Pirlo lauds Conte as 'one of the best'

The Italy international has nothing but positive words for the Juventus boss and hopes he will stay with the club for many more years to come

Andrea Pirlo has lavished praise on Juventus coach Antonio Conte, believing the 43-year-old to be one of the best trainers around in the game.

Conte guided the Bianconeri to their first title since 2002-03 in his first year at the club last term, while they again sit comfortably atop of the Serie A table and have qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League this season, too.

"He [Conte] is one of the best coaches around. He’s coaching in the Champions League for the first time and is already proving his worth," Pirlo told reporters.

Conte suggested at the weekend he could leave Italy in the near future after Juventus received a hostile welcome by the Bologna fans ahead of Saturday's Serie A game.

However, he made it clear on Wednesday he has no intention in leaving the Old Lady any time soon as he wants to win more silverware with Juve, much to the delight of Pirlo.

"We hope he stays on because it would mean that we’d won again," he added.

"Winning annoys certain people, but it’s obviously not nice being greeted by insults, rocks and canes when you arrive at a stadium. Unfortunately, you have to get used to it."

Juventus currently hold a nine-point lead over second-placed Napoli in Serie A.

I agree. I can't think of many managers that would have won the scudetto with the team that Conte inherited. Obviously, Pirlo, Vidal, and Licht were massive improvements, but the squad still had a lot of issues and there was not much depth.

of course, in the first year at juve he won the scudetto and in the second we were a surprise in the champions league beating chelsea shakhtar and we made it to go through, beating teams that even barca couldnt beat, (celtic chelsea) but i wont agree to letting ADP go because he could be useful. idk about you but last season when ADP used to start or enter during the game, i became much more optimistic, he made everybody believe in victory.

ADP is the one example of where Conte went wrong. He has a big weakness with flair players such as Elia, Quag, and even Del Piero. Of course he is an amazing coach but he just got way too hostile to Elia and Ale. I blame Conte mostly for his departure.

juveman17 wrote:ADP is the one example of where Conte went wrong. He has a big weakness with flair players such as Elia, Quag, and even Del Piero. Of course he is an amazing coach but he just got way too hostile to Elia and Ale. I blame Conte mostly for his departure.

I don't blame Conte much at all. Honestly, I think that was a case of people like Elkann and Agnelli growing tired of ADP being the symbol for the club. I think that for selfish reasons, they wanted him to leave.

You are correct that players like ADP and Elia do not fit with Conte's tactics. He requires everyone to track back and defend and to play unselfishly. But I think that Conte had enough respect for and understanding of the importance of ADP that he would have been fine with having him on the bench in a reserve role. It's very unfair to blame Conte for Juve not re-signing ADP.

If Conte had enough repsect for De Piero, he would have put him in many more games in the first half of the season. Everyone knows Del Piero's skill on the field and had he actually had no jealously for him, he would have played him more when it mattered. I know you can agree with me that he should have played him more. Examples for when he should have played were the countless draws that we were getting from Matri, Vucinic and Quag.

juveman17 wrote:If Conte had enough repsect for De Piero, he would have put him in many more games in the first half of the season. Everyone knows Del Piero's skill on the field and had he actually had no jealously for him, he would have played him more when it mattered. I know you can agree with me that he should have played him more. Examples for when he should have played were the countless draws that we were getting from Matri, Vucinic and Quag.

That's unrealistic and I completely disagree with you about his playing time. You guys need to get with reality. ADP was not the same player last season that he was in previous seasons. He had flashes of greatness, but he couldn't give 60 minutes of football, let alone 90 minutes. I love ADP, but let's not be unrealistic about what his skill level was last season. He was a useful sub in league games that helped stretch the opposing team's defenses in the final 20 minutes and he was a good starter in coppa games.

I don't even know why we're talking about this issue. The article is about Conte being a great manager, which he is and he did a fantastic job with a squad that no one would have predicted to win the scudetto last season. It's unfortunate that ADP left the way he did, but it's over and done with. The fact that we're even having this debate is why the Juventus board and ownership didn't bring ADP back. All issues involving ADP dominated the team rather than talking about the team itself.

Never said he deserved to start. But there were multiple examples throughout the season where he did not sub him in the last 20 minutes to help the attack. Im not being nostalgic about him but he could have made the difference in multiple games and he proved he could in the second half of the season. Conte is a great motivator, tactician, and disciplinarian. But he did not treat Del Piero right. If you are on the bad side of Conte, your practically screwed.

juveman17 wrote:Never said he deserved to start. But there were multiple examples throughout the season where he did not sub him in the last 20 minutes to help the attack. Im not being nostalgic about him but he could have made the difference in multiple games and he proved he could in the second half of the season. Conte is a great motivator, tactician, and disciplinarian. But he did not treat Del Piero right. If you are on the bad side of Conte, your practically screwed.

i agree with you,
and if conte wanted ADP he would have made the renewal possible, and I hate how agnelli and elkann didnt respect ADP, because he gave everything for the club, best years of his career when he had offers from other big clubs like barca man utd real madrid he chose to stay at juve and if you remember when capello used to bench him, in an interview he said that my love for juve kept me here. and if the great gianni agnelli was alive he would have never let ADP go.