The Conte Thread

[Unionjack 7,531]

10 minutes ago, FabHazard said:

Amazing video...Brings back all the emotions

I really do love what he did with us in his first year. Gave me so mudh fun watching the team that year - and  most of upto Jan this year as well.

In a perfect world it would be very interesting to have both Conte and Sarri together but dont think their characters could handle it. Ones fiery and passionate and the others cool calm and collected.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

https://www.football-italia.net/124401/conte-continues-chelsea-fight

Quote

Conte continues Chelsea fight

Chelsea face a bitter legal battle with Antonio Conte, as it’s reported he was fired without the €11m pay-off, as Maurizio Sarri comes in.

There had been reports throughout the day that the tactician had been given the axe along with his staff, several days into pre-season training.

Conte had been a lame duck for weeks, but hasn’t been officially dismissed because Chelsea struggled to work out a compensation agreement to release Sarri from his Napoli contract.

The club faced another problem, which was that by ending Conte’s contract early, they had to pay him and his staff around €11m in compensation.

It seems as if this will continue to be an issue, because The Telegraph and Sky Sport Italia claim Conte is “disgusted” by the way he has been treated and asked his lawyers to haggle over the pay-off terms.

Sky Sport Italia maintain Conte and his staff were sacked for 'just cause' and therefore not eligible for the compensation, perhaps due to the infamous 'text' he sent to dismiss Diego Costa.

This infuriated the Coach and he is set to put up a bitter legal battle, which could end up in various tribunals and courts.

This would be another bizarre twist in the saga, as several Chelsea figures past and present – including midfielder Fabregas – used social media to send thank you and goodbye messages to Conte.

Chelsea, meanwhile, remain silent and it’s reported Eddie Newton will be in charge of training on Friday in Cobham.

Sarri is due to arrive over the next 24 hours along with midfielder Jorginho in a package deal worth a reported €57m plus €8m in bonuses.

He will be the ninth manager since Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003.

Despite the bitter split, Conte was a success at Stamford Bridge.

He won the Premier League in his debut season, the FA Cup in the second and had a win rate of 67 per cent in the Premiership, second only to Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola’s 72 per cent.

When it comes to win rate in all competitive games for Chelsea in the Premier League era, Conte comes out on top with 65.1 per cent, beating Jose Mourinho on 63.5 per cent and Carlo Ancelotti’s 61.5 per cent.

 

[ulsterchelsea 3,213]

10 hours ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/07/12/revealed-inside-story-antonio-contes-chelsea-downfall/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

The article, since it's behind a paywall:

It was the 10 days last summer during which Chelsea could not get in touch with their head coach that the relationship between the club and Antonio Conte was terminally eradicated.

And there has been some sense of revenge about the way in which the Blues left Conte in the dark over his future after May’s FA Cup final success, even allowing him to return for the start of pre-season training on Monday.

There were few congratulations from on high after Conte’s team beat Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United at Wembley. Instead, there was largely silence that lasted until the inevitable was finally conveyed after he had taken training on Thursday.

Some sources still believe Conte was last year considering an offer from Inter Milan, when he did not pick up the telephone, return messages or respond to emails.

Whatever the exact reasons behind it, Conte’s disappearing act sent Chelsea into a state of panic and convinced them he wanted out. Peace talks were hastily arranged and a new contract was eventually signed as a reward for winning the Premier League title. But, tellingly, there was no extension.

Nobody could be sure Conte would not pull a similar trick again and Chelsea did not want to be liable for more than one year’s money if, as has transpired, they decided to sack the Italian.

It was not just Chelsea who had become suspicious, however, as Conte also lost faith in his employers during a summer in which he felt none of his main targets were signed.

Conte wanted Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, Alex Sandro and Virgil van Dijk, but by the time Chelsea returned for pre-season on July 10 last year Lukaku had joined Manchester United instead and the Blues’ only outfield signing, Antonio Rudiger, was not ready to start training after playing in the Confederations Cup for Germany.

With a Premier League trophy to use as a bargaining chip against club policy, Conte felt empowered to take on his employers. He warned people their jobs were on the line and that they would see ‘the real Antonio Conte’ if he did not get what he wanted.

He is still rated as one of the best coaches the club has ever employed, but there is a feeling that Conte’s judgement became clouded at key points by an obsession to prove he was right.

There was bemusement from within the squad when he called a pre-season meeting to supposedly welcome Chelsea’s new signings and introduced Paolo Vanoli and Davide Mazzotta, who had joined his backroom staff.

For a short while nobody knew whether or not Conte was being serious, but it quickly became clear that he was underlining the fact there were no new players for him to show off.

Former technical director Michael Emenalo is believed to have been in the room for Conte’s joke that highlighted the gap that was already developing between the 48-year-old and his board.

Of course, one player who had not been part of the pre-season meeting was Diego Costa, who effectively went on strike in Brazil after being informed he was no longer part of Conte’s plans over text message.

That move went down spectacularly badly inside the Chelsea boardroom, as Conte had acted without their approval and had risked damaging Costa’s value.

The message was also forwarded throughout the Chelsea squad, who were astonished that the club’s top scorer in their title-winning campaign could be treated in such a way – even though he had been causing problems since rowing with Conte last January.

More difficulties with members of his squad surfaced during the season, as Conte dropped David Luiz after the Brazilian was perceived to have questioned his tactics during a stormy inquest in which Kenedy was given a dressing down for yawning.

Injuries contributed to his absence, but Luiz only played five times after the thrashing in Rome, which took place in October and Kenedy was loaned out to Newcastle United in January.

The 5-0 victory over Stoke City on December 31 meant that, despite all the angst, Chelsea finished 2017 in second place in the Premier League and still in all of the cup competitions.

But tensions boiled up again during a January transfer window in which Conte wanted the Blues to back him with bids for Sanchez and Sandro, both of whom he believed were available.

He had not spoken with anybody more senior than Emenalo, who left Chelsea in November, between August and December, and his requests were unsurprisingly ignored. In the end, he had to be content with Olivier Giroud, Emerson Palmieri and Ross Barkley.

Conte had nothing against Giroud, who proved to be a shrewd addition, or Emerson, but felt that, while United were pushing the boat out for Sanchez, Chelsea were trying to strengthen from the substitutes’ benches of Arsenal and Roma.

Once January passed and the transfer window had shut, Conte once again cut himself off from his employers and serious consideration was given to making a change after the embarrassing defeats to Bournemouth and Watford.

Rather than sack him mid-season and land themselves with a huge compensation bill, Chelsea decided to see if they and Conte could ride out the storm together.

But any hope of Champions League qualification was effectively eradicated by the successive defeats to Manchester United and City, when Conte’s tactics were widely condemned, along with his use of Eden Hazard as a false nine.

Hazard had been prepared to sacrifice himself for the supposed greater good up to that point, but sometime after the City loss the Belgian was pulled aside by Conte and had his commitment questioned.

Chelsea have desperately been trying to convince Hazard to sign a new £300,000-a-week contract, but word quickly got round that he was becoming annoyed by his head coach and it showed on the pitch.

More fall-outs were to follow, as Conte dropped Rudiger for giving a television interview in which he appeared to question the team’s approach and the former Juventus coach screamed at his squad that they were all “s***” during half-time in the Premier League victory over Southampton, in which Chelsea came back from two goals behind.

The FA Cup final success over United provided some consolation, but not even that could mask the disharmony in the background as Willian posted a picture on social media of the squad celebrating with carefully placed trophy emojis to hide Conte.

Luiz and Willian would have never played for Chelsea again while Conte was in in charge and there is every likelihood others would have been frozen out as well.

In his post-match press conference at Wembley, Conte repeated seven times ‘I can’t change’ which pretty much told Chelsea everything they needed to know and had Roman Abramovich reaching for the reset button once again - even if it took some time for him to press it.

Good piece there tho wasn't Kennedy booted out for telling China to fuck off 🤣

[Special Juan 27,126]

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2018/7/13/statement-on-antonio-conte

Gone

[Special Juan 27,126]

 

[Yeboii 1,844]

Thank you for the good work in the first season, and then the FA Cup in the second! We will never know 100% what happened behind the scenes. However, we know Conte is a world class manager that just can't gel with the club itself. Hopefully he gets a good job again (Italy NT?).

No hard feelings from me. Grazie!

[Special Juan 27,126]

We now have to get away from all this hiring and firing, this club needs mass stability. I know Conte rocked his own boat but it's now time to rid the divide that always happens between board and coach, they need to communicate and get on.

This palpable discord every 18-20 months is both worrying and not good at all. It paints and already grey picture, and this has been nothing short of a complete joke fro start to finish.

The board need to change and quickly.

[Eidur the Spider 4,515]

I remember a few years ago, don’t remember who was sacked but roman came down to the training ground and said something like player power won’t keep ousting managers and that was the last time they win. That was wrong. While Antonio can’t just blame the players, the board but also himself, the culture needs to change because the players know that if they don’t like a manager they will outlast him. That’s something engrained in the clubs dna and it needs to stop. I’m fed up of it. 

[Alabama 1,992]

1 minute ago, Eidur the Spider said:

I remember a few years ago, don’t remember who was sacked but roman came down to the training ground and said something like player power won’t keep ousting managers and that was the last time they win. That was wrong. While Antonio can’t just blame the players, the board but also himself, the culture needs to change because the players know that if they don’t like a manager they will outlast him. That’s something engrained in the clubs dna and it needs to stop. I’m fed up of it. 

This is not a matter of player power....Conte is the architect of his own misfortune...club statement on official website is a testament to that... 

[Unionjack 7,531]

6 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

We now have to get away from all this hiring and firing, this club needs mass stability. I know Conte rocked his own boat but it's now time to rid the divide that always happens between board and coach, they need to communicate and get on.

This palpable discord every 18-20 months is both worrying and not good at all. It paints and already grey picture, and this has been nothing short of a complete joke fro start to finish.

The board need to change and quickly.

But its Romans ideas mainly that needs changing.

He doesn't mind at all changing managers every 2 years as he said to Drogs 'It works'

It would be the dogs to have a long running steady,comfortable,top 4 reaching life while playing shit hot football. But cant see it happen under Roman mate.

[Special Juan 27,126]

3 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

But its Romans ideas mainly that needs changing.

He doesn't mind at all changing managers every 2 years as he said to Drogs 'It works'

It would be the dogs to have a long running steady,comfortable,top 4 reaching life while playing shit hot football. But cant see it happen under Roman mate.

I'm classing Roman as part of 'the board'

[Unionjack 7,531]

Just now, Special Juan said:

I'm classing Roman as part of 'the board'

Of course mate He IS the board.

Just classifying the suits as yesmen and woman.

[blu35_army 550]

No "thank you" in official statement for Conte is really embarrasing. Even rafa is threat better....

Grazie Antonio....

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

[Dimitr 488]

This confirmation deserved conte. 

Good luck .

no more suffering 

[Special Juan 27,126]

There is going to be a court battle, be sure of it, that's why they won't thank him.

[Azpinator 2,325]

Talk about Friday the 13th...

[Unionjack 7,531]

37 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

There is going to be a court battle, be sure of it, that's why they won't thank him.

Lets hope we use the same briefs as in the Mou Vs Eva malarky. Never found out how much she got but a waste of time as settled out of court as I hope this will be. just an embarrassment

[the wes 7,212]