Antonio Conte - officially NOT the coach of THFC

[tommysvr]

Conte cannot sign a new contract that the club is not offering. The club have had a unilateral option to extend Conte's contract by a year since the day he signed but have not done so.

Why on earth would they? He doesn’t want to be there — if he did, the two would have come to an agreement during the World Cup.

 

[glorygloryeze]

Why on earth would they? He doesn’t want to be there — if he did, the two would have come to an agreement during the World Cup.

Tbf to Conte, he might have wanted to wait until how our January transfer business went...ditto Levy/ENIC might have been scared to commit funds to players he wanted if he might leave not long afterwards. A real kind of stalemate.. they went and randomly signed Danjuma on loan anyway...

 

[DeanoAustin]

I’d be fine with Mason until the end of the season. He’s been working with the players for the past 2 years. I think the fans will cut him some slack.

Dunno if they will. There were an awful lot of people who had a pop at Mason the last time for "playing his mates". Incidentally, I don't think he was at all. But people were ready to jump on him.

If there is frustration, it won't be Mason that's the problem. The underlying frustration, as it was with Nuno in my view, is not with the managers - it's with Levy. If he fires an "elite" manager and replaces him with a rookie and we start losing games, it'll turn toxic. Mason will just be collateral damage.

You an already hear a very vocal section of our away support chanting that they want Levy out on the TV. That will ramp up if our season falls apart on the back on another sacking.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Why on earth would they? He doesn’t want to be there — if he did, the two would have come to an agreement during the World Cup.

They don't need to come to an agreement. The club could've added 1 year to Conte's contract at any point. If they had done this much earlier this season then I think we may have had a better season (as at present our whole playing squad don't think Conte will be here next season), even Alex Fergusson's Man Utd's playing squad dipped their performance considerably that time they thought Fergusson was finishing at the end of the season.

 

[glorygloryeze]

I must say i dread the thought of us going to play the likes of Saudi Sportswashing Machine away, Man Utd and Liverpool away with Mason in charge.
When he was in charge last time we certainly scored more goals and were more on the front foot, but whenever we played any decent coach who had decent tools we got handed our backsides to us....ugh!

 

[Yiddo]

In what world would this ever work? Seeing your boss tear you out in front of the world’s media for being selfish and uncommitted, whilst not signing a contract beyond June themselves would inspire no one to worker harder. It will not separate the weak from the strong. This would be true in any line of work.

But yet all our fans can do it and then expect them to perform.

I would imagine most work places would give their lazy staff a gonading and give them an ultimatum if they are not living up to expectations.

 

[Glenda's Legs]

But yet all our fans can do it and then expect them to perform.

I would imagine most work places would give their lazy staff a gonad*ing and give them an ultimatum if they are not living up to expectations.

they would, but it would be behind closed doors not publicly.
(Of course Conte may have done that as well).

 

[Chrissivad]

They don't need to come to an agreement. The club could've added 1 year to Conte's contract at any point. If they had done this much earlier this season then I think we may have had a better season (as at present our whole playing squad don't think Conte will be here next season), even Alex Fergusson's Man Utd's playing squad dipped their performance considerably that time they thought Fergusson was finishing at the end of the season.

I don't think the club could just activate the extra year. I'm sure it was reported that both the club and Conte would need to agree on the extra year.

 

[alekaras]

Nothing with the players per say, but if the manager didn't want them and there were other more pressing ares to strengthen at the times (e.g. a more experienced wing-back or competition for Kulu, a dominant centre-back etc), why take that effort (especially in the case of Spence) to chase them?
In the case of Danjuma, we weren't even chasing him, he was due to sign for Everton before his agent called us out of the blue...So we got him instead of maybe a Zaniolo who Conte apparently DID want.

If the Levy/ENIC can go above a combustible manager like Conte and make (what often seem like opportunistic) signings he didn't ask for/doesn't want then they will do this with anyone. We saw how things went with Poch after going a year plus without signing anyone we make our first signing in summer 2019 after the CL final of Jack Clarke. Who Poch clearly didn't want...where is Clarke now? Exactly.
Same old, same old it seems...

You conveniently left out Lo Celso, Ndombele, and Sess, who the manager did want.

And what is a club supposed to do? Just sign the players the current manager wants and not look into the future too? We signed players that Conte wanted, but we also signed players for the future. Just because he didn't give them a chance is not on the club; it's on the manager. We didn't exactly buy Jack Clarkes this time around and a manager who cares about continuity would have figured out a way to integrate them instead of freezing them out. In the grand scheme of things, if your manager is not a SAF or Wenger, it would be criminal to let the manager dictate the entire transfer strategy of a club. Especially one who has given no indication he wants to be around long term.

 

[alekaras]

Tbf to Conte, he might have wanted to wait until how our January transfer business went...ditto Levy/ENIC might have been scared to commit funds to players he wanted if he might leave not long afterwards. A real kind of stalemate.. they went and randomly signed Danjuma on loan anyway...

Danjuma wasn't signed randomly. Conte wanted one in for every one out. Gil went out on loan, so we signed Danjuma, who was probably the best we could have gotten at the time. No point in committing millions for a player who was replacing one going out on loan. That's how you end up with a bloated squad and then everyone complaining we can't shift players.

 

[tommysvr]

Tbf to Conte, he might have wanted to wait until how our January transfer business went...ditto Levy/ENIC might have been scared to commit funds to players he wanted if he might leave not long afterwards. A real kind of stalemate.. they went and randomly signed Danjuma on loan anyway...

Funny how you left out our major signing

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Nothing with the players per say, but if the manager didn't want them and there were other more pressing ares to strengthen at the times (e.g. a more experienced wing-back or competition for Kulu, a dominant centre-back etc), why take that effort (especially in the case of Spence) to chase them?
In the case of Danjuma, we weren't even chasing him, he was due to sign for Everton before his agent called us out of the blue...So we got him instead of maybe a Zaniolo who Conte apparently DID want.

If the Levy/ENIC can go above a combustible manager like Conte and make (what often seem like opportunistic) signings he didn't ask for/doesn't want then they will do this with anyone. We saw how things went with Poch after going a year plus without signing anyone we make our first signing in summer 2019 after the CL final of Jack Clarke. Who Poch clearly didn't want...where is Clarke now? Exactly.
Same old, same old it seems...

We wanted zaniolo for conte
In the meantime we also know that Danjuma agent was talking to every prem side with his clubs blessing
Roma refused to budge on a very high price (one they took half for, from turkey) and we decided we still need that attacking cover conte craved so went for a more proven option with minimal risk
It’s actually sensible business
It’s high in impossible fixing the squad in the shape conte wanted in the time frame he was/is committed too so planning for more variables (such as conte going clame) again is quite sensible

 

[tommysvr]

They don't need to come to an agreement. The club could've added 1 year to Conte's contract at any point. If they had done this much earlier this season then I think we may have had a better season (as at present our whole playing squad don't think Conte will be here next season), even Alex Fergusson's Man Utd's playing squad dipped their performance considerably that time they thought Fergusson was finishing at the end of the season.

Why the fudge would the club extend the contact of a manager who doesn’t want to be here? It makes less than zero sense. Your mental gymnastics don’t help it make anymore sense.

 

[tommysvr]

But yet all our fans can do it and then expect them to perform.

I would imagine most work places would give their lazy staff a gonad*ing and give them an ultimatum if they are not living up to expectations.

A) Not in public they wouldn’t
B) If your boss was leaving in a few months and gave you that gonading, you’d probably spend the next few hours laughing about it

 

[alekaras]

They don't need to come to an agreement. The club could've added 1 year to Conte's contract at any point. If they had done this much earlier this season then I think we may have had a better season (as at present our whole playing squad don't think Conte will be here next season), even Alex Fergusson's Man Utd's playing squad dipped their performance considerably that time they thought Fergusson was finishing at the end of the season.

Conte hadn't shown he was improving the team, though. They'd be adding a year onto his contract on a wing and a prayer that he will finally get the team to click. I too would be hesitant to add a year to an expensive manager's contract when, after a full preseason with the squad reinforced, he was delivering the results and turgid football Conte did and had regressed compared to the previous season.

 

[glorygloryeze]

You conveniently left out Lo Celso, Ndombele, and Sess, who the manager did want.

And what is a club supposed to do? Just sign the players the current manager wants and not look into the future too? We signed players that Conte wanted, but we also signed players for the future. Just because he didn't give them a chance is not on the club; it's on the manager. We didn't exactly buy Jack Clarkes this time around and a manager who cares about continuity would have figured out a way to integrate them instead of freezing them out. In the grand scheme of things, if your manager is not a SAF or Wenger, it would be criminal to let the manager dictate the entire transfer strategy of a club. Especially one who has given no indication he wants to be around long term.

My point was that after over a year of not buying anyone the one we tied up first was Jack Clarke; i'm sure in Pochs mind the question would be why is that higher priority rather than the players rather than the player(s) i DO want?
Ditto can Spence not have waited until AFTER we had signed a rwb that Conte DID want?
Again, it's about priorities and i'm all for having a strategy for the future but that should play second to the NOW needs your manager wants sorted.
If we had a RWB Conte actually wanted signed and ready to get integrated, cool sign a Spence as an understudy/loan away option etc.
But we didn't, yet we spent probably the most time trying to get Spence compared to all the other transfers we signed. And when RWB was a clear weakness....

As i say, we've seen that before under Poch with Clarke and no doubt will see such waste again with future ones. If they can do this with Conte (who as i say we KNOW is one of the most combustible people in the game) we will do it with anyone..

 

[alekaras]

My point was that after over a year of not buying anyone the one we tied up first was Jack Clarke; i'm sure in Pochs mind the question would be why is that higher priority rather than the players rather than the player(s) i DO want?
Ditto can Spence not have waited until AFTER we had signed a rwb that Conte DID want?
Again, it's about priorities and i'm all for having a strategy for the future but that should play second to the NOW needs your manager wants sorted.
If we had a RWB Conte actually wanted signed and ready to get integrated, cool sign a Spence as an understudy/loan away option etc.
But we didn't, yet we spent probably the most time trying to get Spence compared to all the other transfers we signed. And when RWB was a clear weakness....

As i say, we've seen that before under Poch with Clarke and no doubt will see such waste again with future ones. If they can do this with Conte (who as i say we KNOW is one of the most combustible people in the game) we will do it with anyone..

You think that transfers happen on the club's schedule? The order in which a club signs players has nothing to do with its priorities. There are so many factors involved that might push a transfer for a high priority position to happen later than one for a lower priority.

 

[glorygloryeze]

Danjuma wasn't signed randomly. Conte wanted one in for every one out. Gil went out on loan, so we signed Danjuma, who was probably the best we could have gotten at the time. No point in committing millions for a player who was replacing one going out on loan. That's how you end up with a bloated squad and then everyone complaining we can't shift players.

It WAS random though. We weren't scouting him, he is not someone to rotate on Kulu's side and we only signed him because his agent called us NOT because we chased him. Yes, it was indeed good to get him on loan, but we could maybe have pushed more to get Zaniolo on loan instead?
What about a centre back who's better than Dier on loan?
Again, priorities and strategy...

 

[Mr Gogolak]

They don't need to come to an agreement. The club could've added 1 year to Conte's contract at any point. If they had done this much earlier this season then I think we may have had a better season (as at present our whole playing squad don't think Conte will be here next season), even Alex Fergusson's Man Utd's playing squad dipped their performance considerably that time they thought Fergusson was finishing at the end of the season.

It's the ultimate kiss of death for a manager. Margins are so fine in modern-day football that the little extra you don't give anymore when you know the guy in charge won't be there next season makes it impossible to achieve anything. Robson was a living legend at Saudi Sportswashing Machine but once he said he'd retire at the end of the season, he never got to see it through. You could probably find the odd example here or there of a manager announcing his departure and going out in a bang but for one of these, I could find ten guys who left earlier than expected.

 

[glorygloryeze]

You think that transfers happen on the club's schedule? The order in which a club signs players has nothing to do with its priorities. There are so many factors involved that might push a transfer for a high priority position to happen later than one for a lower priority.

Are you telling me we had to rush to get Clarke instead of Lo Celso or Sessegnon?
I mean i could see it if Clarke was a first teamer who was going straight into the first team, on tour etc, but was he really?
Again, you saw how this affected Poch's mood...