Conte | Spurs Manager

He's not been there long enough to swap a bunch of players in and out but I'd thought he would do better. You see for a long time with Kane and Son you have two high caliber players and Kane put on a show for Pep in the last game, Conte requires a few more important players like he's said, even if they're getting on a bit or bit of a reject elsewhere. At Inter I think he had a mix bag and can do wonders in motivating a team but right now it seems Spurs top heavy on scrap.

Overall it's a tricky situation that revolves around a stacked league competing for top 4 which can be very elusive, troubling for finances when you don't get it and troubling for higher profile players joining/staying. Really he should be at another club on the continent pushing against some of the big guns but the game is in a weird state. We have another club joining the rat race of haphazard riches in Newcastle so it will be 3 oil clubs demanding/requiring 3 of the top places with one left over for the bigger traditional clubs. It's a shame some of the oil states don't want to get involved elsewhere and pump up a La Liga team with riches.
 
cjj said:
How do neutral/rival fans see the situation? Not the "haha Conte. Spurs are shite" type stuff, but actually looking at his tactics and the team?

At the end of the day, he's got a better squad than Dyche, Lage, and Hassenhutl - and is, by all accounts, a more successful manager. It seems like slopey-shoulders to act like he's managing Burnley and has just been beaten by Newcastle.

Personally, since he's been at the club, despite the odd good game here and there, most matches have been all about low possession and late snatching victories. I've not seen any players improve, and he seems to be obsessed with the 5-2-3 despite it clearly not suiting the squad (we don't have any players that can play WB to any standard). As much as people are bound to take the bait from him and go "yerrr - its the same players" - I can imagine a Graham Potter/Harry Redknapp type manager doing better by simply picking a team baed on what you have, rather than simply how you want to play.
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I don’t like Conte’s tactics from the beginning and never liked him so my view on this is, its expected but it really bad after being in the job for few months only.
He should’ve known spurs current situation before signing the contract. I still remember the italian lobby including fabrizio was working hard to push him to United but somehow united didn’t chosen him which was what I expected.
 
They'd be smart to keep him and back him. Eventually it will click, probably next season. That said I wonder if he has the patience to dilly dally with such shite transfers. If Poch does leave PSG for either Real/United, I can imagine PSG taking a look at him.
 
cjj said:
How do neutral/rival fans see the situation? Not the "haha Conte. Spurs are shite" type stuff, but actually looking at his tactics and the team?

At the end of the day, he's got a better squad than Dyche, Lage, and Hassenhutl - and is, by all accounts, a more successful manager. It seems like slopey-shoulders to act like he's managing Burnley and has just been beaten by Newcastle.
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It's his MO. He managed to gaslight a significant section of our fanbase that we were extreme pennypinchers and at Juventus his excuse for not competing in the UCL was "you can't go to a €100 euro restaurant with €10 euro" only for Allegri to make two finals in three years after he rage quit.

Fully motivated he is a truly fantastic coach (if he had your peak Pochettino team you'd have won the league) but politically he's unbearable and makes Mourinho look like a pussy cat.
 
cjj said:
At this rate, I'd sooner just have Ryan Mason take over and see what he can do. He did a decent job last season, and you'd expect he'd be happy to let Paratici build the squad for him to use.

I worry that Conte will demand an obscene amount in the summer, and double-Mourinho the squad and leave us with more Ndombele-type players than he found us with.
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That's bonkers.
 
Dancfc said:
It's his MO. He managed to gaslight a significant section of our fanbase that we were extreme pennypinchers and at Juventus his excuse for not competing in the UCL was "you can't go to a €100 euro restaurant with €10 euro" only for Allegri to make two finals in three years after he rage quit.

Fully motivated he is a truly fantastic coach (if he had your peak Pochettino team you'd have won the league) but politically he's unbearable and makes Mourinho look like a pussy cat.
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No need to over exaggerate.
 
If every fan spurs or non-spurs could see Conte and Levy was never a good combo, why was it not obvious to the chairman and manager. Conte has done poor research in not knowing what he’s going into.

Everyone knows Conte throws his toys out of the pram if he is not competing for titles and honours. There was such a slim chance of spurs winning anything even with Conte when you have the likes of City and Liverpool and Chelsea around. Spurs probably had less than 5% chance of winning anything.
 
cjj said:
At this rate, I'd sooner just have Ryan Mason take over and see what he can do. He did a decent job last season, and you'd expect he'd be happy to let Paratici build the squad for him to use.

I worry that Conte will demand an obscene amount in the summer, and double-Mourinho the squad and leave us with more Ndombele-type players than he found us with.
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That's pretty paradox and backward logic right here.

It's Poch's big signings that are causing problem. It's still the tip of the iceberg for Tottenham issue though. The root cause is that Levy doesn't spend on time to maximize the football potential. Poch might have made bad expensive signings, however the damage wouldn't be this big if the signings were made during the team peak, where the team can carry them (bad signings). You could have cut the loss sooner to damage control, and reinvested.

To delay and dwell on past mistake, not only you miss the opportunity to improve, but it also destroys the level of the club. Hire good manager and back him all the way; or you're still paying good sum of money in longer run but also regressing.

Whether you rate Conte as good manager or not, is personal opinion.
 
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That interview was weird. For me i think conte just thinks that theres too much dirge in the squad and he isnt going to get the funds to change it up massively.

I just dont think its a good fit in the first place. Conte is a manager who takes over a top team with a pretty good squad, gets signings and wins stuff. Tottenham are a team in need of a rebuild and like it or not, aren’t going to get back to top 4 with a new manager and a couple of juventus cast offs. It seems like Levy thinks its a quick fix there.

the problem is when you have a revolving door of managers, especially the likes of mourinho and conte, you arent going to get a long term approach to personnel and tactics/style, and unless your owner is going to give them £250m quid in the first transfer window they arent going to change much against your man cities and liverpools with a squad of mainly b list and sometimes c list players, and also not the positions and style they need. The only real exception to this rule is chelsea but then again the new manager always has a blank chequebook and the likes of Kante already in the squad.
 
VP89 said:
They'd be smart to keep him and back him. Eventually it will click, probably next season. That said I wonder if he has the patience to dilly dally with such shite transfers. If Poch does leave PSG for either Real/United, I can imagine PSG taking a look at him.
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I don't think Conte and PSG would even develop any kind of interest in each other to begin with. PSG spends money but Conte wants his players. Conte is a disciplinarian, but PSG culture is Hollywood.

I has a feeling PSG would go back to Ancelotti for short term in case Poch leaves, while Zidane not committing to a club waiting for France NT position. That would give PSG time to plan to recruit Luis Enrique after the World Cup. Luis Enrique is the most suitable and attainable manager for them in this circumstance.
 
Magic wand is broken. Who will we be able to imagine will be left to come in and be an ‘instant fix’. Tuchel? Klopp? Gonna be down to Jesus soon.
 
V.O. said:
Fighter of a manager. Trophies everywhere he's gone. Impeccable reputation as a competitor.

A couple of months of trying to manage professional Tom Cleverley impersonator, Harry Winks, has done him in. RIP.
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To me it seems he really never wanted to go to Spurs. It was just a very rash decision after getting snubbed from United that made him do it and his comments have been really weird from day one. It's like getting rejected by your dream girlfriend and then getting to settle with the ugly girl next door that loves you before realizing your mistake.
 
Who knows what behind the scenes at Spurs is like with Levy? Conte is probably looking for a way out.
 
Two positives and two bigger positives from that interview:
  1. Kane will be available on the cheap in the upcoming window
  2. Spurs won’t compete with us for top-four
  3. Solskjær has a job opening in the summer
  4. The overrated Levy will finally be properly exposed
 
If he leaves Spurs, I can see him at Newcastle in the future. They'd let him buy who he wants. Heck, if he wanted Gazza they'd sign him.
 
Our board haven't been keen on him from the start, so fully expect us to go down either the Ten Hag or Pochettino route
 
cjj said:
How do neutral/rival fans see the situation? Not the "haha Conte. Spurs are shite" type stuff, but actually looking at his tactics and the team?

At the end of the day, he's got a better squad than Dyche, Lage, and Hassenhutl - and is, by all accounts, a more successful manager. It seems like slopey-shoulders to act like he's managing Burnley and has just been beaten by Newcastle.

Personally, since he's been at the club, despite the odd good game here and there, most matches have been all about low possession and late snatching victories. I've not seen any players improve, and he seems to be obsessed with the 5-2-3 despite it clearly not suiting the squad (we don't have any players that can play WB to any standard). As much as people are bound to take the bait from him and go "yerrr - its the same players" - I can imagine a Graham Potter/Harry Redknapp type manager doing better by simply picking a team baed on what you have, rather than simply how you want to play.
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He's a great manager doing his best with a squad that has mid-table talent beyond two world class forwards. I think Levy convinced him to take the job partly by getting him to believe that the squad was better than its previous results and that with a burst of investment, he would be able to challenge for the title next year. Maybe he was prone to believing that because when he was last in England, Tottenham's level was a lot higher. Whatever the case might be, he probably now realizes that there is no way that he is challenging the likes of City for the title next season, even with some big summer investment the gap is just far too big to make up that quickly, and therefore wondering how long it makes sense to stick around.

More generally, I think everybody involved at Spurs just needs to take a hard and realistic look at where they stand competitively and come up with a realistic plan which people can get on board with at all levels. There is a very strong argument that the squad needs a big rebuild and that's nothing to be ashamed about. It happens. But that means bringing in a manager with a long-term time horizon who can work with young players, it means either getting Kane and Son fully on board with that plan or selling them ASAP while they still have value, and it means communicating to the supporters what the plan is and what the expectations should be. What Levy has been doing instead is pretending that a rebuild isn't really necessary, hiring very high-profile stereotypical short-term managers like Mourinho and Conte, and setting unrealistic expectations just to juice season ticket sales or in the hope of negotiating better sponsorships. There are inherent contradictions in doing that and I think Conte sees them and is too honest not to call them out.
 
What is Conte on about?

This is why it wasn't such a good idea to hire Conte for us despite protestations from the clueless. He's a loose cannon. He knew exactly what he was walking into, it's Tottenham Hotspur. They're going to do Spursy things until you can really bed in and change things. What on earth did he expect, win after win?

He's been there all of five minutes. He's not given the club a chance to support him, he talks negatively, he probably isn't motivating players with these regular whinging sessions.

The man needs to get on with the job he's paid to do and stop talking in riddles or simply leave if he's not cut out to do it. I'd be incredibly annoyed by his antics as a Spurs fan.
 
Dancfc said:
It's his MO. He managed to gaslight a significant section of our fanbase that we were extreme pennypinchers and at Juventus his excuse for not competing in the UCL was "you can't go to a €100 euro restaurant with €10 euro" only for Allegri to make two finals in three years after he rage quit.

Fully motivated he is a truly fantastic coach (if he had your peak Pochettino team you'd have won the league) but politically he's unbearable and makes Mourinho look like a pussy cat.
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I think that severely undermines Pochettino’s work at Spurs. He took them to a CL final with Winks/Sissoko in midfield.

A lot of his peak squad were so highly rated because he was managing them. There are only a couple of examples in the whole squad of players who played their best football under someone else.
 
Hi
TheLord said:
Two positives and two bigger positives from that interview:
  1. Kane will be available on the cheap in the upcoming window
  2. Spurs won’t compete with us for top-four
  3. Solskjær has a job opening in the summer
  4. The overrated Levy will finally be properly exposed
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Yeah I think this squad is a perfect fit for Ole’s tactics.

Son and Kane for quick counters
A decent midfield and defence
Lucas for No.9 position (free roaming role)
 
TheLord said:
The overrated Levy will finally be properly exposed
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It's actually surprising how highly he's rated (and paid) just because he dicks around when it comes to selling players. He can rival Woody in terms of his mis-management of the club. I just put together a list of their signings since 15/16

Bryan Gil, Emerson Royal, Bentancur, Pape Sarr, Kulusevski, Romero, Lo Celso, Regulion, Matt Doherty, Hjojberg, Rodon, Vinicius, Ndombele, Bergwijn, Sessegnon, Jack Clarke, Davinson Sanchez, Moura, Aurier, Llorente, Foyth, Sissoko, Janssen, Wanyama, N'Koudou, Son, Alderweireld, N'Jie, Kevin Wimmer.

It's just so spectacularly bad - by my reading they signed 3 good players out of 30.

Maybe you can include Hjojberg, Regulion and Moura in there, so it's like 6/30. I even excluded some of the cheaper 0-5M punts who've done nothing so far.
 
Maluco said:
I think that severely undermines Pochettino’s work at Spurs. He took them to a CL final with Winks/Sissoko in midfield.

A lot of his peak squad were so highly rated because he was managing them. There are only a couple of examples in the whole squad of players who played their best football under someone else.
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People don't like giving poch credit. they must see him as the anti Christ or something. Seeing how spurs struggling since he left only just strengthens the work he done for them in their past. I don't think any current spurs fan will ever see a champion league final again in their lifetime or even reach 86 points.
 
Maluco said:
I think that severely undermines Pochettino’s work at Spurs. He took them to a CL final with Winks/Sissoko in midfield.

A lot of his peak squad were so highly rated because he was managing them. There are only a couple of examples in the whole squad of players who played their best football under someone else.
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Sure people tend to downplay Poch at times but you are definitely giving him too much credit. He oversaw Spurs best period and won nothing.That form coincided with him copying tactics employed by none other than.. Conte.

The man lacks identity and style. I don’t even consider him the best Argentinian manager because that belongs to Diego Simeone.
 
SirReginald said:
Sure people tend to downplay Poch at times but you are definitely giving him too much credit. He oversaw Spurs best period and won nothing.That form coincided with him copying tactics employed by none other than.. Conte.

The man lacks identity and style. I don’t even consider him the best Argentinian manager because that belongs to Diego Simeone.
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He isn’t being allowed to play the way he wants to at PSG because of the lack of work rate of his forward players. He has a distinctive (albeit a little dirty) style at both Southampton and Spurs. I don’t think he tried to copy Conte at all.

You can’t say he “oversaw Spurs best period and won nothing”. It doesn’t make any sense from my perspective. Their best period was because of him, not in spite of him!

Spurs don’t generally win trophies. That is not a measuring stick for a Tottenham manager. What he did do has far surpassed what anyone else has done with them in the Premier League era.
 
I don't understand why he went there. It's like he thought he was managing a different club. He's been complaining since he first arrived. Spurs fans can't be happy with his comments. He was practically asking to be sacked in his latest comments.
 
Anyone remember which journalist was taking the piss about us not going for Conte after they beat City?
 
cjj said:
Tried every other outcome so far
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Apart from investing in the squad, something which needed to be done when you sacked Pochettino.

Since then you’ve gone through three managers without freshening the squad up to any real extent.
 
Players are not mentally good. They want to compete against the best - City, Lfc - but dont care against smaller or midtable opposition.

And I was told here by a Spurs fan that is not the case.
 
100 said:
Anyone remember which journalist was taking the piss about us not going for Conte after they beat City?
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All of them? They're full of shit, anyone can see he's a self-preservationist. He cares way too much about his reputation for his ego to allow him to lose a few games and not compete for a trophy
 
crossy1686 said:
All of them? They're full of shit, anyone can see he's a self-preservationist. He cares way too much about his reputation for his ego to allow him to lose a few games and not compete for a trophy
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Nah but there was 1 tweet in particular that was particularly ridiculous considering their previous defeats. I'd love to find it again
 
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