I get the feeling that part of the problem is that he is such an emotional guy that he can't just accept the way the club is run, for instance an Ancelotti would just get on with things and shrug and say "Well, if that's the way they want it I'll get on with it" and the way he graciously accepted the totally undeserved sacking shows the way he is. Conte can't and it affects him deeply. I don't mean that as a criticism, he is what he is and it's what drives him, I'd probably be the same and be walking round with the constant hump like he seems to be. Shame as the board should have seen he was a manager who they could have adapted to rather than the other way around, but now it is probably best he goes as the board won't change.
I think you make a valid point mate. Over time his relationships rot.
Or build...
I maintain the very best managers share those kinds of traits
I think people are wrong to conflate him having the hump with not bothering to change anything in a game for 80 odd minutes.
He deserves the benefit of the doubt for the former, but not the latter.
Here is something in a piece about Allegri that says as much about Conte as it does about Allegri:
"Conte had dismissed Juve's hopes of making an impact in Europe, remarking: "You cannot go to eat at a 100 euro restaurant with just 10 euros in your pocket, can you?" But Allegri led that 10 euro squad to the Champions League final in 2015, impressing as he and his squad thrashed the likes of Real Madrid along the way, a club with more than a few million euros in their pocket."
Some of those complaints sound a bit familiar...
Conte led us from mid-table to the title, he’d already done the hard graft and should have been backed, I just find it baffling why he’s seemingly the only target for ire whilst the club seem to get away scot-free (OWG and NORTHLONDONCHELSEA posts as examples)
We were an under performing side that happened to finish mid table in one season the year after we were Champions, its not as if we were Everton. Its fair to say that prior to the change to using wing backs, his tactics were pretty underwhelming. He caught the other managers out for a long enough period because of their own vanity and ignorance, by the time they woke up, we were over the hill and far away.
Everybody knows the failings of the board, the type of players we've signed and how flakey they are compared to what we've had in the past but that wasn't the problem on Sunday. he sent a team out to lose, he virtually admitted that himself post match. He's making us out to be the Washington Generals and Man City to be the Harlem Globetrotters FFS.
It's 90 minutes of football against human beings not superior beings from another planet, the team he sent out in that formation could not win. You do not play your best player, one of the most coveted in world football, out of position when Kante, your second best player is lying on the floor of the team bus!!
I've played enough sport to know that to win games you do what the opposition don't want you to do. If you had asked Guardiola before the game to choose which position he'd want Hazard to play, No 9 or No 10, what do you think he'd have chosen? He'd snap your arm off for No 9 because he knows he can't hurt them from there, even Wenger worked that out six weeks ago.
That’s not the system though, that’s the personnel within the system. That’s what he got wrong IMHO.
What killed us was the goal and when they scored it. I actually think the first half was the quietest I’d seen City all season, and you could tell from Pep’s celebrations he felt the same.
Conte’s delayed reaction to change things after the goal deserves some measured criticism, that I’m not denying, I just can’t believe some of what I’ve seen from loads of fans and pundits, with calls for his head and demands for refunds.
Spot on and agree with all of that.
This bit made me giggle though "He's making us out to be the Washington Generals and Man City to be the Harlem Globetrotters FFS."
I don’t think we’re a first place team. We’re not a mid-table team either. I think we’re at the right level now, fifth is about right. All the teams above us have chosen a manager and backed that manager, they’ve put faith in something and we’re seeing that paying off for all of them.
The mistakes were made a long time before the game on Sunday.
It’s a bit like blaming the captain of the Titanic for all the water in the boat whilst ignoring the iceberg
It's not though, it's more like saying the company didn't provide enough life boats, so that excuses the captain from steering the boat straight into an iceberg.
What does that make Leonardo di Caprio then?
Oh he’s still a cnut!
I disagree, City and United are outliers because they've spent more and better, but I think it's ludicrous to suggest we can't compete with the rest.
After all, where we've dropped points that stop us being 2nd or 3rd hasn't been against Spurs/Utd, but dropping points against a lot of the sides in the bottom half - That's not a question of having the right budget...
Liverpool and Spurs went and got the managers they wanted and they’ve since backed them at every turn, ensuring they bring in players that the managers actually want and who fit their philosophy. Just imagine what a force we could be if we did the same.
I think it all ties in, some of the players often look knackered, which wouldn’t be the case if we had more strength and quality in the squad.
Well the way a few on here are going on, we should all hail the mighty Man City, wave them on their merry way to their deserved greatness and hope that by being beholden to them, they might not thrash us next time!
I accept due to bad buys we're no longer in the league of Man City and falling off the pace of Spurs, Liverpool and United...probably already fallen.
When that happens I want a manager that will cut his cloth accordingly...Conte wasn't perfect on Sunday but I back his pre match plan for that particular game tbh. We simply had no pace from the centre of midfield available after the short notice loss of Kante. Had we broke out and gone toe to toe I'm pretty sure we're getting done to the tune of 3 or 4 nil...thats what happens against them...ask Liverpool Spurs and Arsenal
To add some...I don't like that I feared being battered at City. I know we can defend and I was happy to see us go into defend mode. On another day we walk away with a point or 3 but it wasnt to be.
I just accept we're not that good and will have to play to our strengths (being hard to beat) against top opposition. I'm not sure Conte had a choice if he desired anything from Sunday.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there B. I just don’t buy in to the notion that an experienced, successful coach (especially an Italian one) setting up defensively against a better opponent away from home, is admitting defeat or being fearful. As far as I’m concerned, it’s honest and a pragmatic attempt to try and get something positive from the game.
Maybe you and I are just wired differently
Seen it employed by all clubs including us. Rarely have I seen us so non threatening though. I think thats just the way the game went though...City ruled us and the ball. Gotta have respect for a class opponent and try to get something against the odds in the best way you know...thats with our defending talent. We hardly have a lethal striker at the club now!!!
I think we just realise we're just an average side that have the ability to be a good side on occasions. I think Conte feels that too.
I like Allegri.. but he's not a patch on conte.. he inherited a team and a system built by Conte that was a winning machine.. much like a few managers after Jose inherited a winning Chelsea team... I must've missed them thrashing Real Madrid... I watched them lose the final 4-1.
You have to get to a final to be in a position to lose it...