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Antonio Conte - officially NOT the coach of THFC

JerusalemMan said:
Conte's got a fitness and conditioning coach in. Not sure if this replaces someone or is a positional hire that supplements what we already have.

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport...rough-tottenham-hotspur-john-thrower-22643371
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Didn't one of his coaches not join him at spurs? As well as the nutritionist? Think it's just adding to what we have.

Be nice if spurs could do a proper introduction video to the backroom staff. Explaining who they are and their roles.
 
Lilbaz said:
No, i meant one of his coaches at inter didn't join him at spurs (it might have been the gk coach that was mentioned in the article). His nutritionist i believe joined real madrid in the summer.

So he was short on what he had at inter.
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I get you.
 
Lilbaz said:
Didn't one of his coaches not join him at spurs? As well as the nutritionist? Think it's just adding to what we have.

Be nice if spurs could do a proper introduction video to the backroom staff. Explaining who they are and their roles.
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Maybe for a couple to the players too!
 
braineclipse said:
Definitely. There's not much of a middle ground with Conte. If he's still here that far down the line it's because we've gotten into a good position.

Perhaps he's capable of a longer stay here, perhaps not. If don't see more or less continual improvements he will get frustrated and I don't think that ends well. In that way there is certainly some urgency needed.
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It seems historically he’s been frustrated if the club doesn’t look to keep looking to improve the squad even if he does bring success. So lucky for us we don’t have a track record of doing that :D
 
I want to be very clear, in these games that we played since I was in charge, if you analyse the games, we struggled.

"Every game we struggled. We have to know this. We have to be realistic. We have to know that this season to get three points for us will be difficult, but we have to be ready to do this with all our strengths and our fans have to continue to be behind us in what we’re ready to do.

"They’re fantastic the fans but I want to tell the truth and be clear with our fans. Now we’re in the middle and we need time.

"This is the situation. We need to continue to work hard for 24 hours a day but we have to know there is a lot, lot of job to do to rebuild the situation in a competitive way."

Exactly. I think as fans we have been so starved of positives in recent seasons that some have gone overboard in where we are. We have one of the best managers in the world which is great, but with the set of fixtures he has started off with it has created somewhat of a false picture and a belief that Conte is going to magically transform players previously not considered good enough. Until there is an overhaul in playing staff we are nowhere near challenging….
 
harr1984 said:
Exactly. I think as fans we have been so starved of positives in recent seasons that some have gone overboard in where we are. We have one of the best managers in the world which is great, but with the set of fixtures he has started off with it has created somewhat of a false picture and a belief that Conte is going to magically transform players previously not considered good enough. Until there is an overhaul in playing staff we are nowhere near challenging….
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Agreed....in part. Whilst our squad has issues, I'm not sure I see a squad outside the top 3 plus Man U which is definitively stronger.

You can debate us vs Arse vs Leicester....so being 5th-7th feels realistic, and as Conte has said the only way the top 4 opens up for us at the moment is if one of the top 4 have problems, as Utd are at the moment

The good thing as you say is we have one of the best managers in the world now, and if we back him consistently over the next 3-4 windows, then we should then have a realistic expectation of challenging
 
Gotta love the Italian fitness and nutrition regimes. Our bunch of Clark Kents will be supermen next season.
 
AdamB said:
Agreed....in part. Whilst our squad has issues, I'm not sure I see a squad outside the top 3 plus Man U which is definitively stronger.

You can debate us vs Arse vs Leicester....so being 5th-7th feels realistic, and as Conte has said the only way the top 4 opens up for us at the moment is if one of the top 4 have problems, as Utd are at the moment

The good thing as you say is we have one of the best managers in the world now, and if we back him consistently over the next 3-4 windows, then we should then have a realistic expectation of challenging
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Arsenal, Leicester and West Ham have a stronger and more settled first 11 than we do. I'd argue they have stronger squads too. Villa too have built a good squad and if Gerrard had been in place in August they would be another team challenging for 4th.

Man Utd and Leicester have underperformed so far which is giving us a chance of top 6 that we shouldn't really have. 2 or 3 good players added this month and we could stay up there. Add a couple more in the summer and then Conte can really make things happen.
 
Legohamster said:
Well he’s made it clear it almost all his interviews the squad isn’t good enough.

Levy has to back him or I imagine he will just walk ASAP.
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I had a good think about this last night. Particularly alarming that he openly announced the bit about not being near to Chelsea’s level (even before the game I think I read). By doing this you are permitting failure in the players imo.

Then a slight contradiction about the transfer window not going to be great and that he would instead need to use and improve the current squad - when in reality he’s shown that he is very reluctant to change any aspects to the favoured 523 with the same nucleus of players for each game unless he was forced otherwise (Liverpool game).

My take is that the first part of the above is his way of saying I can’t compete currently - buying some time for either transfers (unlikely we now hear) or squad development (maybe some players will start to get integrated).

Id also like to see some tactical adjustments when needed (half time last night was a good example - but the damage was done) It was slightly odd going away to Chelsea the same way we setup against Watford 4 days earlier. Some will say teams have a system they stick to but on Sky etc after games we often hear how managers made a change to a certain formation for a certain game and it worked. Imo - if we keep peddling out Skipp and Hojbjerg in a 2 man midfield with 5 defenders for the rest of the season it will not only be very dull, it also won’t get us very far. We need to find better/more progressive ways in certain games from the start.
 
AdamB said:
Agreed....in part. Whilst our squad has issues, I'm not sure I see a squad outside the top 3 plus Man U which is definitively stronger.

You can debate us vs Arse vs Leicester....so being 5th-7th feels realistic, and as Conte has said the only way the top 4 opens up for us at the moment is if one of the top 4 have problems, as Utd are at the moment

The good thing as you say is we have one of the best managers in the world now, and if we back him consistently over the next 3-4 windows, then we should then have a realistic expectation of challenging
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Yeah agree that 5th-7th is absolutely where we should be. But there have been more and more noises with ‘Look what we can do with an actual top class manager’ which have been a bit OTT. Don’t get me wrong, moulding the squad as he wants we will be right up there. But right now with these players, we are nowhere near.

I know many talked as if the world was about to end with Nuno in charge, but if he was still here I don’t think things would be looking that different. Let’s not forget he managed us against City, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham away and still had us only a few points off of the top 4 - hence how Conte has been afforded such a nice position to come into fixture wise.

And don’t get me wrong under Nuno there was a couple of catastrophic performances but has the football really been that much better under Conte considering the constant complaints about Jose and Nunos style? Not really.

But just because it’s Conte, we have a few ten minutes spells of decent football and everyone gets excited. We had plenty of similar spells under both our previous coaches yet the reaction was very different. The only difference is under this manager who is more popular the fans are prepared to blame the players. Under the previous two coaches who didn’t have such popularity it was them who is the problem. Fact is it always was and always will be the players until we rebuild properly…..
 
Benny_Lad said:
I had a good think about this last night. Particularly alarming that he openly announced the bit about not being near to Chelsea’s level (even before the game I think I read). By doing this you are permitting failure in the players imo.

Then a slight contradiction about the transfer window not going to be great and that he would instead need to use and improve the current squad - when in reality he’s shown that he is very reluctant to change any aspects to the favoured 523 with the same nucleus of players for each game unless he was forced otherwise (Liverpool game).

My take is that the first part of the above is his way of saying I can’t compete currently - buying some time for either transfers (unlikely we now hear) or squad development (maybe some players will start to get integrated).

Id also like to see some tactical adjustments when needed (half time last night was a good example - but the damage was done) It was slightly odd going away to Chelsea the same way we setup against Watford 4 days earlier. Some will say teams have a system they stick to but on Sky etc after games we often hear how managers made a change to a certain formation for a certain game and it worked. Imo - if we keep peddling out Skipp and Hojbjerg in a 2 man midfield with 5 defenders for the rest of the season it will not only be very dull, it also won’t get us very far. We need to find better/more progressive ways in certain games from the start.
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It’s a bit of a rock and a hard place - he comes in and says he’s happy with the squad and the pressure is on him to do something with the rubbish he has, he’s come in and been honest and he might have upset some of the players/permitted failure.

I’d rather he come in and be honest now, we all know the squad is miles off, so why pretend?

We have players he clearly doesn’t trust and they are mainly the same players Nuno/Mason/Jose didn’t - so let’s just concentrate on getting rid of them and moving on.

personally I’ve written this season off as one big pre season before next season, anything more than Conference league is a bonus - not to say I don’t get annoyed by some of the games lol
 
Legohamster said:
Well he’s made it clear it almost all his interviews the squad isn’t good enough.

Levy has to back him or I imagine he will just walk ASAP.
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I'm pretty cool with either outcome, tbh, because I'm really getting the feeling that the fans are utterly done with Levy's cretinous warbling. If Conte is actually backed with money, we win things and move on from this dark period.

If he isn' t backed, he walks and Levy is given dog's abuse every single game - attendances will drop as we continue to struggle, but 40-45,000 singing at that chairman of ours and his tax exile boss to f*ck off will be musical to hear. He panicked after one game of chants for his head - let's see how he reacts to season after season.

So, either way, I can see the light for the club - we will improve, whether with Conte or when the long, barren years of the ENIC regime finally end.

We're already hearing from Gold and other club mouthpieces that it will be a difficult January, no money, all that other bullsh*t.

Fair enough if that's Levy's stance. He's choosing his own outcome in that case, because Conte doesn't have to give him the time of day - he can happily walk whenever. And the fans will know who it was that made him walk.
 
AdamB said:
Agreed....in part. Whilst our squad has issues, I'm not sure I see a squad outside the top 3 plus Man U which is definitively stronger.

You can debate us vs Arse vs Leicester....so being 5th-7th feels realistic, and as Conte has said the only way the top 4 opens up for us at the moment is if one of the top 4 have problems, as Utd are at the moment

The good thing as you say is we have one of the best managers in the world now, and if we back him consistently over the next 3-4 windows, then we should then have a realistic expectation of challenging
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Yea based on squads I’d expect us to finish about 5th, Utd underperforming is helpful as it opens up that 4th spot. If we can get Kane and Son going it would be handy, our two star players have been a shadow of themselves this season.
 
I am liking his choice of wording, of course it's to put pressure on Levy etc and some of the journos who have covered him previously are all calling it "classic Conte!" but seems he's aware and up for the "project".

Currently anyway....
 
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