by Salvatore Riggio
The former Tottenham manager: «We needed time for the family and for myself, now I have energy. I have to win, we need a club with my ambitions. The Champions League would be a gift to my father”
He will return to the bench, but from next season. Antonio Conte’s return is near: «I took this time for myself, for my family and to be with my parents. It’s important to recharge, physically and mentally, now my only problem is that I have too much energy”, said the former coach of Juventus (with whom he won three championships) and Inter (the 2021 championship) – who last March he mutually terminated his portrait with Tottenham and has remained firm ever since – in the interview given to the English newspaper «Telegraph». Now everyone dreams about it.
First of all, it is rumored, Milan. However, beyond the various courtships, Conte has only one objective: «The best possible option is to have fun and win. And to be celebrated, I have to win. Otherwise the others are waiting to celebrate my failure. This is the truth”. At the moment, the former coach (he led Italy to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016) likes Pep Guardiola, champion of everything with Manchester City: «He is the best coach in the world. And then when you can match the best manager in the world with a club that can support you and can invest in bringing in important players to improve the team every season because they want to stay at the top of the world, then it’s very, very difficult to compete at the same level. My story says that in my clubs I have always arrived in a difficult situation and with problems.”
The dream: lifting the Champions League
Many victories for Conte, he has a big dream: «One day I would like to lift the Champions League as a coach. But I know it’s very difficult. People think it’s simple, but you have to stay at the right club, a club that matches your ambitions, a club ready to take the last step to win it. Look at Manchester City. Seven years, right? I would like to give this joy to my father. He told me “I want to see you lift the Champions League”. It’s not easy, but everyone can have a dream.” Furthermore, Conte is also ready to open up to classic innovations: «People think that the 3-5-2 is a defensive system, but that’s not true. Just look at how many goals my teams score each season. It doesn’t depend on whether there are three or four on defense, it depends on how you build the team and build the attack. At the same time, it’s not good to be too offensive. And not too defensive either. We must respect the characteristics of the players and adapt to them. My experience tells me that if you want to win the championship or lift a trophy, you have to have a balanced team. Last season Manchester City was the best example of a team with great balance, defensively and offensively.”
The sad moments and memories of Ventrone, Vialli and Mihajlovic
Finally, there is also room for Conte’s human side, as a technician: «I am honest, I hate lies. This can sometimes help me or sometimes it can hurt me. But I prefer to remain silent rather than tell a good lie, even in my relationship with my players. During the season it may happen that you need honest dialogue which can be positive or negative. I know it very well, I was a player too and some coaches told me lies to keep me calm. I don’t want this type of situation.” Finally, the disappearance in recent months of Gian Piero Ventrone, the Tottenham and former Juventus athletic trainer, Gianluca Vialli and Sinisa Mihajlovic, Conte concluded: «Losing them in a few months was certainly one of the hardest moments of my life. I had an important relationship with Vialli. I met him three weeks before he died to have dinner with my wife and I keep that moment in my heart. Gian Piero? It was really difficult to deal with this situation, even Sinisa’s death. When this kind of situation happens, you can have horrible thoughts. You think about what can happen to another person very close to you, or whether it can happen to you. It was a really difficult moment, even for the Tottenham players, when Gian Piero died.”
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February 14, 2024 (modified February 14, 2024 | 3:49 pm)
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