Antonio Conte's obsessions

ZNews•08/05/2023

Saturday, April 29, 2023, 16:00 (GMT+7)
16:00 29/4/2023

The book "Metolo Conte" by author Alessandro Alciato portrays coach Antonio Conte as a workaholic, obsessed with winning.

On the morning of May 17, 2014, everyone at Juventus' Vinovo headquarters was in high spirits. The club had won the Scudetto even though the Serie A season was not yet over. Juventus had a record number of points: 99.

The following day, the final match of the season would take place at home against Cagliari. Conte wanted the team to surpass the 100-point mark, telling his colleagues: "We have to make history; no team has ever won more than 100 points in Italy..."

Attacking the players ruthlessly.

“Guys, I’ll see you in the video room to study the diagrams,” Conte began that morning with a phrase he’d heard a thousand times at Vinovo. Almost all the players were present when Conte entered, except for captain Gianluigi Buffon, who had never left the club since Juve were relegated to Serie B. He appeared a few seconds later, accompanied by General Manager Giuseppe Marotta.

Conte was the captain of Juve, having played for the club for 13 seasons.

“Sir, please allow me a moment, the director wants to clarify the issue of the team’s bonus after winning the Scudetto,” Buffon said to Conte. Everything erupted in that 50-square-meter space. Conte yelled: “You’ve broken me! It’s ruined, understand? And now everyone can get out of here. Get out, I don’t want to see you anymore. Get out, I said!”

The room was silent. It was a courtroom, and Conte was the sole judge before a team whose guilt was yet unknown.

"But, sir..."

"Shut up, Gigi, don't say another word. Don't make me repeat myself. I never expected it from your mouth. Bonus? Think about yourselves, you bastards..."

No one was allowed to laugh, even if someone wanted to. That would be the worst thing to do, an unforgivable insult. “And now,” Conte yelled. “Everyone get out there for training, no video. Get out. Don’t you understand?”

The silence deepened, allowing everyone to hear Conte's barely audible voice, as if he were talking to himself. "Shameful," he repeated the words as he walked out. Shameful? For a team that had just won Serie A for the third consecutive time?

In truth, Conte was obsessed with having over 100 points the week before. Many might remember the third consecutive league title, but history books will talk about 102 points, and in his eyes, that was a huge difference.

Buffon was there at the wrong time. Or very right, from Conte's perspective. If Buffon hadn't been there with Marotta, Conte would have found another excuse to attack his players. Marotta was the architect of Juve's resurgence; he turned his back and left in Conte's anger. He knew he shouldn't stay any longer.

Conte chose to attack his players to prevent them from succumbing to complacency, as he had done many times in previous seasons. Buffon was always the first target of Conte's anger, because Buffon was the oldest player in the team.

“I’m fine playing the role of the target, partly because Conte’s view and thinking about football is very similar to mine. I also use certain tactics to make the team work at its best. We were also teammates at Juve, but at that time, I was his first artificial enemy,” Buffon explained. Juve beat Cagliari 3-0 the following afternoon, reaching their target of 102 points.

Obsessed with work, winning, and details.

Andrea Pirlo once wrote in his autobiography: “If I could turn back time, there’s only one thing I wouldn’t do anymore: choose a seat next to Buffon right by the entrance to the dressing room at the Juventus Arena. It was the most dangerous place in Turin, especially during halftime. Conte would walk in and, even when we were winning, he would throw everything he found against the wall – and thus into my corner – plastic bottles, pens, towels… He was never satisfied, there was always something that didn’t suit him.”

After leaving Tottenham, Conte will most likely return to Juve next season to replace coach Max Allegri.

"I see failure as a state of clear death" is a phrase Conte uses most often. It's been repeated hundreds of times, in the dressing room or in front of the press. Conte is obsessed with winning, much like Jose Mourinho. And this obsession leads to another: the need to work extremely hard to win.

Conte is particularly fond of video. On average, coaches sit in front of a big screen twice a week: once the day after a match, and again 48 hours before the next. Conte uses video with his players all week. Industry experts argue that a video session should not exceed 15 minutes. Beyond that, players' attention spans decrease. With Conte, they rarely last less than 30 minutes, often exceeding an hour.

Play, pause, fast forward, slow forward, rewind, rewind. Stop, play. Stop. Play again. Again. Franco Vázquez, the Palermo striker called up to the Italian national team by Conte in 2015, fell asleep during video conferencing. “Does it always happen like this?” he asked. He was met with shrugs. After two appearances for Italy, Vazquez switched to playing for the Argentine national team.

Talking to Conte is a complex exercise, because he's always observing you, trying to figure out what's hidden in the conversation. He studies the person he's talking to as an opponent, treating the conversation like a battle, to find the appropriate defense, attack, and counter-attack strategy. Conte is obsessed with details, sometimes tending to look for enemies even when they don't exist.

Conte meticulously checks every semicolon in his interview. This is a sign of someone who is very vulnerable. But it could also be argued that Conte believes communication is not just about conveying ideas and thoughts, but also about transmitting a certain kind of image.

On September 1st, 2014, in Rome, television personality Ludovica Caramis got married. The groom was Mattia Destro, a striker for AS Roma. The entire wedding, from the church ceremony to the reception at a restaurant, was completed in a single day. Some say that during the vows at the church, the groom smirked as he briefly thought of the national team coach.

Destro could only spend one wedding night at home. At 5 a.m. the next morning, he had to get up and drive to the national team's training camp in Coverciano. He was on the 27-player roster for the friendly against the Netherlands on September 4th, and the Euro qualifying match against Norway five days later.

Those were Conte's first matches as Italy's national team coach. Destro was completely free to get married, except for going on his honeymoon. He knew that when the bedsheets were still wrinkled, he had to leave, which explains his half-smile. Conte never granted anyone special privileges or exceptions.

An associate of Conte later explained that if Destro had been scheduled to get married after the matches against the Netherlands and Norway, instead of before, he wouldn't have been called up to the national team by Conte. How strange!

“Conte has his own way of thinking. If Destro gets married, he will be completely focused on the national team. But while he's still married, he'll be on the national team with worries. Subconsciously, he'll be thinking more about the wedding guests than his opponents. Lack of focus during match preparation, lack of clarity on the pitch, and making mistakes. Not giving his all is one of the sins Conte finds hard to forgive. Prevention is better than cure.”

Conte's angry press conference: Tottenham's head coach did not hesitate to criticize his own players after the 3-3 draw against Southampton in the 28th round of the 2022/23 Premier League.

Chinh Phong

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