• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Antonio Conte - officially NOT the coach of THFC

SpurMeUp said:
When has 3 points off 5th been a thing? We were 14th in the real league table. I wasn't a fan of Poch being sacked. But he was tired emotionally. At the time I thought a season break was the best thing. He just seemed to lack some motivation after the CL loss.

But in hindsight, LeCelco and Ndombele are probably the real reason for Poch's demise. 100m odd, Poch's signings, but gave Poch zilch. Would love to see Poch back at Spurs one day.
Click to expand...

We were 12 games in to the season, points are more important than position at that stage - the table doesn't even start to really take shape until post Christmas.

I honestly don't know how you can not see that being 1 win from a much more respectable league position blows the 'but we were 14th' argument out of the water.

And the transfers argument is even flimsier given they arrived injured or soon became injured and he barely had a chance to use them - iirc of the 3 he only got to use Ndombele 3 or 4 times
 
glasgowspur said:
Yes, to the best my knowledge that is totally the case.
I can only think that some of the press talk that levy wanted mega bucks put clubs off.
When i look at what Ndombele and grealish for instance went for but nobody would take a punt on Eriksen it fries my brian.
Click to expand...

he'd been poor for a while, wasn't bossing games the way he had done previously, seemed like he was hiding at times

I may have him confused with someone else but I remember talk about "big clubs" being put off signing him from Ajax before us as there were questions over his mentality

we paid what, 8m, it was a punt from us that paid off massively for a while
 
Credit goes to Conte, always happy to give it both ways.

I just really hope the introductions of Gil and Sarr strike a chord with him like it did the fans, we don't say it for larks or to be critical, we just wanna see people given a chance to be heroes on the pitch its not an agenda.

4-0, some real positives, bring on Pompey
 
billyiddo said:
We were 12 games in to the season, points are more important than position at that stage - the table doesn't even start to really take shape until post Christmas.

I honestly don't know how you can not see that being 1 win from a much more respectable league position blows the 'but we were 14th' argument out of the water.

And the transfers argument is even flimsier given they arrived injured or soon became injured and he barely had a chance to use them - iirc of the 3 he only got to use Ndombele 3 or 4 times
Click to expand...

As I said, I didn't think he should have been sacked. But we were 14th, we weren't 5th. We were probably 3 points off some lower position too. I don't think Levy should have sacked him. But we don't know what players and others in the club felt or were experiencing at the time. Maybe Levy had a better insight there.
 
Baleforce said:
he'd been poor for a while, wasn't bossing games the way he had done previously, seemed like he was hiding at times

I may have him confused with someone else but I remember talk about "big clubs" being put off signing him from Ajax before us as there were questions over his mentality

we paid what, 8m, it was a punt from us that paid off massively for a while
Click to expand...


Yeah he definitely started to lose form on our run to CK final.
The mentality thing is i think spot on, he was to nice, something i think most of that squad suffered from.
Hugo, jan, Dembele, Eriksen, love them all, but they didn't have that little bit extra drive.
I don't mean the nasty side, you don't need to be nasty to have drive, look at kane, he's not nasty but he has the drive to keep the dream alive.
 
SpurMeUp said:
As I said, I didn't think he should have been sacked. But we were 14th, we weren't 5th. We were probably 3 points off some lower position too. I don't think Levy should have sacked him. But we don't know what players and others in the club felt or were experiencing at the time. Maybe Levy had a better insight there.
Click to expand...

Genuinely staggered that anyone would still harp on about 14th once the context of the condensened table was pointed out to them.

Levy had Mourinho in his ear since the Inter legends friendly that summer telling him that we had a great squad and he'd get us firing - we chose that option rather than to go through the rebuild that 4 years later we're finally getting stuck in to.
 
billyiddo said:
I'd be surprised with that, unless it's miles off the pace and other factors at play, there finally seems to be an acceptance that we're in a bit of a rebuild and that it's going to take a few more windows - he didn't get the job like Mourinho by saying he was the missing piece of the puzzle and the squad was being mismanaged
Click to expand...
Not forgetting 'ive had a lovely break from football and realigned my chakras'
 
SpurMeUp said:
Genuinely staggered that someone would quote an imagined position rather than an actual one.
Click to expand...

You literally responded to my post explaining that 14th means fudge all by saying 'but we were 14th...' stop using it in your reasoning if you don't want me to think it's your position ‍♂️
 
billyiddo said:
You literally responded to my post explaining that 14th means fudge all by saying 'but we were 14th...' stop using it in your reasoning if you don't want me to think it's your position ‍♂️
Click to expand...

Idk what that means! But I get what you are saying: Poch wasn't far off a respectable position when he was sacked. We don't know the mood in the club, and maybe Levy had a better inkling that things needed a rapid change. There is no doubt that Levy had a hard-on for Mourinho. Had Mourinho blindness. Tried to hire him years early. Then hired his protege. Then hired the man himself. Until Christmas that year it did work. Then it dissolved quicker than a Marky fart. Levy was humbled.

But to Levy's credit, he then hires a Manager of Football. He saw he was fallible.
 
Grays_1890 said:
Credit goes to Conte, always happy to give it both ways.

I just really hope the introductions of Gil and Sarr strike a chord with him like it did the fans, we don't say it for larks or to be critical, we just wanna see people given a chance to be heroes on the pitch its not an agenda.

4-0, some real positives, bring on Pompey
Click to expand...

Yep, can the mods build a "nostalgia bitching thread" because not much about Conte in here

Interesting game, lots of thoughts
- First up, well done, he needed that result and one that wasn't a scrape by.
- Hopefully even though it's by forced hand he realizes Gil & Sarr need to be a regular part of the playing squad
- We still can be quite passive for large periods of game

Important win, got some rotation in as well
 
SpurMeUp said:
Idk what that means! But I get what you are saying: Poch wasn't far off a respectable position when he was sacked. We don't know the mood in the club, and maybe Levy had a better inkling that things needed a rapid change. There is no doubt that Levy had a hard-on for Mourinho. Had Mourinho blindness. Tried to hire him years early. Then hired his protege. Then hired the man himself. Until Christmas that year it did work. Then it dissolved quicker than a Marky fart. Levy was humbled.

But to Levy's credit, he then hires a Manager of Football. He saw he was fallible.
Click to expand...

There are arguments to be made regarding why the sacking may have been justified - imv these would be along the lines of there being an irreparable breakdown of relations between manager and club behind the scenes/Poch not wanting to be here/full on player revolt etc - what i don't think is a justifiable argument is that our place in the table (points/position) was untenable. So I'll always push back when i see that argument being made, if that's not what you were arguing i misread.

And yes @Raziel fair point i will leave that there for now
 
Conte seems to stumble onto winning formulas and be dragged kicking and screaming into them rather than being his initiative. From memory, didn't he have a rocky start at Chelsea, then was forced to change formation and never looked back. Same with his reluctantly slow integration of Eriksen at Inter before he won the League for them.

Maybe, just maybe, the same will happpen with .Gil, Sarr and even Spence!!!
 
Pirate55 said:
Conte seems to stumble onto winning formulas and be dragged kicking and screaming into them rather than being his initiative. From memory, didn't he have a rocky start at Chelsea, then was forced to change formation and never looked back. Same with his reluctantly slow integration of Eriksen at Inter before he won the League for them.

Maybe, just maybe, the same will happpen with .Gil, Sarr and even Spence!!!
Click to expand...

Maybe, I think we need the youth, both for the energy levels and for the type of players they are.

I really hope he starts all three of them for the FA Cup game
 
Pirate55 said:
Conte seems to stumble onto winning formulas and be dragged kicking and screaming into them rather than being his initiative. From memory, didn't he have a rocky start at Chelsea, then was forced to change formation and never looked back. Same with his reluctantly slow integration of Eriksen at Inter before he won the League for them.

Maybe, just maybe, the same will happpen with .Gil, Sarr and even Spence!!!
Click to expand...

What worked in the second half yesterday was one of his main winning formulas. Rather similar to the formula he used with success for us last season. The formula many in here have asked for him to abandon.

He does have a fairly high threshold for trusting some players, particularly younger players, but also perhaps more creative players like Eriksen.

Then again. He trusted Gil again. He stuck with Gil after a first half where I think many on here were unhappy with Gil. He stuck Sarr on at 2-0 (we all know very well that games aren't over at 2-0), having given him time on the pitch against Villa too. Both doing well.

Perhaps to some extent at least, in some situations at the very least, Conte knows what he's doing with these younger players too. He has shown a willingness to trust Skipp, Sessegnon, others in previous jobs too.

I have no issues with these players having to be "Conte ready" as long as he's showing an ability to get them there.

But yes, he does have a history of wanting ready made solutions, being reluctant to find other solutions, yet can be successful when doing so. Partly I would like to see him more proactive on solutions like Gil, Sarr and Spence.
 
Very good to see Gil and Sarr taking steps towards being potential solutions for us.

Still leaves us either short or dependent on these young and inexperienced players going forward. The underlying issues are still more or less unchanged. I don't think we can rely on Gil and Sarr to consistently be the answer when we fall short. But gives us a bit more in terms of options and freedom.

Really hope some of those underlying issues with the squad get sorted out in January.
 
braineclipse said:
What worked in the second half yesterday was one of his main winning formulas. Rather similar to the formula he used with success for us last season. The formula many in here have asked for him to abandon.

He does have a fairly high threshold for trusting some players, particularly younger players, but also perhaps more creative players like Eriksen.

Then again. He trusted Gil again. He stuck with Gil after a first half where I think many on here were unhappy with Gil. He stuck Sarr on at 2-0 (we all know very well that games aren't over at 2-0), having given him time on the pitch against Villa too. Both doing well.

Perhaps to some extent at least, in some situations at the very least, Conte knows what he's doing with these younger players too. He has shown a willingness to trust Skipp, Sessegnon, others in previous jobs too.

I have no issues with these players having to be "Conte ready" as long as he's showing an ability to get them there.

But yes, he does have a history of wanting ready made solutions, being reluctant to find other solutions, yet can be successful when doing so. Partly I would like to see him more proactive on solutions like Gil, Sarr and Spence.
Click to expand...

I think his hand was forced (wouldn't be the first time Conte has stumbled into a solution)

I'm not entirely convinced Conte didn't play Gil & Sarr against Villa to send a message to the club (oh, look what brick I have to rely on, young, unproven players) and then realized they actually could do a job.

We need high energy players in the system, otherwise we become too passive and easy to play against. It's why Deki, Bentancur, Richarlison, Gil, Sarr make an impact to how we play, I suspect Spence would be similar.
 
braineclipse said:
Very good to see Gil and Sarr taking steps towards being potential solutions for us.

Still leaves us either short or dependent on these young and inexperienced players going forward. The underlying issues are still more or less unchanged. I don't think we can rely on Gil and Sarr to consistently be the answer when we fall short. But gives us a bit more in terms of options and freedom.

Really hope some of those underlying issues with the squad get sorted out in January.
Click to expand...

To be fair Gil and Sarr are 6th and 5th choices respectively, so I don’t think our current reliance on them is an issue with the squad - just a bit of injury/suspension bad luck. And if we don’t think they’re good enough to be 6th and 5th choice, then I think they need to go out on loan.

(Personally I’m happy with them as 6th and 5th choice for now, but that’s partly because I like seeing recent young purchases given a chance before we go out and buy another new player to replace for them).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back