Conte: “When I return it will be hard for everyone”

For now Conte still plays and only for Conte. His team is his family, his wife Elisabetta and his daughter Vittoria, “who is already sixteen and has become a little woman”, she says with fatherly pride. “After Tottenham I promised myself I would spend more time with my family and with myself. And I use this time to study, to be even more ready when I return to levels of excellence: and when I return it will be hard for the others. But believe me – I read about transfer rumors – for now I still need this time of mine.”

landing

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Thus, Antonio Conte dispels the rumors about his possible arrival in Naples, with a promise that sounds like a threat (for others). But shortly before – responding to the deputy director of the Gazzetta dello Sport Andrea Di Caro who hosted the “Born to win” meeting at the Santa Chiara Auditorium in front of a thousand spectators – he had opened up the possibility of “catching a winning team in the race” and everyone inevitably thought of Naples. Nothing to do, on the next round of the carousel Conte will be even more Conte than the other times. Because you are born to win, but then you have to win. And it’s not easy. “When they ask me what the winning mentality is, I answer: it’s winning, that’s all.” Because – and this is Conte’s belief – “we all win together, with the staff and with everyone who works in the club. And winning clubs can be recognized by their history, sometimes you have to remove the dust but in the end it’s nice to be able to achieve certain feats.”

module

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But who is the coach according to Conte? “The coach is a tailor. Based on the fabric you have you have to make the best possible outfit. I’ll give you an example: in Bari I won two championships playing with the 4-2-4, it seemed like the best formation to me. But when I moved I had Chiellini, Barzagli and Bonucci in the three-man defence”. Just mentioning them brought several sobs of nostalgia from the Juventus players in the room. The good coach grows in defeats. “Once with Chelsea at half-time I was losing 3-0 against Chelsea. ‘Arsenal, I was really heartbroken. So I changed formation and it was the turning point: at the end of the year we won the championship”. Here then are the words of affection for the teachers I had as a player, from Fascetti and Mazzone (“Two fathers”) to Trapattoni ( “Unique in managing the dressing room”) up to Sacchi and Lippi, “who taught me the notions of this profession”. Conte then reveals that he “wakes up at night to try the schemes at the “Subbuteo”, repeats his mantra, a phrase of the All Blacks who often likes to remind his players: “When you leave, try to leave the shirt better than when you found it: that’s what I try to do.” Conte’s winning career is summed up in this sentence: “Whoever wins writes history, the others read it”. He wrote it, several times, between Italy and England who knows where in the future.