The Conte Thread

[Styles 9,790]

1 hour ago, Gilvorak said:

Is a player like Hazard bulking up a good idea though? You wouldn't want him to lose his agility & speed.

Maybe it's just to improve his core strength.

[Tomo 21,733]

5 hours ago, Gilvorak said:

 

6 years ago we could put out a lineup of

 

Malouda Drogba Anelka

Lampard Ballack Essien

Cole Terry Carvalho Ivanovic

Cech

 

How many of the current bunch would get into that team?

Depends which half of 2010, the first half just Hazard and maybe Courtois, the second half however....... 

[obiwan92 217]

2 hours ago, Gilvorak said:

Is a player like Hazard bulking up a good idea though? You wouldn't want him to lose his agility & speed.

Having muscle instead of fat is always advantageous. Also will be much more sturdy and harder to knock off the ball.

[Supermonkey92 1,428]

3 hours ago, Gilvorak said:

Is a player like Hazard bulking up a good idea though? You wouldn't want him to lose his agility & speed.

Unlikely that they put muscle on him just so he can weigh more. Most probably tje exercises are primarily aimed at improving performance, whether thats explosive power or maintaining speed, whatever muscle he could gain would just be a bonus but would be adapted to relevant exercises and movements on a football pitch. 

[Gilvorak 3,734]

1 hour ago, Supermonkey92 said:

Unlikely that they put muscle on him just so he can weigh more. Most probably tje exercises are primarily aimed at improving performance, whether thats explosive power or maintaining speed, whatever muscle he could gain would just be a bonus but would be adapted to relevant exercises and movements on a football pitch. 

 

3 hours ago, obiwan92 said:

Having muscle instead of fat is always advantageous. Also will be much more sturdy and harder to knock off the ball.

 

4 hours ago, Styles said:

Maybe it's just to improve his core strength.

All good points I suppose. Just find it odd he singles out Hazard who's one of the Top 2 players in the World at ball retention but not Oscar who's still a toothpick & is easily bullied off the ball.

[nofacej 132]

9 hours ago, Gilvorak said:

 

6 years ago we could put out a lineup of

 

Malouda Drogba Anelka

Lampard Ballack Essien

Cole Terry Carvalho Ivanovic

Cech

 

How many of the current bunch would get into that team?

Hazard would easily take Malouda's spot, and Costa is a better striker than Anelka was and also has experience playing on the wing.

Lampard/Ballack/Essien is one of the strongest midfields we've ever seen in the Premier League, but I think we were better when we had Makelele in the holding role, and it's possible Kante could get in the team in that role.

1/2 of the back four is still playing for us, and of course they're going to be superior in their primes. Cole and Carvalho were fantastic defenders and would walk into any team on the planet in their primes.

[Muzchap 8,966]

5 hours ago, nofacej said:

Hazard would easily take Malouda's spot, and Costa is a better striker than Anelka was and also has experience playing on the wing.

Lampard/Ballack/Essien is one of the strongest midfields we've ever seen in the Premier League, but I think we were better when we had Makelele in the holding role, and it's possible Kante could get in the team in that role.

1/2 of the back four is still playing for us, and of course they're going to be superior in their primes. Cole and Carvalho were fantastic defenders and would walk into any team on the planet in their primes.

I don't think Costa is better than Anelka. Anelka came to us in his twilight - in his prime he was an amazing player - he just had a severe attitude problem which hampered his career.

[nofacej 132]

23 minutes ago, Muzchap said:

I don't think Costa is better than Anelka. Anelka came to us in his twilight - in his prime he was an amazing player - he just had a severe attitude problem which hampered his career.

Even if I were to concede that Anelka in his prime was superior to Costa, as you say Anelka never played for us in his prime, and the comparison we're making is between the current team and the team that played under Carlo.

For me Costa is the better player of the two given the scenario, and regardless I think he'd be much more compatible with Drogba than Anelka ever was.

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

I don't think Costa is better than Anelka. Anelka came to us in his twilight - in his prime he was an amazing player - he just had a severe attitude problem which hampered his career.

When Nico played for us he was nothing but a pro. Loved him.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,895]

Wow! Potentially huge unintended leak from Antonio in his press conference which is happening as I post this.

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

Wow! Potentially huge unintended leak from Antonio in his press conference which is happening as I post this.

Please shed some lights, no access to the press.

[Pizy 18,401]

Mourinho would sometimes give the media a bit when it came to transfers. If he was asked about specific names he would maybe say "he's a player I like or are interested in."

Conte has clearly been told not to say a word about targets. Won't budge an inch from what I've seen in his pressers. It's smart, obviously, but makes me anxious and nervous.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,895]

When asked in today's press conference to comment on Koulibaly and Eduardo, Antonio thought for a moment. You could almost see him composing his reply in Italian and then doing his best to translate it into English before speaking. When he did speak he said, " it is difficult to speak to the press about the arguments I am having with the club.",  before correcting himself and saying "conversations".

It is, of course, possible that conversations is the word Antonio meant, but that is not the feeling I had while listening to him. It seemed to me that there might be disagreement between the club and the manager about whether these huge fees should be paid.

Antonio was asked several more times through the course of the conference  to give his thoughts on the strength and readiness of the squad. It's clear from his answers that he is not happy with the group he has. Certainly not with the numbers and, I'm presuming, not with the quality either. He specifically mentioned the shortage of defensive players.

It can't be a surprise to any of us that Antonio has doubts about the squad; he has eyes after all.  That there might be internal disagreement about how to proceed is news though. If that's true then it's a shame that the disagreement exists and a bigger shame that Antonio let it slip.

 As I said in my earlier post, I think this was unintended and not a deliberate tactic on Antonio's part. If it's true however, it doesn't matter whether he meant to leak or not. The implications are still significant.

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

Conte: "It’s difficult to speak about the transfer policy. It’s difficult to speak with the press about things I discuss with the club."

Conte: "I repeat, we are waiting for the right solution to improve #Chelsea. We need to sign some players, we are working together."

Conte "I think we need to sign some players, we are too few players in defence and we are working with the club to find a solution." #CFC

Nizaar Kinsella ‏@NizaarKinsella 2 hours ago

The subtext of Conte's quotes on his defensive situation is that he's worried about a lack of quantity, not quality. #CFC #Chelsea

[Fernando 6,479]

We knew that from December.

Why wait till only one week left of the transfer window?

[Blue_Fox_ 2,086]

1 hour ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

When asked in today's press conference to comment on Koulibaly and Eduardo, Antonio thought for a moment. You could almost see him composing his reply in Italian and then doing his best to translate it into English before speaking. When he did speak he said, " it is difficult to speak to the press about the arguments I am having with the club.",  before correcting himself and saying "conversations".

I didn't watch the press conference, so I couldn't give a proper judgement about Antonio's body language, however I need to point out this one thing which might help further.
In Italian, the word "argomento" does refer to the topic, theme of a conversation. Example; the "argomento" of our conversation is Conte's latest press conference.
It might be possible what Antonio meant to say was "It is very difficult to speak to the press about the "topics of conversation=argomento" I am having with the club." Realizing then the mistake in translation and correcting it with just "conversations."
It is a very basic mistake to do if you've spoken Italian since birth, I went through that as well.
Of course this might be all conjecture and indeed Antonio might be having arguments with the club about transfer targets and their price tags.

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

I didn't watch the press conference, so I couldn't give a proper judgement about Antonio's body language, however I need to point out this one thing which might help further.

In Italian, the word "argomento" does refer to the topic, theme of a conversation. Example; the "argomento" of our conversation is Conte's latest press conference.

It might be possible what Antonio meant to say was "It is very difficult to speak to the press about the "topics of conversation=argomento" I am having with the club." Realizing then the mistake in translation and correcting it with just "conversations."

It is a very basic mistake to do if you've spoken Italian since birth, I went through that as well.

Of course this might be all conjecture and indeed Antonio might be having arguments with the club about transfer targets and their price tags.

Good to know, thanks for the info. Hopefully there's only conversation no argument

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

I didn't watch the press conference, so I couldn't give a proper judgement about Antonio's body language, however I need to point out this one thing which might help further.

In Italian, the word "argomento" does refer to the topic, theme of a conversation. Example; the "argomento" of our conversation is Conte's latest press conference.

It might be possible what Antonio meant to say was "It is very difficult to speak to the press about the "topics of conversation=argomento" I am having with the club." Realizing then the mistake in translation and correcting it with just "conversations."

It is a very basic mistake to do if you've spoken Italian since birth, I went through that as well.

Of course this might be all conjecture and indeed Antonio might be having arguments with the club about transfer targets and their price tags.

Good to know, thanks for the info. Hopefully there's only conversation no argument