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Antonio Conte - officially NOT the coach of THFC

ricky2tricky4city said:
This is all unfounded nonsense. All clubs have had a scheduling moan this season.

Perhaps respond to the point that even OJ Simpson's lawyer could not change the times/dates the TV companies wish the games to be played on.
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Tell that to Conte, he started it.

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Yiddo said:
Would love too see more of that intense, pack of wolves style pressing more often.
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Good to see us have that in our locker and execute it that well even though then going down to ten men obviously made it easier.

Think it will almost always be something we use more for shorter periods, phases of games under Conte. Hoping to see a bit more of it, bit more often. But may take time (transfer window and preseason). Difficult to get that and the lower block integrated quickly.

Legohamster said:
Back him and we will be going places.
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Definitely agree.

Can never be certain about much, if anything, in football. But this seems as close to certain as one can get about these things.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
So is he calling his DofF out?
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Sorry, his who? If you mean Paratici, I think he already has with his complaining about our transfer business in January.

If you mean the club in general + Levy in particular, absolutely.

It's the little things that we don't do that illustrate the difference between born winners and what we are at the moment. Raising hell about fixtures is one thing. But there are so many others behind the scenes which Conte must be steaming about. Take the following five as an illustration -

  • Data science in transfers - we used to lead the way when we employed Edwards. Since he left to Liverpool and Mitchell left with his 'black box', we have made a series of baffling signings with seemingly no analysis done - Sanchez signed despite being terrible on the ball, Gil signed despite being way too scrawny for this league, etc, etc.
  • Scouting network in general - Comolli, credit to him, built a Europe-wide scouting network, and in this he built on the work Arnesen had started. But to go from where we were then to the situation we were in when Paratici arrived of seemingly having 'I hate January' Hitchen and David Pleat as our only two scouts of note is baffling ineptitude.
  • Sports science/physiology - our injury record this season is proof enough of where we need to improve in this department, including some ludicrous farces like Skipp suffering a minor injury that then got infected and needed season-ending surgery.
  • Sports psychology - until recently, we didn't have a single sports psychologist on staff - the likes of Sessegnon and Rose had to find psychologists on their own to help them out. For a team famously prone to mental collapses and fragility, to be so careless as to not employ a single sports psychologist is baffling.
  • Youth recruitment - in the past, under McDermott, we had a strategy of picking up youth players the more prestigious London academies (Arsenal and Chelsea, but also Spam, I believe) had ignored because of physical limitations. . But as our stature grew in the Poch years, our youth recruitment doesn't seem to have changed - we still look for that profile. And we are also seeing that promising players we do produce, like Madueke, are leaving the club to break into first-team football.
Combine fixing the above with raising hell about fixtures with the PL and not rolling over when faced with injustices like we faced in 2006, and you have gone a huge way towards making the club a ruthless competitor, at very little cost.

The point I think he's making, and has been making throughout his time here, is that acting like a 'big club' means being competitive enough to be the best in every sphere, every aspect of operations - and to take every opportunity you can to build your competitive advantage, whether that's putting doubts in the minds of the fixture schedulers (as opposed to letting them assume that little old Tottenham will accommodate whatever sh*te they throw at us), intimidating referees, or fixing all of the above.

I agree with it. And the fact that he's calling it out publicly is good - means we can identify and fix these things. Because clearly, leaving it all to 'behind closed doors' discussions hasn't produced the outcomes we want, since they are still problems.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Sorry, his who? If you mean Paratici, I think he already has with his complaining about our transfer business in January.

If you mean the club in general + Levy in particular, absolutely.

It's the little things that we don't do that illustrate the difference between born winners and what we are at the moment. Raising hell about fixtures is one thing. But there are so many others behind the scenes which Conte must be steaming about. Take the following five as an illustration -

  • Data science in transfers - we used to lead the way when we employed Edwards. Since he left to Liverpool and Mitchell left with his 'black box', we have made a series of baffling signings with seemingly no analysis done - Sanchez signed despite being terrible on the ball, Gil signed despite being way too scrawny for this league, etc, etc.
  • Scouting network in general - Comolli, credit to him, built a Europe-wide scouting network, and in this he built on the work Arnesen had started. But to go from where we were then to the situation we were in when Paratici arrived of seemingly having 'I hate January' Hitchen and David Pleat as our only two scouts of note is baffling ineptitude.
  • Sports science/physiology - our injury record this season is proof enough of where we need to improve in this department, including some ludicrous farces like Skipp suffering a minor injury that then got infected and needed season-ending surgery.
  • Sports psychology - until recently, we didn't have a single sports psychologist on staff - the likes of Sessegnon and Rose had to find psychologists on their own to help them out. For a team famously prone to mental collapses and fragility, to be so careless as to not employ a single sports psychologist is baffling.
  • Youth recruitment - in the past, under McDermott, we had a strategy of picking up youth players the more prestigious London academies (Arsenal and Chelsea, but also Spam, I believe) had ignored because of physical limitations. . But as our stature grew in the Poch years, our youth recruitment doesn't seem to have changed - we still look for that profile. And we are also seeing that promising players we do produce, like Madueke, are leaving the club to break into first-team football.
Combine fixing the above with raising hell about fixtures with the PL and not rolling over when faced with injustices like we faced in 2006, and you have gone a huge way towards making the club a ruthless competitor, at very little cost.

The point I think he's making, and has been making throughout his time here, is that acting like a 'big club' means being competitive enough to be the best in every sphere, every aspect of operations - and to take every opportunity you can to build your competitive advantage, whether that's putting doubts in the minds of the fixture schedulers (as opposed to letting them assume that little old Tottenham will accommodate whatever sh*te they throw at us), intimidating referees, or fixing all of the above.

I agree with it. And the fact that he's calling it out publicly is good - means we can identify and fix these things. Because clearly, leaving it all to 'behind closed doors' discussions hasn't produced the outcomes we want, since they are still problems.
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I am of the same opinion that Levy is thrilled at accumulating the new hardware but is stingy with the software.

Coaches not being able to bring their staff is a lack of trust and empowerment. And we need more sensitive asthma detection kits.


If I were Levy I'd stop building Cinemas and start hiring researches in sports sciences and psych, so I can bring new products and services to market anf for new revenues. I mean what better test subjects than footballers at the top of their game and an the ability to track player development and the impact of sports science innovations from a young age and over the years.

Messi wouldn't be Messi if Barce didn't give him growth hormones at a young age. And I'd buy Tottenham Hotspur branded sports supplements more than bathroom slippers.
 
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He threw players under the bus sone might say :

"Sometimes coaches have a strategy and the strategy is the stick or the carrot. At the time, all the environment needed the stick. Myself was the first person because I hit myself and then the others because before saying something wrong about the players or the situation, the first to take the blame has to be the manager.

ESPN: Antonio Conte on Tottenham turnaround: My outburst after Burnley defeat was key moment.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/tottenh...-outburst-after-burnley-defeat-was-key-moment

If I owned a football club challenging champions league, I'd weed out first the oversensitive and those who have a sense of entitlement, not being to be humble enough to blame themselves.
 
billyiddo said:
I'm not sure how that quote constitutes throwing the players under the bus
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At the time Conte was saying it was the players fault. There was some discussion here and disdain for Conte. Time has passed and that hard love seems to have worked out well.

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metalgear said:
At the time Conte was saying it was the players fault. There was some discussion here and disdain for Conte. Time has passed and that hard love seems to have worked out well.

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Wasn't he calling his own abilities as manager in to question along with it - hence the quote in your post above
 
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