QUOTE (kurtsimonw @ May 21 2013, 06:15 PM)

Fair enough if you think that highly of him then. Where do you rate Montella? He's had good success at a smaller club like Conte did with Siena in his time at Catania and now he's put Fiorentina on the verge of CL football.
I think Montella has potential to be great as well, he's not there yet, his teams although great to watch and are good offensively tend to be a bit of a mess in the defensive department. It was the same thing with Catania last season and with Roma prior to that.
Don't get me wrong if we had even the slightest chance of signing him right now I'd jump at it.
QUOTE (acid911 @ May 21 2013, 06:32 PM)

Well I respect your viewpoint, and that is why I have not quoted your full post. (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/happy.gif) But just wanted to say that he did not take a team that finished 7th to Scudetto. He took Juventus to the title, helped in no small amount by us while at it. Sure they were and always will be a bunch of losing whiners, but it was just not any random club.
Plus, Juventus management had traditionally splashed the cash whenever needed. Unlike our idiots in the board room. Point being, that even taking into account the minus respect I have for the druggists, Conte is a good coach at best, for me that is. (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I have seen many better, there are a handful ahead of him currently.
Besides, the truest test of a coach is when he moves to another team, and whether he can repeat his success.
It was a Juventus that was flailing at best, 2 consecutive 7th place finishes. Not just any coach could come in and implement such changes and turn the loser mentality around on it's head and make the players believe they can basically do anything, which is what he instilled in them
QUOTE (kurtsimonw @ May 21 2013, 06:50 PM)

They also had significant investment from the 7th place team though. Quags was on loan that year, was great for 6 months and got injured. Matri came in January and was great for 6 months. They then added Vucinic to that. Lichsteiner and Cacares also signed to help sure up the defense and then Pirlo and Vidal in midfield.
If we made 6/7 first team signings then we'd be a damn good team too!
I had this discussion with Filippo. The season prior to that Juve had made even more flashy signings then the ones you pointed out there. Krasic, Melo, Diego, Bonucci, Matri, Quagliarella, Marchisio was really starting to find his feet in the team and so on. Yet they still were horrible.
If anything the quality of players they signed was slightly more subdued when compared to that list. Pirlo was the only really big addition (thanks to us (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) ). Yet Conte stepped in and made them winners. That's how great he s and why I rate him so highly. I always bring up the 3 at the back for Juve and how great the are when playing for Juve then the same 3 step onto the pitch for Italy and it's a mess. I don't think you can get a more perfect example of his influence then that, and it's not like Prandelli is some slacker either