Antonio Conte - Now Officially Manager

[didierforever]

2 hours ago, bluehaze said:

Nice 70's haircut mate were you ever an extra in Starsky and Hutch ?

Nah.. but would have loved to be an extra in any of the star wars movies of that time though.

[didierforever]

2 hours ago, atomis said:

Alright then..........that settles it.

Surely does.

[Munkunku]

Antonio Conte is the fifth manager to have faced more than 20 Premier League teams and beaten them all, after Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Gordon Strachan.

Stat I nicked from Sky (I know how much we all love them). I think it’s impressive especially when you think a) how long the other have managed in the premier league compared to Antonio and b) all the old merry-go round managers knocking about for centuries (Big Sams, Pardews, Sparkys etc.). 

[abister1]

Very good manager if you want to look at statistics and results, and as much as I really like him I place full responsibility on him for derailing the season. All that moaning for most of the season, did us no good. Once the window shut, nothing could have been done again, so he could have made his point in one or two press conferences and gotten stuck in to his job of coaching the team. The running theme of his press conferences were literally draining me emotionally and mentally, I wonder what it would have done to the players who saw him 5/6 days a week 

[Total-Football]

He has fantastic ability and is a great manager. I still don't want him next season as I see recurring themes in his tenure. Reports of him wanting to leave persist, constantly moaning about transfers, unwillingness to drop certain players and putting down his own players. The club needs more positivity right now and I can't see Conte giving it.

[atomis]

As they say, you dont know what you have lost till its gone.

[strider6004]

52 minutes ago, atomis said:

As they say, you dont know what you have lost till its gone.

I agree that could be the case it all depends on who succeeds AC.

Personally I think a change is best and with a manager that prefers a back four.

Think three at the back requires expensive specialist players that command high prices and that with four at the back we would have more tactical flexibility with three or four in midfield.

[brakeit]

Most of you was typeing the same s*** for Mourinho.

He choice the wrong players, he put only players he like, and blq, blq, blq ....

That`s complete nonsenses and b.c. You can say that for every manager on the world. And right now for the best there is - Zidane. Most people was slaming him for Morata and James, but it`s shows he made the right choice.

Now they are crying about the same thing, and why isn`t Asensio is a starter, why Isco is not a starter in most matches and such b.c. And of course for Benzema, that is his favorite player and play him out of form, but exactly Benzema won them the match with Bayern.

And we see how bad Morata is.

And as far as i see the thing. Conte put the best players in form. You can`t see who is in best form, he see them on training, on two sided games, on control matches we don`t see and so on.

Last season he said in the begining that he like Oscar, because of the balance. But he dropped Oscar and we sell him later. That`s happen with John Terry and Ivanovic. He also integrate Moses, Alonso, and rotate Pedro/Willy to their form.

Same this year. Now Willy play more then Pedro, because he is in better shape.

He tried with Bakayoko, he drop him from the squad, same with Cahill at first, then later with Christensen. Same happen with Morata. He could not drop him earlier, because Conte in the summer wanted second real striker, board did not buyed him then.
He can`t rotate Fabregas much, because we don`t have central midfielder. We have another def. midfielder and he was injured out of form, and pretty much average at best.

He tried with Zapacostta, but he just ain`t that good.

And there is no manager on the world that will play the 11, that some fans think he should play.

And did you remember last year how you was slamming him for playing Matic, instead of Fabregas. That`s clearly shows how much of football you know, and how much Conte know, and he know what he is doing.

 

[enigma]

the only issue i have with those stats is he/we were fortunate to have come into the club when there was little challenge in the league. man city hadn't adopted pep's ideas and mourinho didn't have the players he wanted at utd. liverpool didn't have salah and klopp didn't have liverpool playing well like this season. spurs keeps us on our toes and pushed us. the problem with spurs, they lost kane for well over a month due to injuries. i think if they had kane they may have beat us to the league. as much as people want to sh*t on them they pushed us close and they also had added fixtures with CL.

we didn't have any key injury issues and we also had no champions league. the formation changed definitely made the difference, and credit to conte for that. the problem is, i think if we had the extra fixtures of CL last season things would have been a lot different. the problem with conte this season is he hasn't had that plan b or c when things weren't working. we have had more injuries this season, which could simply be down to the way in which conte works the players. he wants his players to figuratively "bleed" while out on the field. 

Edited May 8, 2018 by enigma

[enigma]

19 hours ago, atomis said:

As they say, you dont know what you have lost till its gone.

we also don't know what the team could play like under a more assertive, offensive manager. i would be excited to see a change in our play and believe hazard would be one of the main beneficiaries of a new style. he has only really known jose and conte in his prime years, both similar style of manager. a small number of our fans said "hazard in that city team would be a beast" or "once hazard goes to real you will see how good he can be under an attacking manager" and i think it will be true. it always feels like hazard is playing at 70% of what he can, and that's on his best days. 

Edited May 8, 2018 by enigma

[terraloon]

I love stats.My favourite, although forgive I can’t remember the exact number but you’ll get it in term of just how you can use stats to prove or just about disprove any arguement 

Anyways it goes like this

10% of all  road traffic accidents are caused by drivers who are under the of drink or drugs.

That means that 90% are caused by people that are stone cold sober

So looking at the numbers if you get drunk or stoned you have less chance of causing a RTA!

[Gentian]

7 minutes ago, enigma said:

we also don't know what the team could play like under a more assertive, offensive manager. i would be excited to see a change in our play and believe hazard would be one of the main beneficiaries of a new style. he has only really known jose and conte in his prime years, both similar style of manager. 

Conte can be very offensive in his play but this squad is not suited for it. To be offensive you need to have quick players and ones that can press. He is playing the way suits this team best. Really all is missing is a top quality midfielder a right winger and a forward and I will be very confident we will challenge for all the trophies in STYLE. 

Edited May 8, 2018 by Gentian

[Ukraine Bolt]

21 hours ago, atomis said:

As they say, you dont know what you have lost till its gone.

You also don't know how much better you could have it until you try something else. Remember everyone on this forum wanting to stick with Jose a few years back? Or were you not on this forum then?

[didierforever]

1 minute ago, RIP Mourinho said:

You also don't know how much better you could have it until you try something else. Remember everyone on this forum wanting to stick with Jose a few years back? Or were you not on this forum then?

Also thats been arsenal's mantra so far... world of good thats done them.

[dansubrosa]

1 hour ago, terraloon said:

I love stats.My favourite, although forgive I can’t remember the exact number but you’ll get it in term of just how you can use stats to prove or just about disprove any arguement 

Anyways it goes like this

10% of all  road traffic accidents are caused by drivers who are under the of drink or drugs.

That means that 90% are caused by people that are stone cold sober

So looking at the numbers if you get drunk or stoned you have less chance of causing a RTA!

I also believe speeding saves lives. There’s speed limit, average speed cameras so people are so focused on their speedometer and trying not to go over the limit, therefore not concentrating on the road as much.

No speed limit, people will have 100% focus on the roads without any worry in the world.

Speed saves lives.

[ForeverCarefree]

1 hour ago, enigma said:

the only issue i have with those stats is he/we were fortunate to have come into the club when there was little challenge in the league. man city hadn't adopted pep's ideas and mourinho didn't have the players he wanted at utd. liverpool didn't have salah and klopp didn't have liverpool playing well like this season. spurs keeps us on our toes and pushed us. the problem with spurs, they lost kane for well over a month due to injuries. i think if they had kane they may have beat us to the league. as much as people want to sh*t on them they pushed us close and they also had added fixtures with CL.

I'm sorry but I disagree with a lot of this. 

City hadn't adopted Pep's ideas? The man spent £200m that summer (on top of the £200m spent the previous), broke the Premier League record for money spent on a defender (Stones). Given that sort of backing you would expect a team to at least run you close in league, he massively underachieved last season given the resources available to him. 

Conte came into a side that had finished tenth the previous year, after a poor start completely overhauled the team's system mid season... He was able to get the team to adapt to his ideas and vision, so why couldn't Pep do the same? 

Mourinho didn't have the players he wanted? So he didn't break the Premier League transfer record by being allowed to drop £90m on Pogba? A further two players signed for in excess of £30m plus a trusted lieutenant (a very typical Mourinho style) in Ibrahimovic. 

I would argue that he was allowed to shape his squad more than Conte was who resorted to adapting a winger into a defensive player (Moses) to allow him to play his prefers system. 

Liverpool didn't have Salah? Even with him they haven't come close to winning the title... Klopp didn't have Liverpool playing well, then that's bad management. 

Spurs relied too heavily on one player and got all Spursy and bottled it. 

I'm sorry but you make way too many excuses for the short fallings of our rivals rather than acknowledging that Conte made us into comfortably the best team in the league. Winning 30 matches (especially after such an awful start to the season) was a mammoth accomplishment that shouldn't be forgotten or downplayed just because of our shortcomings this season. 

[Anglejjd]

The amount of money we spent providing him with squad players who have hardly featured we should have backed AC and got him the players he wanted in the summer! 

[Ukraine Bolt]

Just now, Anglejjd said:

The amount of money we spent providing him with squad players who have hardly featured we should have backed AC and got him the players he wanted in the summer! 

No. Can people stop saying this sh*t on here.

Naingollan. Aged 30. Likely to have cost £50m but chose to stay in Rome.

Bonnuci. Aged 31. Likely to have cost £40m but chose to stay in Italy. 

A. Sandro. Aged 27. Would have cost us £60+. Luckily we saved £40m and signed who Juve was going to sign as his replacement. Emerson looks class too.

Llorente. Aged 33. Was it £12m they wanted for him? Thank god we didn't do that.

Koulibaly. Aged 26. Would have cost us £70m. We signed Rudiger for half of that and he too looks class. 

We also spent £58m-£70m on Morata for him and he's been largely poor. 

 

If we had bought what he wanted we would have rivaled City's level of spending and have an ageing squad. At least the players Pep wanted will last a generation. We would have got a couple of seasons at most out of most of these. Half the players he wanted were unattainable too. 

[Ukraine Bolt]

Just now, RIP Mourinho said:

No. Can people stop saying this sh*t on here.

Naingollan. Aged 30. Likely to have cost £50m but chose to stay in Rome.

Bonnuci. Aged 31. Likely to have cost £40m but chose to stay in Italy. 

A. Sandro. Aged 27. Would have cost us £60+. Luckily we saved £40m and signed who Juve was going to sign as his replacement. Emerson looks class too.

Llorente. Aged 33. Was it £12m they wanted for him? Thank god we didn't do that.

Koulibaly. Aged 26. Would have cost us £70m. We signed Rudiger for half of that and he too looks class. 

We also spent £58m-£70m on Morata for him and he's been largely poor. 

 

If we had bought what he wanted we would have rivaled City's level of spending and have an ageing squad. At least the players Pep wanted will last a generation. We would have got a couple of seasons at most out of most of these. Half the players he wanted were unattainable too. 

Forgot he was desperate to sign the 31 year old Candreva too lmao. 

[Total-Football]

The "back Conte and we would have a great squad" is dumb. He showed no sins at Juventus of being good in the transfer market and at Chelsea his targets have been awful, short term signings that were unrealistic and/or terrible. 

He has been backed. £200m is quite clearly enough backing for any manager. It's just he wants us to spend £300m+ on terrible players who would've made us worse in 2 years time. Just look at who he wanted signed and their average age. 

[Stim]

edit: nvm. We shall just repeat the same mistakes.

Edited May 8, 2018 by Stim

[Anglejjd]

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

No. Can people stop saying this sh*t on here.

Naingollan. Aged 30. Likely to have cost £50m but chose to stay in Rome.

Bonnuci. Aged 31. Likely to have cost £40m but chose to stay in Italy. 

A. Sandro. Aged 27. Would have cost us £60+. Luckily we saved £40m and signed who Juve was going to sign as his replacement. Emerson looks class too.

Llorente. Aged 33. Was it £12m they wanted for him? Thank god we didn't do that.

Koulibaly. Aged 26. Would have cost us £70m. We signed Rudiger for half of that and he too looks class. 

We also spent £58m-£70m on Morata for him and he's been largely poor. 

 

If we had bought what he wanted we would have rivaled City's level of spending and have an ageing squad. At least the players Pep wanted will last a generation. We would have got a couple of seasons at most out of most of these. Half the players he wanted were unattainable too. 

So 40 million on Drinkwater, 15 million on Barkley, 23 million on Emerson and roughly the same on Zappacosta have all been value for money because they are youngish? 

I would rather have seen Loftus-Cheek fill Drinkwaters role but that’s just my opinion. 

As good as Giroud has been would he have bothered moving if he didn’t want to play in a World Cup this summer? 

This reminds me of the time we signed players like Tal Ben Haim because we tried to do good business lol. I know for one I would accept a fifth place finish if we started to transition in a few of the young lads rather than spunk money on average players. 

[enigma]

some good points made. i do worry we're all just going round in circles with this debate though. at the end of the day, i don't see the board and conte coming to some agreement that he stays. i feel that roman is looking change things, starting with style of play. i agree city and utd have spent a lot of money to improve their squads and last season they failed. we certainly had no key injuries and lack of european fixtures going for us last season which helps massively.

conte did great to change up the formation and have some of the new personnel playing well. i can understand why there is certainly blame on both sides, the board and conte. though i think conte as the coach needs to have found more solutions this season rather than simply blaming not having the players. diego costa leaving, for one, i put more of the blame on the coach for how he reacted to the situation. i believe they could have aired out any problems in private instead of in public. 

[Ukraine Bolt]

19 minutes ago, Anglejjd said:

So 40 million on Drinkwater, 15 million on Barkley, 23 million on Emerson and roughly the same on Zappacosta have all been value for money because they are youngish? 

I would rather have seen Loftus-Cheek fill Drinkwaters role but that’s just my opinion. 

As good as Giroud has been would he have bothered moving if he didn’t want to play in a World Cup this summer? 

This reminds me of the time we signed players like Tal Ben Haim because we tried to do good business lol. I know for one I would accept a fifth place finish if we started to transition in a few of the young lads rather than spunk money on average players. 

Not disputing Drinkwater and Barkley weren't a waste of money but signing 'Conte targets' would have been an even costlier mistake. 

[enigma]

21 minutes ago, Anglejjd said:

So 40 million on Drinkwater, 15 million on Barkley, 23 million on Emerson and roughly the same on Zappacosta have all been value for money because they are youngish? 

I would rather have seen Loftus-Cheek fill Drinkwaters role but that’s just my opinion. 

As good as Giroud has been would he have bothered moving if he didn’t want to play in a World Cup this summer? 

This reminds me of the time we signed players like Tal Ben Haim because we tried to do good business lol. I know for one I would accept a fifth place finish if we started to transition in a few of the young lads rather than spunk money on average players. 

conte was trying to fit loftus-cheek into a striker role last season, so i don't think conte would have played him as a central midfielder. drinkwater was one of the leicesters better players, and after getting fleeced by us for kante (who was a massive coup considering his importance in our team and how his price has now tripled at least), it's no surprise they weren't letting drinkwater go without us paying out. chamberlain cost about the same anyway and you think he's any better? £15 on barkley is still a steal considering everton initially wanted £30m+ for him last summer.

emerson looks, so far, to be a quality left back, so £23m is anther steal in a market where most young, quality players are going for upwards of 50m. zappacosta is a decent player, nothing amazing, but he also unfair to judge him after one season as some players settle in faster or slower than others. you could go through pretty much every top club in europe's squad and find average players on their bench. we aren't a barcelona or real madrid where quality players are happy to sit on the bench. we have to buy as best quality as we can.

of course, i would personally prefer the club dip into the youth system to fill squad back up places, but it doesn't seem that likely at the moment. instead of drinkwater i would like loftus-cheek and mason mount, instead of zappacosta i would like to see reece james. then you have arguably our best youth talents in ampadu and hudson-odoi who could also occupy squad places. 

Edited May 8, 2018 by enigma