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Conte was a far better player than that. He wasn't Zidane, but he was the captain of a Juventus side that reached two consecutive CL finals. And Paolo Montero was a superb defender, despite being a psychopath.

Maccarone and Kalinic never tore anything up - Kalinic scored 12 goals last season, which is a respectable output for a solid mid-table striker, but certainly doesn't constitute "tearing it up". Likewise, Maccarone never went above 13 goals in a season. Toni and Di Natale were superb strikers who would have scored by the bucketload anywhere they went (and Toni was Bundesliga top scorer when he was at Bayern). At Verona Toni was playing in a team that was basically built exclusively to get the best out of him, allowing him to goal-hang and finish off opportunities. Also, I'm not so sure about players from the Premier League succeeding in Italy - Edin Dzeko was generally considered the biggest flop in Serie A last season, and others like Podolski, Pelle, Shaqiri, Coutinho etc. have had far more success in England than they ever did in Italy.

Nonsense, Serie A is notoriously difficult league to score goals in, since defences are far more disciplined and well-drilled than in most other leagues. Mandzukic is a very good player, strong, good technique, works extremely hard, and great at creating space for his strike partner. He may not score much, but a striker like him shouldn't only be judged on his goals. I doubt Juve have any intention to sell though, he's a very important player for the team.

Juve fans were mostly angry about the way he left (resigning on the first day of the new season after pledging to stay another year) and some of his comments regarding Juve's transfer strategy. Remember that Conte didn't only manage Juve, he also played there for a good 13 seasons and was club captain for a couple of years, so Juve fans were already very attached to him before he ever became Juve manager. The manner of his resignation felt like a betrayal in that respect.

Some Juve fans hate Conte because he left the club high and dry by resigning on the first day of pre-season training after having committed to being the manager for another year. Most Juve fans don't hate him and are hugely appreciative of what he did at the club both as a player and as a manager. The 10 Euro restaurant was a stupid analogy that Conte made during a press conference to excuse his lack of success in the CL, He basically said "you can't eat at a 100 Euro restaurant if you only have 10 Euro in your pocket", the implication being that Juve can't compete in the CL without spending big on players. He was immediately disproven when Allegri took the same group of players to a CL final in his first season.

Well, yes, but there's absolutely no chance of Dybala going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

Asamoah used to be a truly excellent player, but he simply hasn't been the same since his injuries. I don't think he has played two consecutive matches and he still looks like a player who is recovering from a serious injury, so I'd be surprised if this transfer takes place. For the record, he was a great all-rounder - good technique, great left foot, strong, quick, versatile. He's a central midfielder, but Conte used him as a left wing-back in his 3-5-2 (he played in midfield at Udinese and now under Allegri). I'd be sad to see him go, but I don't think he'll ever truly recover his previous form.

Anybody who has watched Juve regularly will know that Morata is a good player on the verge of becoming a world-class striker. I'm convinced that he'll be one of the best strikers in the world over the next few years and he has absolutely everything a top striker needs - speed, strength, movement, agility, a good shot. The only thing that has kept him from playing and scoring more is his temperament. Don't let his goal tally deceive you, it says a lot that despite his lack of goals Juve will do whatever they reasonably can to sign him permanently. And it's well known that Conte is a huge fan (he was the one who wanted to sign him at Juve in the first place).

1. Italy are never any good on qualifying rounds and friendlies. Even when they had a team full of superstars, they would play pretty dull and unremarkable football in qualification, and then go on to win out seriously compete in the final tournament. Nobody cares about qualifiers in Italy, and fans are ALWAYS divided. They're divided about Lippi and he won them the bloody world cup.2. Italy have the worst team in living memory. Their attacking options are Pelle, Zaza, Immobile and Eder. Expecting champagne football from that front line is a bridge too far, even for a manager like Conte. 3. As someone mentioned, Italy qualified extremely comfortably, so Conte couldn't have done much more with Italy. People aren't really complaining about the on pitch performances, they're complaining about Conte's attitude and off pitch comments. 4. Which brings me to the final point - Conte is a truly great manager, but he's a massive prima donna. He's very similar to Mourinho in that way, but he doesn't have Mourinho's charm. He's nowhere near as despicable as Mourinho either though.

It's not really a mixed bag to be fair, all those players are undoubtedly seen as good signings. Also, Barzagli signed the season before Conte. There are other players that joined during Conte's tenure (Vidal, Caceres, Ogbonna and Asamoah come to mind), but it's beside the point because managers in Italy aren't responsible for signing players. So Conte can't really take any credit or blame for those players. Pirlo, for example, signed a few weeks before Conte was confirmed as manager, and Conte famously had no idea who Vidal was (he was offered a choice between Vidal and Inler, and luckily chose Vidal).

'Most managers can win with Juve as the opposition is so weak' isn't a valid argument at all imo. When Conte took over at Juve there were six other teams that were better than Juve and a number of managers had tried (and failed) to win with Juve. The strength of the opposition is all relative, but Juve were in no way a team on the up when Conte signed. Juve have dominated over the past few years because Conte gave the whole club the kick up the ass it needed and (together with the club's directors) carried out some incredible work. There's no comparison to the PSG situation - PSG are a club bankrolled by an oligarchy that essentially bought a squad. In Conte's time at Juve every single player signing was under 20m Euro, which is a ridiculously low fee for such a successful club. Trust me, Conte is a better manager than both Hiddink and Pochettino. Time will tell whether he is successful at Chelsea, but I'm convinced that he has the ability to do brilliant work.

Why is it hard to acknowledge the achievement of taking a 7th place team and winning the league unbeaten in your first season? It's one of the finest managerial achievements I have ever seen.

Cuadrado is a good player, if put in the right context. Also, why does getting Conte mean offloading Emenalo? Conte wasn't responsible for transfers at Juve, so his acumen in the transfer market is completely untested.

He's pretty much the opposite of soft. He's uber-intense, to the extent that one of the main criticisms of him at Juve was that he needed to bring down the intensity levels a notch.

Conte absolutely loves Cuadrado. It's believed that one of the main reasons that led to his tensions with the Juve board was that they were unwilling to spend the money to buy Cuadrado from Fiorentina.

Conte is the best possible signing Chelsea could have made in my opinion, he's one of the absolute best managers in the world. It will be interesting to see what happens with Cuadrado, given that Conte is such a big fan of his.

Interesting post about Conte from Dorset, some quick replies on my part: You're right, Conte's side were troubled by teams with very good wingers, most clearly when they were eliminated from the CL by (eventual treble winners) Bayern Munich. I can't really place the blame entirely on Conte for that, given that Bayern were simply a far superior team (I think it was Arjen Robben vs Federico Peluso on Juve's left wing, and that was never going to end well for us!). He clearly learnt his lesson when he faced Real Madrid - another team with superb wingers - in the next season's CL group stage. He switched to a lop-sided 4-3-3 for both matches and Juve were the better side during both matches, despite being unlucky in terms of results (one leg was a 2-2 draw where Madrid took the lead through a poor Caceres back pass, and the other a defeat where Chiellini was shown an extremely soft red card early in the second half). Again, you're right. The left sided defender of the three was Giorgio Chiellini, who started his career as a left back, so is very comfortable playing defensively on the wing. The left wing back was usually Kwadwo Asamoah (a converted midfielder) whereas the right wing back was Lichtsteiner (a converted full back), so it wasn't unusual for the team's shape to change slightly mid-match to a back 4 i.e. Chiellini at left back, Bonucci and Barzagli in the centre, and Lichtsteiner on the right. All three central defenders are fairly comfortable on the ball, so would frequently carry the ball into the space in front of them. Bonucci, in particular, was crucial in replacing Pirlo as the team's playmaker, whenever Pirlo was man-marked. There's an interesting video on YouTube showing Juve playing in this way against Chelsea when they met in the CL group stage. The front two situation was hugely problematic in Conte's first two seasons at Juve. The front pairing was usually Vucinic + either Matri/Quagliarella/Giovinco. Vucinic, although a very good link-up player, simply didn't score enough, and the other three weren't good enough for Juve's aspirations. Tevez and Llorente were simply better versions of what came before - Tevez good at dropping deep and linking up (and, conveniently, also good at scoring a truckload of goals), and Llorente great at holding up the ball and bringing midfielders into play.

Juve had no competition because he built a team that was so much better than everybody else in the league. He took a team that was the 7th best team in that same Serie A and won the league, unbeaten, in his first attempt. That takes some doing.

Hi everyone, don't want to intrude - I'm a long-time lurker, full-time Juve fan and part-time Chelsea follower (my dad used to have a season ticket back in the Ranieri days). I just thought I'd pop in to clarify some Conte-related things. Conte's favourite formation (he has frequently admitted this himself during interviews) is an attacking 4-4-2, almost a 4-2-4, with very high wingers. He played this formation during his early years in management, with clubs like Bari and Siena, and was very successful with it. He then tried to implement this when he initially joined Juve, but he couldn't get it to work, primarily because the wingers that were already at the club or that had just been signed weren't good enough (Eljero Elia and Krasic, for instance). This formation also didn't make the best use of Juve's midfield, especially with the emergence of Vidal, who had just been signed (Conte started out with a Pirlo-Marchisio midfield duo, but Vidal was simply too good to be on the bench). So after a couple of matches he switched to a 4-3-3, with Marchisio-Pirlo-Vidal in midfield and a front three of Pepe (starting wide on the right), Matri (as the traditional centre forward), and Mirko Vucinic starting wide left but drifting central and linking play (I guess Hazard could play this role, theoretically). He played this for just over half of his first season at Juve. He then moved to a 3-5-2 as he felt that this gave his side more control and exploited his team's strongest points (3 superb central defenders, and 3 superb central midfielders) whilst minimising their poorer aspects (a lack of strength on the wings and up front). He has since used all three formations with Italy. In summary, he's not really tied to a 3-5-2 in the way that many people in the English football world seem to think, and has demonstrated great ability and willingness to change his tactical approach to suit the players in his squad.