allow him to build a side in his own image then eventually success will come.

Problem is I get the impression that he doesn’t want to see through the rebuild himself.

Now it's Spursonal said:

I'll give you a specific player mate, Harry Kane.

1. He has been there through it all.

2. Apparently was the player that ultimately got Pochettino sacked

3. Apparently was responsible for keeping Mourinho in the job longer than he should have cause he liked him.

4. Constant stories about us picking/sacking/retaining our manager based off what would keep Harry happy and get him to stay at the club. (ie 'Kane future connected to Mourinho' or 'Kane future connected to Conte' etc.)

Kane is the single most influential player at the club, and if he sets the culture that players have a say over the manager, then that spreads like wildfire. And this is a culture that never works.

I love Kane and what he's done for the club, but I think this is a hard truth we need to face.

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This is the part where people start throwing out names and it becomes clear it's an absurd point.

I mean points 1 and 2 are basically in total contradiction/purely with the benefit of hindsight. Can't criticism him for thinking it was time to go with Poch but wanting to give Mourinho longer, at worst all that

The only reason he has this influence is we're desperate to keep him. He hasn't demanded or asked for it, we've given it to him.

Ultimately Kane could've left the club at any point in the last decade and gone on to win bags of trophies. His mentality is not the problem.

JUSTINSIGNAL said:

As much as I’m not a fan of the football I definitely see the logic in keeping him. I’ve always been of the opinion that if we have enough patients to allow him to build a side in his own image then eventually success will come.

Problem is I get the impression that he doesn’t want to see through the rebuild himself.

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If you don't feel you have the support of the owner - in the form of signing the players you want, not the one the owner wants - would you stay?

HedgieSpur said:

Im not sure you understand what the term "relegation dogfight" really means. its not a dogfight after 8 games.

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Well it would've been, it was 2 points after 8 games and we barely won a game spring before.

Stamford said:

I didn't bring up Dier the other poster did. The squad has seen off another manager and are allowed to get away with it and you think the fault lies squarely with conte? In which case the team will improve long term under a different manager. We don't buy enough quality and the mentality stems from the ownership down. Two decades of evidence support that

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They haven't seen off another manager, Conte has failed on his own terms.

We don't buy enough quality and the mentality stems from the ownership down

The explanation for our "failure" is in the first 5 words of your sentence. We don't need all this bullshit about the players' mentality. We have failed to win because we play in a really difficult league, against other clubs who have spent more money and executed their strategy more successfully than ours.

If we'd bought a couple of extra £50m players in that 2 year period we were challenging for the league then 90% chance we win it at least once and we aren't having these sorts of conversations. It's not that deep.

Am I alone in having a WTF moment here? Probably seeing as how daft I am

But................I'm not sure why people keep saying we shouldn't back him if he's not staying. Obviously, we're hardly going to fully back Conte before or unless he signs a new deal.

Trix said:

Mate I don't know. I think a winning team is easier to like and we were far from boring back end of last season.

I genuinely don't know how this ends up. Saturday evening I thought he was gone. Sunday morning he met with Levy and he wasn't going.

I expected the players to pile in on him and some have gotten behind him. I've then(and I know this as fact) heard a prominent figure with Daniels ear has told him to ignore the media and get behind him fully, as this cycle needs to be broken.

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That's interesting. Thanks Trix.

I am bear of very little brain when it comes to football. I hear everyone's opinions and agree with parts of what they all say and disagree with other parts. At the end of the day though I have no idea how we can break this cycle of failure but I suspect just removing one of the elements (Levy, Conte, the players etc) won't do it because it's a combination of everything.

When Conte came in the general opinion seemed to be that if nothing else he would light a fire under the club and that we needed that. He just threw a stick of dynamite into the changing room. Maybe this time we should wait and see where this goes? What's the worst that can happen?

I really hope we break the cycle of not supporting the manager and giving him what he needs to succeed. But only after Conte leaves. He's the wrong horse to hitch our wagon to.

So if the 'bigger' players have backed Conte, I assume Romano has been on the phone to them all on their day off and they've all spoken freely to him confirming they think 'certain' players aren't with them.

Which of the 11 selfish players don't think it's them? Which of the selfish 11 players who have been selfish has Conte now told are not selfish?

So either they're all selfish, as Conte said, or some of them aren't (in their eyes, not Conte's) and they feel others are selfish, yet they are still all asked to play together on the same pitch.

As we know, Conte only plays players he trusts, so let's say 6 of the starting 11 on Saturday ARE selfish and 5 aren't, but they are the collective he trusts. What the fuck are they all doing on the same pitch if Conte has been mad with them for weeks? And what is he doing even playing them if he knows it is disrupting the team spirit if he thinks the team is that fractured?

Something doesn't add up for me.

If Conte wanted to make a point to the selfish players he shouldn't be picking them, it's as simple as that, if he feels they're not good enough, not committed enough and don't have the fight then why hasn't he changed it like ANY other manager would?

In any other team, bad eggs would be dropped, simple as, and fans would back the manager on the basis of leaving a couple of players out the team, no one would question it, but Conte gets 'but who else has he got?' He's got a lot of players who I'm sure would gladly come in and show what they can do. If players are letting him down fucking drop them! Simple as!

Every club has a bad egg/few bad eggs. Adebayor, Aubamgeyang etc., but they're not left to fester as first choice and become virtually un-droppable. They're taken out the team. But it seems we've been managed in a way where now there's not only 1, or 2, apparently, but 11, by Conte's own words. And he's let the rot set in so bad that he's now got 11 players who don't get on/don't trust each other/don't like the work ethic?

When you omit a bad egg, other bad eggs pay attention. If you continue to play bad eggs, the good eggs pay attention. So what the fuck has he been doing by 'covering it up'? Fair enough outside the club, but if he's been covering it up within the camp and continued to play these players with each other that is shocking management.

So the football is crap, the players are completely divided (but all selfish), the team can't compete and Conte can't do a thing about it and none of it is his fault? Okay.

JUSTINSIGNAL said:

As much as I’m not a fan of the football I definitely see the logic in keeping him. I’ve always been of the opinion that if we have enough patients to allow him to build a side in his own image then eventually success will come.

Problem is I get the impression that he doesn’t want to see through the rebuild himself.

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The impression that I get is that he measures progress in actions not conversations.

we may promise him investment etc. However it’s clearly slow, so he is venting the frustration so everyone knows about it.

Richy, Kulu, Bentancur, Porro, Romero have all been players he wanted and have gone straight in. Danjuma, Spence, clearly aren’t

talkshowhost86 said:

Its really worrying that he hasn't been sacked today

If it doesn't happen tomorrow then he's here for the rest of the season unless he deliberately sets fire to Levy's office

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Looks like Antonio is going to need to get out the matches

Just hope he's careful with that wig

I am fully onboard with this cycle being broken, I just dont think Conte is the man for it, and while I get that just means I want the cycle to continue as we would sack Conte, he is just so very wrong for the club.
It is at its end so just pull the trigger. Even if Levy bought his bullshit *I was only calling out the players bruv* story, he has eviscerated the club in the public domain, yes what he said rang alot of truth bells, but he did it in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons, he doesn't give 2 shits about Spurs. Why would you try to change the way the club works under this unstable grenade of a man, it would be ridiculous. He doesn't stay anywhere long enough to change his underpants never mind the club itself. We are currently a joke club and it does need changing, but not under this bloke. Get him out, please.

Trix said:

Mate I don't know. I think a winning team is easier to like and we were far from boring back end of last season.

I genuinely don't know how this ends up. Saturday evening I thought he was gone. Sunday morning he met with Levy and he wasn't going.

I expected the players to pile in on him and some have gotten behind him. I've then(and I know this as fact) heard a prominent figure with Daniels ear has told him to ignore the media and get behind him fully, as this cycle needs to be broken.

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As much as people like to think levy is some sort of fool, he isn’t, he has watched this team as much as the rest of us and will know the football has been eye gougingly terrible. He can’t be enjoying it at all either. I’m sure that has some baring on things and that being ending the relationship on 30 June. Results will matter most in the end with Levy but I doubt performances are that far behind.