Antonio Conte

As mentioned in the next permanent manager thread, Conte is official. One of the worst kept secrets is finally revealed, more to relief than shock to the Chelsea fanbase.

http://www.goallegacy.net/t33228p225-the-official-next-permanent-manager-thread-ii

I am looking forward to seeing how he does, and will be keenly watching Italy this summer.

Welcome Antonio!

Can't wait to see what he can do for us!

Me too!

The English press seem to think he's the Italian Mourinho

Certainly looks uptight

I'm not sure the players want another manager who imposes tough discipline after seemingly not answering well to Mourinho's similar motivation methods.

I see him more like an Italian SAF.

Instead of motivating them with the us against the world mentality, he motivates players with an iron fist.

It's very much going to be tough discipline and high work rate for everyone.

But I think only Hazard and Matic will dislike that.

He is also quoted as saying to Pogba that age doesn't matter, he'll select the best XI he can. So he won't do a Mourinho and never player youth players who are good enough.

Kick wrote:I see him more like an Italian SAF.

Instead of motivating them with the us against the world mentality, he motivates players with an iron fist.

It's very much going to be tough discipline and high work rate for everyone.

But I think only Hazard and Matic will dislike that.

He is also quoted as saying to Pogba that age doesn't matter, he'll select the best XI he can. So he won't do a Mourinho and never player youth players who are good enough.

Well, Pogba is an exception. He was literally one of the best midfielders in Serie A from the moment he arrived, outclassing everyone else and playing at a level of WC midfielders like Pirlo, Vidal, Marchisio.
I don't think you can put an argument in favour of Conte not neglecting youth based on that.

I hope that the board's instructions to him included developing and valorize the youth players we have, but I think a lot will depend on how short term the expectations the board has put on him.
Like, if they give him 1 or 2 seasons max to win the title and reach semis of CL, then I can see him being more reluctant towards playing youth.

Yay

No one is really sure how Conte would deal with young players. Pogba was a huge success but he is too talented to be taken as the general case. At the time we had no chance to develop youth, we needed immediate results. Pogba was the only one he had. Verratti was coming but we screwed it up. Our whole youth policy came later after we had sustained success.

I'd argue that some of our youth players are too talented to not play.

Kenedy, Christensen and perhaps Loftus-Cheek and Traore fit into that bracket.

Loftus-Cheek is touted as the next Pogba, and it's easy to see why, so I wouldn't be surprised if Conte tried to turn him into that, especially as Pogba will cost upwards of 100M and Chelsea want Conte to play youth players.

Cleared of all charges over matchfixing in 2011:

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/10284537/antonio-conte-acquitted-of-doing-nothing-to-prevent-match-fixing?

Great news

Beating trumped-up charges. He's not even so much as taken a training session yet and already he's Proper Chels

A number of things about Italy's performance tonight are ones we could surely use at Chelsea.

They looked very much a side greater than the sum of its parts. Considering we're never going to be able to ship out and replace all of our squad's deadweight in one fell swoop inside a single transfer window, he's going to have to work with players who may not exactly be as good as we need. And seeing how Italy performed this evening (albeit it only a single game against a less than stellar side), that may not be as big a deal as it was under Mourinho. With Conte, each player seems to be a component of a working, functioning unit, rather than merely an individual sent out to perform for himself. All too often under The Once Special, we looked a side completely devoid of ideas, jogging around waiting for this or that player to come up with something out of nowhere to make it happen for us. That worked for a time, but long-term was and is always doomed to failure. If Conte can bring some of that focus on the whole, rather than on sitting back and praying for a spurt of spontaneous individual brilliance to dig us out of trouble, we'll be much the better for it.

Dovetailing off of that is his obvious and famed tactical nous. The novelty of a manager's strategic knack improving a side rather than one dodging blame and hiding behind the lack of 3 superstar signings every transfer window to excuse his inadequacies will I'm sure be warmly received. Having someone on the bench capable of setting the side up to best equip us to face and triumph over whoever's in front of us every week rather than a masterplan of "pass it to Hazard" will improve us leaps and bounds, especially when considering the kind of opposition we'll be up against starting next season.

And lastly of course, was their palpable team spirit. We often deride and ridicule teams disproportionately over-celebrating relatively small achievements, but if Italy's zeal on show tonight is any indication of the fire, passion and intent Conte injects into his players (which I've often heard said about his time at Juve as well), we'll be going a long way towards fixing one of our biggest problems of the last few years. Since and with the gradual departures of our seasoned big-guns, we've been experiencing an erosion of our once-famous togetherness and grit. Since the beginning of our overhaul started after winning the CL, we've become every bit the collection of detached mercenaries we up until then were always inaccurately accused of being simply because of the owner's dosh. But now, our players, save for a limited few, just don't give a shit, and that apathy will only have been amplified by the miserable last several months under the Portuguese disaster, and our subsequent pointless lame-duck period under Hiddink. Someone capable of coming in and reversing that trend, inoculating a bit of passion and pride into these players, and getting them fighting again, should have been at the top of the list when vetting potential new managers, and if it was, it would appear we've found it in Conte.

It would be silly to try to deduce too much from one game, but the signs from Conte's career as a whole certainly bode well for us and each of our specific problem-areas, and provide, at least for me, quite a bit of anticipation and excitement for the months and years ahead.

And finally, yes, this is by far my longest and most thought-out post on here since approximately AD 1738.

Shed wrote:A number of things about Italy's performance tonight are ones we could surely use at Chelsea.

They looked very much a side greater than the sum of its parts. Considering we're never going to be able to ship out and replace all of our squad's deadweight in one fell swoop inside a single transfer window, he's going to have to work with players who may not exactly be as good as we need. And seeing how Italy performed this evening (albeit it only a single game against a less than stellar side), that may not be as big a deal as it was under Mourinho. With Conte, each player seems to be a component of a working, functioning unit, rather than merely an individual sent out to perform for himself. All too often under The Once Special, we looked a side completely devoid of ideas, jogging around waiting for this or that player to come up with something out of nowhere to make it happen for us. That worked for a time, but long-term was and is always doomed to failure. If Conte can bring some of that focus on the whole, rather than on sitting back and praying for a spurt of spontaneous individual brilliance to dig us out of trouble, we'll be much the better for it.

Dovetailing off of that is his obvious and famed tactical nous. The novelty of a manager's strategic knack improving a side rather than one dodging blame and hiding behind the lack of 3 superstar signings every transfer window to excuse his inadequacies will I'm sure be warmly received. Having someone on the bench capable of setting the side up to best equip us to face and triumph over whoever's in front of us every week rather than a masterplan of "pass it to Hazard" will improve us leaps and bounds, especially when considering the kind of opposition we'll be up against starting next season.

And lastly of course, was their palpable team spirit. We often deride and ridicule teams disproportionately over-celebrating relatively small achievements, but if Italy's zeal on show tonight is any indication of the fire, passion and intent Conte injects into his players (which I've often heard said about his time at Juve as well), we'll be going a long way towards fixing one of our biggest problems of the last few years. Since and with the gradual departures of our seasoned big-guns, we've been experiencing an erosion of our once-famous togetherness and grit. Since the beginning of our overhaul started after winning the CL, we've become every bit the collection of detached mercenaries we up until then were always inaccurately accused of being simply because of the owner's dosh. But now, our players, save for a limited few, just don't give a shit, and that apathy will only have been amplified by the miserable last several months under the Portuguese disaster, and our subsequent pointless lame-duck period under Hiddink. Someone capable of coming in and reversing that trend, inoculating a bit of passion and pride into these players, and getting them fighting again, should have been at the top of the list when vetting potential new managers, and if it was, it would appear we've found it in Conte.

It would be silly to try to deduce too much from one game, but the signs from Conte's career as a whole certainly bode well for us and each of our specific problem-areas, and provide, at least for me, quite a bit of anticipation and excitement for the months and years ahead.

And finally, yes, this is by far my longest and most thought-out post on here since approximately AD 1738.

Completely agree!

I commented on it in another thread, but Conte got the entire team to sing the national anthem, and he managed to instill a real togetherness in just a few weeks. He then played a tactically solid game with what everyone considered to be an inferior side. If he can replicate that with us, he will be a massive hit.

People complain about him picking workhorses, but Giaccherini was pivotal in their win, so they are clearly an important part of how he wants his teams to play. Shame we sold Ramires

Anyway, looking forward to watching him further and our upcoming season!

Give him time and he will do miracles, especially in the EPL. A lot of people judge him as "not enough" for Chelsea or whatever but they clearly are ignorant. They are biased towards Italians nor have a single clue what the guy is capable of.

I don't know if he will have enough time to fix everything at Chelsea due to the Euro's but once he gets in control you will see why the majority of Juventus supporters trust and love him so much.

I think he should be given at least 2 seasons. First season, top 4 should be the aim and beyond that, we should be aiming for the title.

Give this man a knighthood ffs

Shed wrote:A number of things about Italy's performance tonight are ones we could surely use at Chelsea.

They looked very much a side greater than the sum of its parts. Considering we're never going to be able to ship out and replace all of our squad's deadweight in one fell swoop inside a single transfer window, he's going to have to work with players who may not exactly be as good as we need. And seeing how Italy performed this evening (albeit it only a single game against a less than stellar side), that may not be as big a deal as it was under Mourinho. With Conte, each player seems to be a component of a working, functioning unit, rather than merely an individual sent out to perform for himself. All too often under The Once Special, we looked a side completely devoid of ideas, jogging around waiting for this or that player to come up with something out of nowhere to make it happen for us. That worked for a time, but long-term was and is always doomed to failure. If Conte can bring some of that focus on the whole, rather than on sitting back and praying for a spurt of spontaneous individual brilliance to dig us out of trouble, we'll be much the better for it.

Dovetailing off of that is his obvious and famed tactical nous. The novelty of a manager's strategic knack improving a side rather than one dodging blame and hiding behind the lack of 3 superstar signings every transfer window to excuse his inadequacies will I'm sure be warmly received. Having someone on the bench capable of setting the side up to best equip us to face and triumph over whoever's in front of us every week rather than a masterplan of "pass it to Hazard" will improve us leaps and bounds, especially when considering the kind of opposition we'll be up against starting next season.

And lastly of course, was their palpable team spirit. We often deride and ridicule teams disproportionately over-celebrating relatively small achievements, but if Italy's zeal on show tonight is any indication of the fire, passion and intent Conte injects into his players (which I've often heard said about his time at Juve as well), we'll be going a long way towards fixing one of our biggest problems of the last few years. Since and with the gradual departures of our seasoned big-guns, we've been experiencing an erosion of our once-famous togetherness and grit. Since the beginning of our overhaul started after winning the CL, we've become every bit the collection of detached mercenaries we up until then were always inaccurately accused of being simply because of the owner's dosh. But now, our players, save for a limited few, just don't give a shit, and that apathy will only have been amplified by the miserable last several months under the Portuguese disaster, and our subsequent pointless lame-duck period under Hiddink. Someone capable of coming in and reversing that trend, inoculating a bit of passion and pride into these players, and getting them fighting again, should have been at the top of the list when vetting potential new managers, and if it was, it would appear we've found it in Conte.

It would be silly to try to deduce too much from one game, but the signs from Conte's career as a whole certainly bode well for us and each of our specific problem-areas, and provide, at least for me, quite a bit of anticipation and excitement for the months and years ahead.

And finally, yes, this is by far my longest and most thought-out post on here since approximately AD 1738.

You hit the nail with your analysis. It was pretty evident from his time at Juve how he was able to instill in the team such a visceral passion and intensity fitting his temperament in his players and a propositive football, albeit monothematic, despite having sub-par players in the starting XI. That's pretty much his trademark, I'm expecting him to have an impact on this regard after he surpasses the language barrier/the players get to know him better.

So far at the Euros he's shown that and he has confuted his biggest critique ie failing to deliver on the international/knock-out stage.
His only flaw that stands right now is that he's monomaniacal towards the 3-5-2. He has shown to be able to play different formations but that was a lot of time ago. He has played nothing but 3-5-2 for 5 years straight.

Well, those comments of mine after the Belgium game were presented with the caveat of their being based largely off of a singular game, but just about everything we've seen from him and his side since has only served to reaffirm and strengthen them. Italy's display against Spain, especially the first half, was stunning. Player-for-player, the quality of this Italian team is...modest, to put it kindly; so the fact that they're well outplaying and with relative comfort beating sides with perceptibly, irrefutably more individual quality is certainly to Conte's (and his team's) credit.

There are far too many examples from times past of managerial aptitude in international football and the various prestigious accolades it's earnt not totally translating to club football (not least that of our own former World Cup-winning gaffer...), but many or most of Conte's strengths with this Italy side are ones he instituted just as effectively, and with just as much success, with his Juventus side, and will hopefully succeed at doing with ours as well, if given the discretion, the support, and the time to do so. I'm not looking to reiterate or reargue the points I made in my last post on the subject above, but his obvious tactical acumen and intense, almost eruptive passion, will, again, be critically-needed and very exciting additions to what any sane observer must view as currently a pretty lifeless, apathetic, disorganized and disjointed side badly requiring an injection of vigour, dedication, spirit and order.

I think CONTE best strength is PRESSURE-DEFENSE kind of game

he uses players with HIGH ENERGY : SPEED, STAMINA
to make pressure to opponent win the ball back and look for a quick way of finishing

JUVENTUS on CONTE days did not even allow opponents to pass the ball forwards as simple as that

for 90 minutes they could hardly pass the ball about few times forwards

it was a game with so much HIGH INTENSITY that nobody could survive through that except the giants like BAYERN, BARCELONA

I think with CHELSEA he will be even more impressive because he will get to have players that could not have at JUVENTUS

if he doesn't have players what he wants I am unsure how he can improvise and change his game but if you give him players he wants he will be unstoppable I guarantee you that

Shed wrote:A number of things about Italy's performance tonight are ones we could surely use at Chelsea.

They looked very much a side greater than the sum of its parts. Considering we're never going to be able to ship out and replace all of our squad's deadweight in one fell swoop inside a single transfer window, he's going to have to work with players who may not exactly be as good as we need. And seeing how Italy performed this evening (albeit it only a single game against a less than stellar side), that may not be as big a deal as it was under Mourinho. With Conte, each player seems to be a component of a working, functioning unit, rather than merely an individual sent out to perform for himself. All too often under The Once Special, we looked a side completely devoid of ideas, jogging around waiting for this or that player to come up with something out of nowhere to make it happen for us. That worked for a time, but long-term was and is always doomed to failure. If Conte can bring some of that focus on the whole, rather than on sitting back and praying for a spurt of spontaneous individual brilliance to dig us out of trouble, we'll be much the better for it.

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Very very good post. I agree with everything.

Honestly, I would swap Mourinho for Conte any second. I watched three seasons of Juventus under Conte, I know what this guy can or can't do.

I wish you good luck with him on the bench!

I hope United and Chelsea will fight for the title next season! It's the rivalry that I grew up with, my affective memory wants this.