CONTE CALLS ON WARRIOR SPIRIT
Victory today will put Chelsea boss in sight of title... but he won’t celebrate by dancing!
IN Lecce, where Antonio Conte was born and bred, they already know it. ‘His face makes him look like a good boy,’ says Francesco Moriero, the former Inter Milan, Roma and Italy player, who was a teenage team-mate of Conte’s. ‘But on the field he was a warrior.’
The angelic teenager, commended by teachers, coaches and priests alike in the picturesque town in the southern-most tip of Italy for his diligence and politeness is, indeed, a more complex character. His time in management has demonstrated that.
At Juventus, observers say he was aggressive and prone to generating conflict in his pursuit of success.
At Chelsea he seems to have found a third way: charming off the pitch but demanding those same martial qualities he once displayed from his team.
‘I think in the team we have a lot of warriors,’ he said. ‘I work every day to bring them to be warriors. I think it’s great to have talent. But I like a lot when you are a warrior during the game and, above all, if players with talent work hard during the game.’
That is the Conte ideal. And over the last week, above all, it has been demonstrated. The defeat at Old Trafford two weeks ago was so abject and uncharacteristic that you wondered whether it might be a wobble, with the 12-point lead cut to just four.
Yet then there was that emphatic FA Cup semi-final win against their principal rivals Tottenham, to put them back in their place. Still, when Southampton equalised in Tuesday’s Premier League clash, you wondered again. And again the fighting spirit of Conte’s team emerged, running out comfortable 4-2 winners.
It has been a crucial week in the title race. And, as they visit Everton today, Conte would argue it isn’t yet over.
‘For sure, after the United defeat, I think it wasn’t easy to face this type of moment,’ he admitted. ‘Above all because, after the United defeat and you saw you only had four points, and then you had to play a semi-final against Tottenham, your opponents in the League. After this game, you then had to play two-and-a-half days later against Southampton, a team who had rested for 10 days. I think that it was a good test. For our mental condition.
‘I always thought that this week would be very important for us. I considered this week crucial for us, to get to the FA Cup final and also for the League. I thought we had to be good to keep these points with Tottenham, and at the same time you had to face Tottenham to reach the final, then Southampton, then Everton away.’
He trusts his players and it seems they have responded. If they get over today’s hurdle against an Everton team on a run of eight successive wins at Goodison they will surely be in the home straight, with Middlesbrough, West Brom, Watford and relegated Sunderland to come, three at home.
With an FA Cup final to finish the season, Conte is poised to record a huge achievement in his first season in English football. Carlo Ancelotti did it, winning the Double with Chelsea in 2009-10. Arsene Wenger did it in his first full season in English football, when he also won the Double in 199798. And Kenny Dalglish also did the Double in his first season as a player manager in 1985-86. Conte is walking among giants, his head held high.
He has assimilated himself into the culture of the Premier League with barely a missed step, once the early tricky patch had been negotiated and the back three introduced.
Indeed, he has changed our game, for though a triumvirate at the back was already having something of a niche revival, Conte’s success has propelled it into the mainstream.
‘This is an incredible experience for me, but not only for me,’ said Conte of his time in England. ‘For every coach, to work in this country. It’s great, it’s great every day to discover different situations and then have to try and adapt yourself.’
Something about England will forever baffle him, however.
‘I always said, for me, it was very strange the first time to arrive and to listen to the music in high volume in the dressing room,’ he revealed. ‘I always thought that, before the game, you must be focused, no? And I thought the silence helped to find the focus.’
And his favourite? ‘I’d like to listen to disco music before the game,’ he said, with straight face, though the idea of Earth, Wind and Fire or The Gap Band making the play list in an intriguing one. As is the mental image of Conte with some John Travolta moves. Dancing, he added, is a complete no-no. ‘Not in the dressing-room, no. In the dressing-room, no, no, no. I keep the self-control.’
Just like his players on the pitch. Win today, however, and they might just tempt their manager to show at least a move or two. Win the Premier League and we will surely expect him to get his back on up off the wall and get down on it.