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Antonio Conte - officially NOT the coach of THFC

Mcfee said:
He uses the word “important” a lot. e.g. “there is an important gap between Tottenham and Chelsea”. I think he means “significant”. It’s a language thing. The 4 players were significant in the context of how much we paid for 3 of them and in Dele’s case the level of performance he used to achieve with us in better times. I don’t think he meant that those 4 players were an important part of his plans and that they were let go against his will.
I’m speculating but so is everyone else. As @braineclipse says, this is part of what you get with Conte. If he irritates some people then so what. I’d be more concerned with how he deals with the squad in private and of course with what happens on the pitch - which doesn’t look great admittedly but it’s early days.
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That’s exactly how I read it. His point is that we shifted out expensive, developed players and replaced them with prospects. He is saying that’s the philosophy of the club and that success, if it ever comes, is a long way off because of that.

This gives the jist of it in a balanced way.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...fter-january-transfers?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
 
Gazza said:
It's what top managers do, make demands to make the team win. That's why we will always hire a nice quiet man that will just stay his course of execution under Levy.

No top manager would put up with Levys strategy of funding if they have their own ambition of winning. We are a club under Enic that want to stay relevant enough to keep fans coming but not enough to invest to genuinely challenge for anything.
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Hire a nice quiet man? Are you having a laugh???
Conte, Mourinho and Redknapp are now nice quiet men??
Even Poch and AVB have their moments
 
Gazza said:
It's what top managers do, make demands to make the team win. That's why we will always hire a nice quiet man that will just stay his course of execution under Levy.

No top manager would put up with Levys strategy of funding if they have their own ambition of winning. We are a club under Enic that want to stay relevant enough to keep fans coming but not enough to invest to genuinely challenge for anything.
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But we've hired Conte, and Mourinho? Neither known for being especially quiet.
 
Mikey10 said:
That’s exactly how I read it. His point is that we shifted out expensive, developed players and replaced them with prospects. He is saying that’s the philosophy of the club and that success, if it ever comes, is a long way off because of that.

This gives the jist of it in a balanced way.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...fter-january-transfers?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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So its going to take time, we will/went backwards to go forward and we are behind the top three.
Nothing in there controversial, or anything any sensible person didn't already know.
 
We say it every window and it get's a bit boring repeating it but this summer window really is gonna be huge for us. This HAS to be the window where Conte gets the pieces of the puzzle he really wants. If we only manage a couple of signings we are gonna be in a huge danger of really falling behind.
 
braineclipse said:
For the "rebuild" to happen with results and performances coming quickly I can't think of anyone attainable that would be a better fit than Conte. Keeping him happy with our summer business is our best chance of success (however one defines that) next season.

For a longer term rebuild a different manager may be better suited.

Both paths are viable.

I really hope we keep Conte happy. With some ageing stars, Kane wanting out last summer, I think next season matters a lot. A somewhat slower rebuild can early turn into a longer term rebuild, would mean a much bigger change that may include replacing our current best players while not being at the highest level - that's a big ask.
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I think that was part of the decision to go with Conte. An elite manager that timewise could sync with the final elite cycles of our best players. Try and elevate us upwards while they were stil in their prime.
 
dingdongo said:
We say it every window and it get's a bit boring repeating it but this summer window really is gonna be huge for us. This HAS to be the window where Conte gets the pieces of the puzzle he really wants. If we only manage a couple of signings we are gonna be in a huge danger of really falling behind.
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We are well behind already, you are more confident in ENIC than I am ...
 
Gazza said:
We are well behind already, you are more confident in ENIC than I am ...
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I'm not so much thinking about the top 3 (They are light years ahead) more falling behind Arse's rebuild, United finally getting their act together, Villa, Everton and obviously Saudi Sportswashing Machine all spending well now. A good window with 3-4 'real' signings would keep us in the top half at least lol, otherwise we might be truly f**ked!!!
 
dingdongo said:
I'm not so much thinking about the top 3 (They are light years ahead) more falling behind Arse's rebuild, United finally getting their act together, Villa, Everton and obviously Saudi Sportswashing Machine all spending well now. A good window with 3-4 'real' signings would keep us in the top half at least lol, otherwise we might be truly f**ked!!!
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They are spending a lot, but I wouldn't say they are spending well. Everton's recruitment in recent years is even worse than ours.
 
DubSpur said:
There's nothing at all in it, he even says he's happy...
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Ex Chelsea manager getting paid a brick load with zero expectations, no doubt he is happy. I’m not going to go full DubaiSpur but the cynical side of me does see it as a win win for Conte whatever happens.
 
dingdongo said:
I'm not so much thinking about the top 3 (They are light years ahead) more falling behind Arse's rebuild, United finally getting their act together, Villa, Everton and obviously Saudi Sportswashing Machine all spending well now. A good window with 3-4 'real' signings would keep us in the top half at least lol, otherwise we might be truly f**ked!!!
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Well to be fair we are about 5 players from being a proper outfit (2 x CBs, RWB, AM, ST), we have a superb manager, arguably at the same level of the top three. We just need to pull our finger out and back the manager with whatever he needs. It seems like we are clearing the decks, freeing up wages and so it is expected that we do go out and go for it. Otherwise, Conte's appointment has been a complete waste of time and a pantomime as usual under ENIC.
 
Levy and Lewis simply don't believe in the business plan where you look to buy experienced players who would get into the best teams in Europe as well as good young talent and by that blend you challenge the very best teams. Their Business Model is to get a scouting team that identifies talented young players that can come through and be worth much more than they paid for them. They aren't really interested in being one of the top two or three teams in England - they don't want to pay the money that would take. So success to them is competing for an occasional fourth place and some decent money from the Champion League but even if that doesn't happen they are content to keep the club highly profitable as a return on their investment - which is immense. Winning trophies isn't really important to them - if Daniel was a true supporter he would have quit long ago - for which supporter who has the opportunity to help his team win things, would be content to mix with the owners of City, Liverpool and Chelsea knowing that he will never be their equal (and never try to be their equal) - it would frustrate the life out of a real supporter. No they simply don't care about the success we care about - challenging for the title, winning cups and being relevant.

Now before you pile into me - they got a bit lucky with Poch - he took young players like Walker and Alli and fashioned them into worthy challengers and unfortunately that period has convinced Levy that this model could be done over and over but it was largely a one off - like Leicester - and don't forget that we didn't win anything even with that excellent side - a marquee signing or two could have got us over the line - we will never know because ENIC will never buy marquee signings.

Conte should have known all this before he joined - its part of the interview process and if he hadn't realised this, then he is naive.

So we only have hope - nothing more - hope that Enic's model will turn up a cup or two, an occasional fourth place and we are grouped with Everton, Villa, Saudi Sportswashing Machine - that's our benchmark - and that is so damned sad.

The only thing that really puzzles me is how much Levy will spend on Managers - £15M a year for Conte? - and then not back them with transformative signings - leading to them failing, leaving and we start the whole crazy process again - while he saves money on transfers how much has he paid in severance payments to outgoing managers and their entourage - so many millions - dopey...

One trophy in 22 years - we are doomed Captain Mainwaring, doomed I tell you!
 
dingdongo said:
We say it every window and it get's a bit boring repeating it but this summer window really is gonna be huge for us. This HAS to be the window where Conte gets the pieces of the puzzle he really wants. If we only manage a couple of signings we are gonna be in a huge danger of really falling behind.
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we have already massively fallen behind, we’re not in danger of it, it’s already happened. Question is what are levy and Lewis going to do about it?
 
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