Antonio Conte is complaining again, but this time he has a point over his hiding hierarchy – The Warm-Up
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Updated 18/01/2023 at 09:02 GMT
Antonio Conte as The Warm-Up lead two days in a row? Oh, go on then, mainly because he made a ruddy good point in yesterday’s Tottenham press conference, and also because we can’t bring ourselves to lead on the going on at Molineux. Elsewhere, somehow there’s more Premier League tonight (and tomorrow!!), and there’s a Green Football Weekend coming up. We’ll explain more below.
'Only Arsenal and Man City can win title' - Conte on derby defeat
WEDNESDAY’S BIG STORIES
CONTE HAS A POINT
On Tuesday we brought you Antonio Conte’s “increasingly uncertain” position at Tottenham and the prospect of Thomas Tuchel coming in.
Today, we bring you the latest episode of Conte Wanting To Get Sacked, or so it would seem, brought to you by the man himself from yesterday’s fascinating press conference.
"In England, I think there is a bad habit that there is only the coach to speak," Conte said. "I have never seen the medical department come here and explain that this player is having difficulty to recover. I never see the club or sporting director to come here and explain the strategy and the vision of the club.
“If only the coach speaks, sometimes there can be misunderstandings. It could be good to have the club presenting to the media to speak. Maybe not every week but every 15 days, once a month in this way.”
The TL;DR of all this is basically Conte proclaiming “I am not the problem” while evidently growing increasingly frustrated at the fact the fingers of blame are pointing his way amid Spurs’ struggles.
He is, also, correct. The obligatory and relentless media duties thrust managers into the spotlight with (let’s face it) all too great a frequency, and yet, as Conte refers to, medical departments are not quizzed on the number of injuries or slower than expected recoveries, but more importantly the majority of board members at clubs are able to keep a very low profile. Or simply hide, in short.
There are exceptions. Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow springs to mind, so too technical director Edu at Arsenal, but it is all too infrequent from the brains behind football clubs’ major decisions, and more often than not we see them pop up when the going is good – and not when a team is on the slide.
It would certainly help the relationship with the fans to be more transparent, but you cannot help but think this plea from Conte will fall on deaf ears.
FA CUP ‘SCREAMER’
So. Yeah. Where do we, er, where do we start with the, er, match at Molineux last night? How do we, er, approach this one. Perhaps we, er, just keep saying er and skip straight to the, er, action? The football action, that is.
Okay. We can’t. If you know, you know, if you don’t, well, let’s just say Gary Lineker handled the situation like the true professional he is, and by half-time – by which point the BBC inquiry had begun (see tweet below) – the Match of the Day presenter was cracking out the puns and ensuring they owned the moment, as unbelievable as it may have been.
That included a reference to Harvey Elliot’s “screamer”, the goal that gave Liverpool a first-half lead at Wolves (wow it’s so much easier just talking football) and ultimately secured their place in the fourth round, where they will face Brighton, away.
Ah… Expect plenty of references to revenge in the coming 10 days.
IN OTHER NEWS
There’s a Green Football Weekend coming up, with more than 80 football clubs working together in a bid to tackle the climate crisis in a brand new initiative.
Green Football Weekend, taking place on 3-5 February, will see clubs implementing changes by making their fixtures ‘greener games’, and some teams will wear green armbands to show their support in fighting climate change.
This comes at the end of 20 days of action, starting today, where fans can score ‘green goals’ for their club by taking climate-friendly actions - from eating a veggie meal, turning the thermostat down one degree, or even taking a shorter shower.
You can find out more about it here.
IN THE CHANNELS
No, we're not sharing those videos.
Anyway. This has been doing the rounds, so kudos to Tim Cahill for backing Mikel Arteta before even the majority of Arsenal supporters probably did. Okay, it has been pointed out to The Warm-Up that Cahill was backing his mate – an old Everton team-mate – after what is evidently a lockdown match at Old Trafford, but for all the push back from Roy Keane below, he stuck to his guns.
RETRO CORNER
How about THIS for retro… Today marks 59 years since Manchester United’s “Holy Trinity” of George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton all started together for the first time. You can read about it here, as quite superbly all three of them were on target on this day in 1964.
HAT-TIP
Fair play to the Athletic’s Adam Crafton for getting this exclusive with Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin. A pretty fascinating insights into one of the biggest transfer “hijacks” of recent years. That is until clubs try to out-hijack (is that even a thing) one another with Declan Rice this summer.
COMING UP
Wait, what? Premier League tonight? We truly, honestly, seriously, cannot keep up. Apparently it’s Crystal Palace at home to Manchester United tonight. Next you’ll be telling us there’s a Premier League game tomorrow as well… WAIT… WHAT?!
By the way, there’s also Leeds United against Cardiff City in the FA Cup tonight, some Scottish Premiership, and AC Milan take on Inter Milan in the Italian Super Cup. Tidy.
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