30 THE PREM ERA
THE MANAGERS
The Trullo way
F
IFA councillor Evelina
Christillin, one of the
main organisers of the
2006 Winter Olympics
in Turin and a passionateJuventus
supporter,wellremembers theJuly
2014 evening when Antonio Conte
announced his shock resignation
asJuve head coach.
Just two months earlier, Conte had
guided the side to a third consecutive
Serie A title, thus completing their
rehabilitation at the top table of
European football in the wake
of the infamous 2006Calciopoli
match-fixing scandal.
In aHuffington Postarticle,
Christillin recalled: “I was at a very serious
meeting with bankers, in which we were
discussing the Basel 3 agreement – the
European Central Bank’s Asset Quality
review requirements of Italian and other
banks and matters of that sort.
“All of a sudden, someone shattered
the lugubrious solemnity by shouting
out ‘Conte has resigned’. All of a sudden,
magically, financial issues were off the
table. Instead, the meeting gave way
to a perfect storm of phone calls, text
messages, web searches and calls to
reporters who might know something.”
The shock was serious. Conte was
nothing less than the prophet who had
ledJuventus out of the wilderness. And
straight across the Red Sea too. How
could he and the club part their ways?
Well, they could, and they did. And
Chelsea would do well to remember
this. The break-up withJuventus, by and
large, came about because Conte began
to get “perceptions and sensations” that
not everyone in Turin was on the same
page when it came to planning for the
new season. In particular, theJuventus
ownership – in the person of Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles president,John
Elkann – seemed distinctly lukewarm
about major transfer-market spending.
Conte is a unique, outrageouslyWords:Paddy Agnewtalented football animal. If you want to
understand him, you should probably
consider the Trullo.
The Trullo is a unique, dry-stone hut
with a conical roof, intended essentially
for agricultural labourers and found only
in Conte’s native Puglia in southeast
Italy, on the very heel of the Italian
peninsula. The thing about the Trullo
is that it is sparse and basic, functional
and flexible. The town of Alberobello,
which contains a whole village of Trulli is
now a UNESCO World Heritage centre.
Conte might not be a “world heritage”
yet, but his sustained football success
means he is heading that way.
Not many would have predicted
such a success story for Conte the
coach. As a player, for Marcello Lippi
with bothJuventus and Italy, he was by
no means the most talented midfielder
of his generation. But what he lacked
in technical talent he more than made
up for with an unrelenting competitive
hard edge. He was always one of those
players who “made a difference”, to
whomJuve often looked when the
going got tough.
As a coach, Conte seems to
bring exactly the same terrifying
determination to the job. The manner
in which he transformed aJuventus
team that had just finished seventh
in consecutive seasons into an all-
conquering machine, capable of
immediately lifting three successive
Serie A titles, remains an outstanding
example of inspirational and technically
brilliant coaching.
Sky Italiapundit Giancarlo Marocchi,
who played alongside him atJuventus
from1991 to1996, admits that Conte’s
success as a coach took him by surprise,
explaining: “I would never have predicted
that he would become such a good
manager.
“Yes, he was a great player, he was
the captain ofJuventus, but he was not
particularly disciplined tactically, heMAY 2017: In his first season in English football,
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is closing in on the
Premier League title, cementing his status asone of Europe’s finest managerial talents