Either way, the club has to make a stand. Either we back Conte with what he needs (exactly what he says he needs, within reason. Sorry mate, no Mbappe) AND hold him accountable for it (you get sacked, 25% of the transfer fees come out of your sendoff payment or whatever it's called) or we cut the tie. We can't throw away a season and potential CL play having a manager sulking about not having this and that and a creative player out of a squad of 40 or whatever, and players refusing to play for 90 minutes. And having a few injuries shouldn't lead to the rest of the players going into a collective depression where they seem to forget how to do the most basic things. No risk, no reward. Without having a microounce of saying in that matter, I'd go with that.
I very much doubt any manager - regardless one of Conte's calibre - would agree to such a deal. However, since I'm not a board member but just a simple fan, I tend to see things a bit differently.
There's no doubt in my mind that Conte is a top manager. He's been dealt a brick hand, not so much because of injuries but because of what happened at the World Cup, the loss of his fitness coach and the number of games played so far this season, as already mentioned in this thread.
My feeling is that when his plan works, you get a team that is stronger than the sum of its parts (to coin a phrase) because the system is more important than the individuals. Three years down the line, I believe he could have better results with a new striker who'd be vastly inferior to Kane, for instance. But three years is an awfully long time. It's actually the average lifespan of a football manager at a club. On the flip side, his system relies on a very stable first XI, which means results will suffer when many players get injured at the same time or when he needs to rest a lot of players. From what I've seen, it's very difficult to break into the side, because newcomers need to adapt to the system itself and need to know their closest partners like the back of their hands.
It took Perisic (who knew the system) some time to break into the side. Doherty is doing fairly well but mostly because Royal couldn't fit in and Bissouma, for instance, hasn't been anywhere near the player he was at Brighton, so far (all in my opinion, of course).
But from an observer's point of view... well, we're not very fun to watch, are we? As I watched the game yesterday, I couldn't help but think that, at least, under Mourinho, we had the Kane/Son partnership to look forward to. Until he lost the rest of the dressing room, we played with more flair under Mourinho than we've been so far this season. Now, it's just people passing the ball about with little conviction for 60 minutes, plus a couple of guys who look lost on the pitch.
Changing managers every time the weather turns foul is no way to build a successful club, that goes without saying. At the same time, you could argue that Conte did himself no favour by constantly threatening to leave last season and with his brand of football (although the latter is hardly a surprise). If I were Levy, I wouldn't pull the trigger; as a fan, I wouldn't mind if he left.
