Conte accepts Italy Manager role

By tdf, August 15, 2014

It is pleasing to find a man with phenomenal talent at motivating a team, instilling in their own veins his own ferocious desire to win…now manager of the national side which has lacked a semblance of grinta since 2006. parallels aplenty with own beloved juve, and rightly so, given the often large contingent of juve players in the azzurri line-up.

However, tactical expertise are yet to be truly displayed as mature and well honed. Beppe and Paratici brought to the club the vast majority of players who have proven the pillars of our recent glory (domestically speaking). Vidal, Pirlo, Tevez, Pogba etc…were not Conte’s choices, but the club’s. Some of which he likely sanctioned in some way. Yet his input into transfer policy remains up for debate.

The Juve squad is stronger than the Italian counterpart. Conte will have less time with the players, less time to imbue his winning mentality with consistency. In a tournament situation, when we may have a few weeks to find momentum, he could be world class. In the stop and start, truncated get-togethers and international fixture list, I am less than convinced he can be successful. Most of our success under Conte has come from having the strongest squad in the league, set up in a solid manner, with great enthusiasm in the ranks due to Conte. It has not been built on tactical ingenuity and versatility. Yes, Conte found a system which worked…nearly three years ago, then stuck to it, slowly but surely improving each part of that system in terms of playing talent each mercato.

Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Malta.

On paper it looks like only one hard set of fixtures against the Crows…Conte should get us through.

I think that international football is easier. The management standards are lower, partly due to the lack of regular meaningful opportunities for silverware, mainly due to the huge amount of money and day to day excitement on offer at the top European clubs in domestic and European competition.

Will Allessio join him? Will Il Mister be more interested in the youth sector? His two year contract ties in well with the two year contract of Allegri…by which point we will be feeling the beneficial result of the huge increase in revenue with the Adidas deal, and should be maintaining consistent champions league qualification…The timing of these matters are merely interesting at this stage.

I will be more excited about seeing the azzurri play than for many moons and I wish Antonio in boca al lupo…