Conte in talks with Chelsea
ANTONIO CONTE met Roman Abramovich in Monaco earlier this month as Chelsea close in on their replacement for Jose Mourinho. The Italy manager’s contract expires at the end of Euro 2016 and Sportsmail revealed last month that the 46-year-old wants to return to club football next season. Conte and Abramovich held talks in a meeting brokered by Monacobased Italian agent Federico Pastorello. The deal discussed is worth up to £7.85million a year (net) to Conte, who has been taking English lessons in preparation. Abramovich needed convincing to hire an Italian coach as he expressed doubts about their notoriously defensive style but the former Juventus manager and player talked him around. Conte is due to meet his current employers next month to confirm he wants to leave this summer. An Italian Football Federation spokesman said: ‘We will be meeting Mr Conte before Euro 2016 to discuss this issue.’ Conte is set to hold further talks with Chelsea next month ahead of Italy’s friendlies with Spain and Germany.
ANDREA PIRLO was 32, hardly young and impressionable, but when he met Antonio Conte, his new Juventus coach, something just chimed.
‘When Conte speaks, his words assault you,’ wrote Pirlo in his book
I Think Therefore I Play. ‘They crash through the doors of your mind, often quite violently and settle deep within you. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve found myself saying, “Hell, Conte said something really spot-on again today”.’
Perhaps the same thing happened to Roman Abramovich when the Chelsea owner sat down to chat with Conte in Monaco this month, a meeting set up by Monaco-based agent Federico Pastorello.
Abramovich was in search of another manager and yet was thought to have reservations about bringing another Italian coach to Stamford Bridge. Despite his affection for Carlo Ancelotti — and Claudio Ranieri’s renaissance — he suspects they can be tactically dour.
Conte is meticulous, but his football is exciting. He is often likened in Italy to Arrigo Saachi because of his obsessive nature and attention to detail. ‘Allergic to errors,’ was how Pirlo put it.
His life is ruled by football, to the point where he spends sleepless hours rewinding details in his mind, searching for solutions. He wakes in the night with a bright idea, turns on the lights and makes notes, much to the annoyance of his wife Elisabetta.
Conte has found it hard adjusting to international management, just as he found his enforced absence hard during the ban he served while in charge of Juventus in 2012. He strenuously denied any role in the Calcioscommesse match-fixing scandal surrounding his previous job as Siena coach.
He was partially acquitted, yet still suspended from all football activity for 10 months, later reduced on appeal to four. It is said that he was prone to appear in the Juve dressing room at times during the ban. There is an easy comparison to Jose Mourinho, and it is not the only one. Like Mourinho, sacked by Abramovich in December, Conte is famed for his rigorous analysis of his own team and opponents. Inside the camp his players will watch hours of video clips. On the training field, they will spend hours drilling their pattern of play, playing 11 against none, making the same passes and the same runs until they become second nature. He demands precision.
On the touchline he simmers and explodes. He is religious, known to kiss his crucifix or twiddle his rosary beads ahead of a game. At halftime, he hurls bottles around in a rage. Conte’s favourite adjective is agghiacciante, which translates as spine-chilling. He uses it all the time, and it goes well with his piercing stare. When he spoke after his ban, he used the word 20 times, which became the subject of parody by a Italian comedians.
Those who commit to his methods are embraced. Those who don’t are soon cut off. During his ban, he reached out to senior figures in the dressing room like Pirlo, Gigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini to repeat his messages.
He scrutinises the media, clipping reports from newspapers and sticking them to the dressing-room door for motivation, with the key words highlighted in red.
His way worked in Italy, but there is no Champions League success to point to. However, those who worked closely with him speak highly of his talent.
Pirlo’s arrival at Juventus coincided with Conte’s from Siena, a return to the club where he played for 13 years. Conte delivered three league titles in as many years before quitting for the Italy job.
‘I was expecting him to be good, but not this good,’ said Pirlo. ‘I’ve worked with a lot of coaches and he’s the one who surprised me the most.
‘One little speech, a few simple words, was all it took for him to win me over. He said, “Lads, we’ve finished seventh in the last two years. Crazy stuff, absolutely appalling. I’ve not come here for that. It’s time we stopped being c**p. Turning around this ship is not a polite request; it’s an order, a moral obligation. You guys need to do only one thing and it’s pretty simple: follow me. Get it into your heads. We must return to the levels where we belong, the ones written into the history of this club”.’
Perhaps he used the same speech on Abramovich. Or perhaps he reminded him how Juventus tore Chelsea apart in the Champions League three seasons ago.