The Conte Thread

[xPetrCechx 13,578]

Conte is determined to sign 1 top-class centre forward & atleast 1 more defender, possibly 2, plus a back-up GK set to be Diego Lopez (Mail)

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

Had Chelsea been behind the bigger clubs, Kante would now be a Madrid or a PSG player. Chelsea is still one of the top attractions in world football, it's just the club's choice to be more cautious when it comes to bigger fees. Bayern have this policy since forever (£33m being the biggest amount they've payed on a player).

And with Mourinho's departure we cannot say that the club has lost its spark it terms of attracting players that would have come here at the opportunity of working for a top notch manager because Conte is a coveted manager as well (e.g. Kante). He can always come up with the likes of Pogba, Bonucci, Chiellini, Vidal, Lichsteiner, Asamoah etc. when trying to convince someone to join him, players that he's taken to the next level during his time at Juventus. 

[Barbara 15,149]

18 hours ago, the wes said:

Yes gabigol his nickname yes that would nice of you to do that  I would like to hear a Brazilian report of gabigol thank you

Well, according to my sources (:P they're still better than the DM, Sun and Mirror) the kid is talented, technical, killer instinct ,but already has an arrogant attitude about himself (not as bad as Lukaku though) thinking he's something very special. He's small, but fast, and in a sense could be compared to Walcott. 

He could develop into a very good player, but he isn't on the level to move to big team yet. Discussing with my boys, we came to the conclusion it'd be good for his career to go to one of the three Portuguese teams, a medium team in Spain or maybe even a big in Italy and see how he develops after it. 

I don't know anything myself, as I stated before, but I've never rated Theo, so I don't think I'd rate Gabriel either. Also his picture when you google him is ridiculous, omg, he has terrible styling(footballers normally do these days). Between the three guys I asked, only one thought maybe he could come to Chelsea, the other two don't think it'd be good for Chelsea (or the kid).

16 hours ago, Chelsea Buzz said:

Barbara, great to see you in mid-season form already

Seriously, you bring terrific insight and a light-hearted approach that is always good reading. You and many others on here make this place what it is. Missed you lots last year.

Come on you Chelsea!!

Unfortunately I start working in a week from now, and God knows how my life will be after vacation is over. I hope to make some time to be around more often.

10 hours ago, Essien19 said:

Already trouble in paradis, maybe now Conte knows what he has signed up for. Unbelievable naive that he didn't include tranfers in his contract, now it's getting tough, but at least he has been taught a lesson for life. 'Abramovich looking less impressed' tells a good story!

Gesendet von meinem SM-G930F mit Tapatalk

Dude, I really don't have a problem with you, I swear, I even got along with you while I used to post, but seriously, what are you still doing here? I don't mean as a Chelsea fan, but in the forum. You seem delighted with the possibility of Conte having trouble with the board or vice-versa, you want Mourinho's team to beat Chelsea to punish players that Mourinho himself brought here and who Mourinho himself burned bridges with when he started behaving in an improper way, you're more active in Mourinho's thread than you seem to be in the rest of the forum. So I ask again, what are you still doing here - picking silly discussions and collecting people to dislike you? Of course, I'm not kicking you out (don't have the power or even the will to do that), I'm just questioning what's the point of come here to post about this kind of stuff. You're making no friends with such statements and it's very clear to everyone how you feel about Mourinho, what Chelsea and Mourinho did to each other last year and the current team and manager. Maybe you could take a break from the forum.

And talking about naive, let me tell you something, managers - let alone head coaches - don't have such things on their contracts about transfers. They could have a line or two mentioning they must have a saying in new contracts, but in a club with loan culture such as Chelsea, it's really irrelevant. Less and less managers have this power in football nowadays, as their tenure are shorter and shorter . Clubs keep making investments in the kind of people they hire to make part of their boards, and there's a reason for that. Suggesting that Conte or anyone else should have such a clause in their contract is beyond naive... which is ironic.

3 hours ago, petre.ispirescu said:

Had Chelsea been behind the bigger clubs, Kante would now be a Madrid or a PSG player. Chelsea is still one of the top attractions in world football, it's just the club's choice to be more cautious when it comes to bigger fees. Bayern have this policy since forever (£33m being the biggest amount they've payed on a player).

And with Mourinho's departure we cannot say that the club has lost its spark it terms of attracting players that would have come here at the opportunity of working for a top notch manager because Conte is a coveted manager as well (e.g. Kante). He can always come up with the likes of Pogba, Bonucci, Chiellini, Vidal, Lichsteiner, Asamoah etc. when trying to convince someone to join him, players that he's taken to the next level during his time at Juventus. 

It's not only his propaganda of what he did to those players, but how some of them were picked by him and he had the ability to develop them into those talents they became. He has an eye for players with potential and a good hand to work with them. Not only this could be good propaganda to attract players that want similar development in their careers, but also tells a lot about Conte himself. We should definitely trust the unproven players he brings because if he has his eye on them is because he sees a potential he could help develop, which is great because it makes for good bargain tag prices and have players develop to meet our needs, not the other way around. It's always better to develop the player rather than get the final product because there's no guarantee a big name in one league will be as successful in another, except the very, very very top players that could play anywhere. Also, developing a player means that he already knows and has been adapted not only to the league, but to the club style and philosophy (two things Chelsea desperate need to establish and start working on).

[the wes 7,212]

11 minutes ago, Barbara said:

Well, according to my sources (:P they're still better than the DM, Sun and Mirror) the kid is talented, technical, killer instinct ,but already has an arrogant attitude about himself (not as bad as Lukaku though) thinking he's something very special. He's small, but fast, and in a sense could be compared to Walcott. 

He could develop into a very good player, but he isn't on the level to move to big team yet. Discussing with my boys, we came to the conclusion it'd be good for his career to go to one of the three Portuguese teams, a medium team in Spain or maybe even a big in Italy and see how he develops after it. 

I don't know anything myself, as I stated before, but I've never rated Theo, so I don't think I'd rate Gabriel either. Also his picture when you google him is ridiculous, omg, he has terrible styling(footballers normally do these days). Between the three guys I asked, only one thought maybe he could come to Chelsea, the other two don't think it'd be good for Chelsea (or the kid).

Unfortunately I start working in a week from now, and God knows how my life will be after vacation is over. I hope to make some time to be around more often.

Dude, I really don't have a problem with you, I swear, I even got along with you while I used to post, but seriously, what are you still doing here? I don't mean as a Chelsea fan, but in the forum. You seem delighted with the possibility of Conte having trouble with the board or vice-versa, you want Mourinho's team to beat Chelsea to punish players that Mourinho himself brought here and who Mourinho himself burned bridges with when he started behaving in an improper way, you're more active in Mourinho's thread than you seem to be in the rest of the forum. So I ask again, what are you still doing here - picking silly discussions and collecting people to dislike you? Of course, I'm not kicking you out (don't have the power or even the will to do that), I'm just questioning what's the point of come here to post about this kind of stuff. You're making no friends with such statements and it's very clear to everyone how you feel about Mourinho, what Chelsea and Mourinho did to each other last year and the current team and manager. Maybe you could take a break from the forum.

And talking about naive, let me tell you something, managers - let alone head coaches - don't have such things on their contracts about transfers. They could have a line or two mentioning they must have a saying in new contracts, but in a club with loan culture such as Chelsea, it's really irrelevant. Less and less managers have this power in football nowadays, as their tenure are shorter and shorter . Clubs keep making investments in the kind of people they hire to make part of their boards, and there's a reason for that. Suggesting that Conte or anyone else should have such a clause in their contract is beyond naive... which is ironic.

It's not only his propaganda of what he did to those players, but how some of them were picked by him and he had the ability to develop them into those talents they became. He has an eye for players with potential and a good hand to work with them. Not only this could be good propaganda to attract players that want similar development in their careers, but also tells a lot about Conte himself. We should definitely trust the unproven players he brings because if he has his eye on them is because he sees a potential he could help develop, which is great because it makes for good bargain tag prices and have players develop to meet our needs, not the other way around. It's always better to develop the player rather than get the final product because there's no guarantee a big name in one league will be as successful in another, except the very, very very top players that could play anywhere. Also, developing a player means that he already knows and has been adapted not only to the league, but to the club style and philosophy (two things Chelsea desperate need to establish and start working on).

Thanks for the info your wee legend 

[Blue Colored Sky 1,807]

Antonio recently gave two interviews to Chelsea TV and I AM NOT talking about post-match interviews.

Could you please try to find them from different source and put them here ? I will look for them myself in any case. If there was one good guy that could extract those videos from their website ...

[Barbara 15,149]

1 hour ago, the wes said:

Thanks for the info your wee legend 

I just received a full and detailed report. If it was productive I would screencap the  whole thing, but it's Portuguese.

So this guy is a kid I started working with very recently (recording a Chelsea podcast), and when we were recording it I really enjoyed his views on the sport, we basically agreed on every assessment we did about the points raised by the anchor, so despite knowing the kid for a very short time, he seems like a reasonable person and seems to understand a lot about football.

So let's test my summarizing abilities (lol, as if I have any). The Gabi kid is vain - in a Ronaldo way - he cares a lot about his physical image, but he isn't arrogant as the others pointed out, he wants to look pretty and love himself. I don't know among you lads, but among us - girls - those are very standard things

He didn't leave Santos yet because he didn't want, he wants to develop further, but also wants a bigger price tag   as he owns 20% of himself (LOL, that's so funny). So 20% of the bid goes to himself, 40% to his agent and 40% to Santos. Don't ask me how players buy themselves, but they do somehow. That's some weird Brazilian culture. So he's enjoying his time at Santos,trying to learn as much as he can, but also trying to get as much money from the transfer as possible.

Playing he's much better than Walcott according my trusted new source and is comparable to Solanke (<3) being only one year older. Leftie, who shoots pretty well with both feet, he's adaptable, having played as a #9 for most of his career, but recently switched to second striker and AM positions and flared very well on both. He's also very versatile, being capable of playing in all attacking positions and tactical roles  with a certain easiness (doesn't mean he aces them all). He's very talented, his dribbles are the same sort of Neymar's (that's a loose comparison related only to style, not quality).  His preferred and best side to play (as AM, 2nd striker) is the right - which would be very welcomed at Chelsea after years of having players who do better in the left, but play in the right for us detracting some of their best potential).

Despite being small, he's strong for his size and age and has been working on his work rate - which is still precarious as he still very bad in the defensive/marking/closing defensive gaps aspect of the game,but he's very willing to go back and help his team mates (I believe at age 19 that's already good enough).

Deficiencies: heading, small height, temper. He's known for getting angry easily when things get hot, showing that he still has a way to go mentally. The temper/mental aspect I think could be worked on, after all the kid is still 19.

As usual in life, you don't need to know everything, you just need to know the right people  So I cosign with everything my mate reported me, even if I don't know him for long and you can quote me  in those things when the guy comes to Europe.

Worth mentioning, there's another Gabriel who's also very, very very good. Gabriel Jesus.

[Essien19 1,415]

4 hours ago, Barbara said:

Dude, I really don't have a problem with you, I swear, I even got along with you while I used to post, but seriously, what are you still doing here? I don't mean as a Chelsea fan, but in the forum...

Nice text, put a lot of thought in it for someone who doesn't care, mhh. You don't like it, ignore it, if the problem still exists, enable the ignore function which should help. As far as i'm concerned i simply write my opinion, i don't like the board, but i'm still a fan of the club, so i think reading and sometimes posting is just fine. Sometimes i go to far, call me out and i consider, maybe i agree with you and will apologise. I try to attack the opinion, not the poster. If anyone from the 'police' thinks we need more yes men, ban me, otherwise i won't go away. In which thread i choose to write is none of your business.

What you said about Mourinho is your opinion, i stated mine in the Mourinho thread. The things all of us have to say are opinions, not facts, so nice try with the lecture.

Fuck me, i have different problems, lost my phone at a friend's wedding, but this text, i couldn't let stand.

Good night!

[The Chels 2,502]

3 hours ago, Blue Colored Sky said:

Antonio recently gave two interviews to Chelsea TV and I AM NOT talking about post-match interviews.

Could you please try to find them from different source and put them here ? I will look for them myself in any case. If there was one good guy that could extract those videos from their website ...

 

16 minutes ago, Essien19 said:

Fuck me, i have different problems, lost my phone at a friend's wedding, but this text, i couldn't let stand.

We've all been there (minus the phone part). Reminds me of this

[Barbara 15,149]

Nice text, put a lot of thought in it for someone who doesn't care, mhh. You don't like it, ignore it, if the problem still exists, enable the ignore function which should help. As far as i'm concerned i simply write my opinion, i don't like the board, but i'm still a fan of the club, so i think reading and sometimes posting is just fine. Sometimes i go to far, call me out and i consider, maybe i agree with you and will apologise. I try to attack the opinion, not the poster. If anyone from the 'police' thinks we need more yes men, ban me, otherwise i won't go away. In which thread i choose to write is none of your business.

What you said about Mourinho is your opinion, i stated mine in the Mourinho thread. The things all of us have to say are opinions, not facts, so nice try with the lecture.

Fuck me, i have different problems, lost my phone at a friend's wedding, but this text, i couldn't let stand.

Good night!

And I didn't say I don't care and I didn't take anything personally I just don't understand what you doing because you just post some things that are very weird. and I'm not questioning your loyalty to the club I just don't understand why you say some of the things you do here like hoping Mourinho's United beat us, but to each their own, this is just a weird thing to post on a Chelsea forum

Sent from my SM-J700M using Tapatalk

[Essien19 1,415]

5 hours ago, Barbara said:

And I didn't say I don't care and I didn't take anything personally I just don't understand what you doing because you just post some things that are very weird. and I'm not questioning your loyalty to the club I just don't understand why you say some of the things you do here like hoping Mourinho's United beat us, but to each their own, this is just a weird thing to post on a Chelsea forum

Sent from my SM-J700M using Tapatalk

Found my phone, feeling pretty good! Try to change my ton, maybe i got indeed stuck in a too negative downward spiral, thanks for the heads up! So far, so good!

Regards!

[Barbara 15,149]

Found my phone, feeling pretty good! Try to change my ton, maybe i got indeed stuck in a too negative downward spiral, thanks for the heads up! So far, so good!

Regards!

Happy for you man, losing the phone is a headache. Cheers

[Parky 739]

[TheBallWinner 3]

Antonio Conte’s Resurrection of Chelsea FC

 

Interesting season ahead!

[Fernando 6,595]

20 hours ago, Essien19 said:

Nice text, put a lot of thought in it for someone who doesn't care, mhh. You don't like it, ignore it, if the problem still exists, enable the ignore function which should help. As far as i'm concerned i simply write my opinion, i don't like the board, but i'm still a fan of the club, so i think reading and sometimes posting is just fine. Sometimes i go to far, call me out and i consider, maybe i agree with you and will apologise. I try to attack the opinion, not the poster. If anyone from the 'police' thinks we need more yes men, ban me, otherwise i won't go away. In which thread i choose to write is none of your business.

What you said about Mourinho is your opinion, i stated mine in the Mourinho thread. The things all of us have to say are opinions, not facts, so nice try with the lecture.

Fuck me, i have different problems, lost my phone at a friend's wedding, but this text, i couldn't let stand.

Good night!

That's the thing, no true fan will want their team to lose to someone else. Despite if you don't like some players. I'm sure there's been some players people don't like, my goodness look at the Ivanovic thread!

But no one who is a real fan will still want the club to lose because of one individual. 

So I think you need to define what it means to be a fan. 

[Essien19 1,415]

42 minutes ago, Fernando said:

That's the thing, no true fan will want their team to lose to someone else. Despite if you don't like some players. I'm sure there's been some players people don't like, my goodness look at the Ivanovic thread!

But no one who is a real fan will still want the club to lose because of one individual. 

So I think you need to define what it means to be a fan. 

Just when I thought I was out...you pull me back in. A real fan wants the the best for his team no matter what! As i've stated before i'm of the opinion that a change in management is necessary to achieve the goal to self-sufficiency and be the club of the people again instead of some rich man's toy living by the grace of the owner who's as far as i'm concerned not fair towards certain people and throwing lots of legends to the wolves. It's been handled differently elsewhere, where's the identity at Chelsea!?

How do you come clean? Winning the odd game here and there is no use, imo. But with failure questions will be asked, everything will be put under the microscope, at least there's hope. As already aformentioned, sometimes things have to get worse before they can getter. I'm not reinventing the wheel here, fans of different clubs are sharing similar thoughts for many years, sometimes it clears the sky, sometimes it's worse than before. But you have to take risks in life, otherwise you will be forever stuck in the limbo. I for one would take my chances, be a visionary, i could live with its consequences.

Just some thoughts...

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

On 7/21/2016 at 11:38 PM, Barbara said:

 

First, Shakez, it's so nice to see you posting. I've been away for a long time (no time to even breathe let alone read, post or even watch Chelsea). Not that I don't welcome new members - if they are nice I surely do, but still seeing some guys from the days I posted more often brings a smile to my face, and you my dear, are certainly one of them

Now about the double training sessions - I'm sure it's only until the team reaches their best physical condition and an attempt to start the season as strong physically as we could.

Last year we as a club - whether it was a Mourinho's option, a club option or both - made a test by giving players longer vacation time and starting very light on training during preseason. Mourinho addressed it a few times at the beginning of the season and back then I thought it was a valid attempt, but one I would assess when the results of such decision appeared. I did assess it and before the whole Mourinho implosion got out of control, I was starting to second guess the decision of letting the players rest more and start preseason with light sessions. I pointed that out as one of the reasons why things weren't working out in the first two months. We were a couple of step behind the other teams in terms of competitiveness and physicality.

Fact is a lot of things - most directly linked to Mourinho's presence - brought us the the deep hole we dug, but I think we were physically subpar. It was a mistake to give players more time to rest. Unfortunately this is not affordable in modern football, not only because of the bloated calendar, but because the intensity of the game increased a lot. The most physical players from 20 years ago wouldn't last much in nowadays football before running out of steam.

So I fully support the decision of taking heavier, more intense sessions, even if twice a day (I'm going to assume one of those two sessions might be a bit lighter than the other). I'd say when the team is running on full throttle physically we can go back to one session a day - or keep it on alternate days, as we'll rarely have midweek football this season.

Players needs to get ready physically, but also mentally for real competition and the aspect of a demanding manager, that is breathing on their neck, pushing them the farthest they can go prepare players not only physically to endure the challenges of an unbelievable busy calendar, but also have them mentally ready earlier as well. I hope we never ago take the longer vacation time,lighter preseason route again.

I don't exactly know what is the floor you're giving me, but I hope is from a stage because I'm on vacation and I won't sweep anything (bad joke I know, but I'm the queen of bad jokes)

I think it's going to be paramount for our success this season - and consequently Conte's too - the fact that we won't have any European football to play at all. I mean, of course I would have preferred if we were playing Europe, even Europa League, but as we are not, let's make the most of it and I think that gives Conte the best scenario to work. After the season we had, there's obviously less pressure than usual. We were 10th, so it's not like people are going to demand us to win the title. Most fans would be happy with being Arsenal for a season and just aiming the 4th place and assuring UCL next season. So when bad results come - and they certainly will - media and fans won't be on Conte like they would if we had a standard Chelsea season last year. Unfortunately the stakes aren't as high as they normally are, but that's working to Conte's advantage if you ask me.

Not playing during the week not only helps the players being fresher, but also allows Conte to make more tests with formations, tactical approaches, etc. When you have two or three days before your next match, you can't work on those things as much as you want because you need to get ready for the next game. With the next game being 6, 7 or even 8, 9 days later, Conte has time not only to train drills, but also to make tests. Even though the lack of European football sucks, I think it's going to be the one fact that will help Conte the most.

And let's not joke ourselves, even during my most avid Mourinho defending days, I complained about how he seemed to have dropped some of the drilling aspect of training. It seemed like he became sloppy in training certain kind of moves with players, how to position on free kicks - both defending and attacking. How many times have we read or heard him saying that he told Hazard he could go there and do his thing and it feels like except demanding a whole much of work rate from all players, Mourinho seemed to have settled for letting them to their thing most time and having only a few organized, trained (or as we say in Portuguese, rehearsed) plays, moves, composition, etc. We relied a lot on Fabregas killer eye for an assist, Willian's energy and pace, Hazard's talent and Costa giving-it-all attitude.

A team as big as us certainly needs its manager to go beyond that. The manager we need can't let players do their thing and only demand work rate from them. They need to be trained in the most strict meaning of the word, drilled, pushed, guided and if that's the case, even taken by the hand. I want to see Conte stopping the training motion simply to correct our defense and midfield positioning. I want him to be livid on players when they aren't paying enough attention or keeping to the plan as they're supposed to, I want him to push, push, push as much as he works, works, works. Those players aren't as bad as they looked last season, the thing is they weren't pushed enough and most of them became the worst version of themselves because let's not fool ourselves, the intensity and demands of modern football I mentioned above are insane and if there isn't someone breathing on their necks to give more and go further - they, like any other human being on their place - will just fall into their comfort zone. Most of them probably do it without noticing and without being able to leave that place by themselves. Modern sports - not only football actually - keep demanding more, and it's a while since the demands went above the 'natural' disposition. Yes, they're paid much more than they should just to play in this level, but money doesn't reset how your brain works and the exception is the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo - players that are constantly pushing their limits by themselves, but that's a very particular and personal trait, we can't expect - let alone demand - every player, no matter how much money the club gives them to have their brain reset to just make their body go beyond its natural limits.

And now I said too much, but that's entirely Chelsea Buzz fault. He gave me a whole floor, what was I supposed to do with it as I refuse to do any more sweeping on my vacay time? Complaints direct to him please

Kidding of course, I may not be the queen of the longest posts anymore, but I just had a lot to say... as usual for women and even more so for me. Good thing most of you can cope with me already

The ones who can't yet for they're new here, chop chop and learn (bad joke again)

 

I agree with everything but I do sympathize with Mourinho as well. His father's health had to play a part in his lack of drilling home a message. I don't even think he was 100% focussed on the team coming into the season and certainly not given his emotional state when he heard of his father's condition.

 

[Milan 17,964]

Apparently, this is one of the training sessions during the Italy's EURO 2016 journey.

That makes the players sprint 3 kilometres in 21 minutes.

[xPetrCechx 13,578]

5 minutes ago, milan.cech said:

Apparently, this is one of the training sessions during the Italy's EURO 2016 journey.

That makes the players sprint 3 kilometres in 21 minutes.

Its seems like a miracle that we don't have european football this year...

[Pizy 18,994]

Maybe Eden will start the season lean and cut now with that workout! No more chubby Hazard to open the season. He can look like Willian rather than Götze. 

[xPetrCechx 13,578]

3 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Maybe Eden will start the season lean and cut now with that workout! No more chubby Hazard to open the season. He can look like Willian rather than Götze. 

Gotze isnt fat lol