Antonio Conte - Now Officially Manager

[evissy]

He's doing a press conference tonight at half ten. I wonder what he'll say...

He will say we are after more signings, Bayern game was good for fitness, Kenedy is still at London, Rudiger is with the team and might get some minutes, Morata did well.

[enigma]

dunno what this is all about. read the comments underneath from the journalist. 

 

[dkw]

Well 10.30pm is 5.30am in Singapore, so i doubt he's giving an interview then.

[dansubrosa]

He said

We made a bid on Kyle Walker before he joined City and he would love to sign Harry Kane.

[robdog]

Interesting stuff about selling Home-Grown talent this transfer window from Don Antonio. Check this quote out:

“The young players want to play, to go and loan, they want to play regularly. The young player doesn’t want to suffer."

I guess he was referring to Chalobah, but in both Zouma & Ake's cases both had played matches w/ their National Side + it's a World Cup Year. I can understand them trying to get on the National teams. I guess Don Antonio has a point:

“I think the advisors are not right. Also you have to fight with this. The first thing they should have is good patience. Trust the club. They work very hard to know very well that to play at this level you must be stronger & very good."

 

[axman2526]

Aye sounds like walker, mendy and danlio all had the option of us or city and picked them.... 

[TheChelseaBlues]

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Aye sounds like walker, mendy and danlio all had the option of us or city and picked them.... 

I wouldn't be too sure Walker had a choice

[abramovich]

1 hour ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

I wouldn't be too sure Walker had a choice

What makes you think that?

[abramovich]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4733450/Antonio-Conte-playing-different-rules-Chelsea.html

‘I don’t spend money because I like to spend money,’ said Conte. ‘Every team has to understand their ambitions. If their ambitions are to win or fight for the title or the Champions League, you must buy expensive players.

‘There has been a miracle with Leicester and us, because we won the title with only 13 players, but if you want to compete in England you have to be strong.

‘The strong teams are getting stronger because they are putting a lot of money into the market.’

Daniel Levy, chairman of Tottenham and yet to make a signing this summer, has claimed the levels of spending are unsustainable. ‘My question is this,’ said Conte. ‘What are Tottenham’s expectations? If they don’t win the title it’s not a tragedy. If they don’t arrive in the Champions League it’s not a tragedy. If they go out in the first round of the Champions League it’s not a tragedy. If they go out in the Europa League against Gent, it’s not a tragedy.

‘Maybe for Chelsea, Arsenal, City and United and, I don’t know, Liverpool, it is a tragedy. You must understand the status of the team. If Barcelona does not compete for the title it’s a tragedy. The same for Real Madrid. If Sevilla does not compete for the title it’s not a tragedy.

‘They can breathe and think in a different way. You can judge the others, but the others must fight to win the title.’

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Does anyone else have the feeling that while Conte's discussing Spurs he's actually indirectly talking to our own board and owner? He's mentioned missing out on Walker

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/antonio-conte-reveals-chelsea-bid-for-kyle-walker-before-50m-man-city-deal-a3597071.html

and we know we were after Lukaku and Danilo. So to me, he's basically saying that nowadays you have to make a choice about what kind of a club you want to be, the one where winning trophies is an expectation or where it's fine to not win season after season. If you're in the first category, you have to spend big because that's what it takes to stay competitive.

 

[TheChelseaBlues]

1 hour ago, abramovich said:

What makes you think that?

I think first off City likely offered both him and Spurs more money. If we truly matched their offer we did an incredible job of keeping it out of the papers. The Lukaku transfer is a good example of what tends to happen when two clubs go head to head with their offers. 

Secondly, and this is pure gut instinct on my part, I doubt Spurs even considered our offer even if it matched City's. They view us in a different light than they do City. I doubt Levy would sell us a broomstick let alone one of their best players. 

[brakeit]

Looks like he is speaking to the board indirectly.

Board should have given what Conte want, just like City and Manure did, even when their manager failed last season, they give them all they want and support them, so far i don`t see the such thing here for Conte.

We lose a lot of his first choices once again.

Obviously he doesn`t think the squad is good enough and have enough depth, and to be fair i`m on the same opinion.

We need DM cover, top LWB and RWB, and top right midfielder.

 

[ForeverCarefree]

Conte mugging off Spurs? 

Sounds good to me.

 

[Stim]

43 minutes ago, brakeit said:

 so far i don`t see the such thing here for Conte.

So we broke our transfer fee record on a striker for nothing?

We have spent big money on Rudiger, Bakayoko and Morata. I agree we need more but to claim no support is not right.

What then grinds my gears is the season will start, and when these low price unknowns perform well people moan we are incapable of spotting bargains or integrating youth but right now so many people want to join the 'spending 50+ on 6 different players' club. 

Edited July 27, 2017 by Stim

[Barn]

This is more a comment on squad depth than Conte but I'll make it here anyway.

I'd rather see us spend top dollar on players that will improve our starting 11 then give those squad places to youth players. We've had the best u21's in Europe for nearly a decade, the only reason none of the individuals have really made it yet is because we leave them to stagnate rather than develop that last bit.  As well as having them in the squad though they have to be trusted.

If that position was clear the manager would know what's expected and what he has to work from, young players would stay, the board could be more focussed on getting the 3 (or so) players that we really need and the fans would feel some affinity with their team.

[EdinburghBlue]

When you don't think you could love Antonio anymore he goes and calls Spurs a tin pot club... all hail the Don

[dkw]

43 minutes ago, Stim said:

So we broke our transfer fee record on a striker for nothing?

We have spent big money on Rudiger, Bakayoko and Morata. I agree we need more but to claim no support is not right.

What then grinds my gears is the season will start, and when these low price unknowns perform well people moan we are incapable of spotting bargains or integrating youth but right now so many people want to join the 'spending 50+ on 6 different players' club. 

Unfortunately we now have a huge amount of new fans that are selfish and unbelievably entitled, demanding we sign all the players, play all our youth and be well run. They are like moody teenagers, never happy no matter what the club do. As for not getting Conte`s choices, Theres plenty of evidence that points towards Morata being his choice of striker, Bakayoko is obviously his choice as we were in for him almost as soon as the season finished, We tried to sign Ruddiger last season when Conte arrived so its fair to say he wants him and we are seemingly still trying to sign Sandro who is Conte`s choice also. So Ive no idea where he gets that from. 

[dkw]

35 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

When you don't think you could love Antonio anymore he goes and calls Spurs a tin pot club... all hail the Don

It was a beautifully subtle dig wasn't it, just lovely.

[brakeit]

Stim, of course i praise the board for Morata and Bakayoko signing. They did good job there, esp. for Morata price.

But then you see how City and United board support their managers, when they failed hard in the first season, while Conte from 10, bring us to the title.

He deserve the board to support him fully and get almost all the player he wanted. And let`s be clear, he didn`t want impossible or very price target like Mbappe, Dybala, Neymar, Lewandowski, Pogba last year and so on.

Most of his wanted list, was not with players that play for big club, that are in the starting 11 and it`s very hard to obtainable. Okay maybe only Sandro. Morata was a sub for Rea.

To be fair what really upgrade we made to last year team ?

Is Morata upgrade over Costa? Maybe Bakayoko over Matic, but we still don`t know that. Rudiger is yet to be seen, and i`m not very sure he will start playing regularly from the begining. He will be probably integrated to the first team with time.

To me Sandro/Mendy and Walker was a clear upgrade and atleast to me it was worth it to give 100m. for them. Mendy is just 23 years old, for that price at 50m. you get top player, who is so young and can develop a lot, and you can use it atleast for 8-9 years to come. And Walker is proven beast, who is 27 years old, and you can use him at his best for let`s say atleast 4-5 years to come.

I also don`t think Pedro/Willy is good enough, esp for CL. Pedro lacks speed big time. He can`t outrun defeners on the wing. He can`t make breakthroughs, cause he lacks speed and he often miss passes. Yeah he scored great goals for us last season, but like Willy in a lot of matches he goes on missing for long periods and you can`t understand if he plays or not.

Willian is good 1 on 1 and can easy dispatch opponents, but hes end products sucks. He lose the moment, when to play the ball, when to shot, when to do the right thing. And his statics tricks on place make me mad. He can sharpened our game, but he decide to do tricks on stationary and all the enemy defenders came back and our attack is slowed at best.

Most of the team have atleast 7-8 midfielder, we have exactly 4 - Baker, Fabregas, Kante, Bakayoko, is that good enough for a top team ? Zero depth, exactly zero.

While we need world classes WB, we don`t even have alternative for them ...

We should handle our business better, board have a lot more work to do.

 

 

 

 

[ashwin]

13 minutes ago, dkw said:

It was a beautifully subtle dig wasn't it, just lovely.

Haha not so subtle even, Spurs fans must be fuming. Although he did compare them to Sevilla which is quite a compliment...

[EdinburghBlue]

11 minutes ago, brakeit said:

 Pedro lacks speed big time.

 

 

 

 

What?

[enigma]

3 hours ago, abramovich said:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4733450/Antonio-Conte-playing-different-rules-Chelsea.html

‘I don’t spend money because I like to spend money,’ said Conte. ‘Every team has to understand their ambitions. If their ambitions are to win or fight for the title or the Champions League, you must buy expensive players.

‘There has been a miracle with Leicester and us, because we won the title with only 13 players, but if you want to compete in England you have to be strong.

‘The strong teams are getting stronger because they are putting a lot of money into the market.’

Daniel Levy, chairman of Tottenham and yet to make a signing this summer, has claimed the levels of spending are unsustainable. ‘My question is this,’ said Conte. ‘What are Tottenham’s expectations? If they don’t win the title it’s not a tragedy. If they don’t arrive in the Champions League it’s not a tragedy. If they go out in the first round of the Champions League it’s not a tragedy. If they go out in the Europa League against Gent, it’s not a tragedy.

‘Maybe for Chelsea, Arsenal, City and United and, I don’t know, Liverpool, it is a tragedy. You must understand the status of the team. If Barcelona does not compete for the title it’s a tragedy. The same for Real Madrid. If Sevilla does not compete for the title it’s not a tragedy.

‘They can breathe and think in a different way. You can judge the others, but the others must fight to win the title.’

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone else have the feeling that while Conte's discussing Spurs he's actually indirectly talking to our own board and owner? He's mentioned missing out on Walker

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/antonio-conte-reveals-chelsea-bid-for-kyle-walker-before-50m-man-city-deal-a3597071.html

and we know we were after Lukaku and Danilo. So to me, he's basically saying that nowadays you have to make a choice about what kind of a club you want to be, the one where winning trophies is an expectation or where it's fine to not win season after season. If you're in the first category, you have to spend big because that's what it takes to stay competitive.

 

Well it's just not possible for us to spend 50+ million on a player for each position we lack. It's not sustainable. Man City seem to have a never end pot of gold (or oil) and don't have to worry about repercussions now with ffp non existent. 

[abramovich]

1 hour ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

I think first off City likely offered both him and Spurs more money. If we truly matched their offer we did an incredible job of keeping it out of the papers. The Lukaku transfer is a good example of what tends to happen when two clubs go head to head with their offers. 

Secondly, and this is pure gut instinct on my part, I doubt Spurs even considered our offer even if it matched City's. They view us in a different light than they do City. I doubt Levy would sell us a broomstick let alone one of their best players. 

I doubt Levi gave that much of a sh*t who to sell Walker to. If we offered the same amount as City, let alone more, he could have ended up at Chelsea. Not that I wanted that to happen, but Conte admitted that he did.

But you're right in saying that we weren't willing to match the City offer. My worry is that if we keep signing our second, third, fifth back-up options from the transfer target shortlist, we'll eventually end up with an inferior squad. There's only so much a top manager like Conte can do. We made the same mistake with Mourinho in a summer of 2015 and if the trend continues, our inefficient approach in the transfer market will result in inefficient performances on the pitch. The stakes are very high and competition is getting ever stronger. We can't afford to lag behind.

[abramovich]

10 minutes ago, enigma said:

Well it's just not possible for us to spend 50+ million on a player for each position we lack. It's not sustainable. Man City seem to have a never end pot of gold (or oil) and don't have to worry about repercussions now with ffp non existent. 

No one's asking to spend 50m on every position we need to improve. I just find it disappointing that City managed to sign three quality wingbacks (two of them we were clearly targeting) while we labouring over Sandro that probably will stay where he is, anyway. Conte's system is heavily reliant on those type of players and we got f**ked, if we're being honest. That's what we used to do back in the day, blow out the opposition and stockpile quality players which allowed the club to have great squad depth and quality in every position. Now we're getting a taste of our own medicine.

We can talk all day long how there's always an alternative to yet another player we missed out but that's the kind of talk that eventually gets you Papi Djilobodji and Michael Hector by the end of August.

[evissy]

Conte is clearly frustrated. He uses Tottenham as an example there but the message goes to the board imo.

That is exactly what I've thought and talked about here before. Do you want to fight with Tottenham or Bayern Munich. That is essentially the question. A couple of seasons for Chelsea it has been Tottenham instead of Bayern.

Our rivers of revenue are much more narrow than Bayern but gradually that is what we need to go for. New stadium and titles will be the path.

[PedroMendez]

3 minutes ago, evissy said:

Conte is clearly frustrated. He uses Tottenham as an example there but the message goes to the board imo.

That is exactly what I've thought and talked about here before. Do you want to fight with Tottenham or Bayern Munich. That is essentially the question. A couple of seasons for Chelsea it has been Tottenham instead of Bayern.

Our rivers of revenue are much more narrow than Bayern but gradually that is what we need to go for. New stadium and titles will be the path.

Yeah I suppose Tottenham are a great message I mean a team who hasn't yet made a signing versus one that has spent £130m such a strong message from Conte, clearly sticking it to the board.