Author: index

Mario Balotelli is not in England anymore

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Mario Balotelli is not in England anymore, but, Jamie Carragher still can’t help taking a swipe at the Italian.


Carragher recently made fun of Balotelli’s move to the French Premier Division by a post on internet in which he conveyed his good wishes to the striker for the Golden ball award in future.

It fumed Balotelli like anything and he smashed back at Carragher terming him the best hater he had ever had.

Balotelli’s new employer Nice jumped in between the battle to have its say too on that website telling Carragher that he seemed to be obsessed with Balotelli and asking him if he was interested in buying a shirt of the player.

Carragher, thereafter, didn’t reply to any of those two posts he was tagged in.

Carragher has been vocal against Balotelli for a while and had absolutely ripped him apart on a show on the British television three months back.
He was quoted saying, “Balotelli’s acts outside the ground always remain in the headlines and everybody thinks that is the main problem with him, but, no, I don’t agree, I am sorry. I am actually not sure if there is enough ability in the guy. Tell me how many good matches has he had?” Continue reading

Juventus manager Replaced soon after Italy Loss

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Italy may have lost a world-class coach in the form of Antonio Conte after just two years, but they wasted no time in bringing a replacement for the former Juventus manager.


It was especially the need of the hour with the World Cup qualification approaching. After losing to Germany on penalties in the Euro 2016 semifinals, Conte’s time with the national team came to an end. It has been a relatively successful period after having witnessed Italy perform poorly in recent major tournaments. Conte had showed his expertise at international level as well, but it was up to Italian FA to find a worthy successor.

They have gone for the highly experienced Giampiero Ventura in the hope of retaining the conference and moral within the team. Since a number of top coaches like Carlo Ancelotti are tied with club duties, Italy went for Ventura who is currently available after having left Torino towards the end of last season. Torino turned out to be one of the longest jobs for Ventura, as he had not spent more than a couple of years at a club before being on the move. Since starting out as a manager in the 1981 season with Ruentes Rapallo, he has been in charge of numerous clubs like Cagliari, Sampdoria, Udinese, Napoli, and Torino.
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Antonio Conte remains confident about making it into the next stages for Italy

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Italy may have finished the group stages with a disappointing defeat against Republic of Ireland in the Euro 2016, but manager Antonio Conte remains confident about making it into the next stages by beating Spain in the last 16.


This will be one of the high-profile matches in the last 16 of the Euro 2016. Even though Italy suffered a defeat in the final group match, they managed to finish top of the group which also contained teams like Finland and Belgium. As a result, the 2006 World Cup winners remain on course to reach the final stages of the competition.

Getting past Spain will be a major achievement, as it means knocking out the holders. Spain have been crowned as the European Championship winners for the last two times and they certainly are less strong than in the last decade. Even then, they have managed to progress into the last 16 round of the competition but only just. After starting the tournament with a narrow win over Czech Republic, the team managed to win comfortably against Turkey. The disappointing form returned in the final group match following a 2-1 loss against Croatia. This loss also meant that the team was unable to finish top of the group.
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Antonio Conte excited to manage Chelsea

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The Italy coach Antonio Conte said that he cannot wait to manage Chelsea.


Italy was eliminated in the quarter-final by Germany and Antonio Conte stated that he does not have any regret for leaving the job. He believes that he will experience as much emotion at Chelsea as he has with the Italy national team.

He said that he has no regret for leaving Italy and that he had made the announcement quite early. However, he admitted that there was some moment where he wanted to come back to his decision and continue the adventure with Italy but because of certain factors he could not do that.

Antonio Conte said that was proud of the performance of the Italian team at the Euros and that he stated that there is also no regret in the way they were eliminated.

Antonio Conte declared that he likes the passion and pressure associated with club football, and this is why he has accepted Chelsea’s offer. He said that he had a talk with the president of the Italian national team, and he had made it clear that he want to manage Chelsea. Continue reading

Claudio Ranieri might coach Italy someday in the near future

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The managerial position in the Italian national football team will become vacant after the 2016 Euro’s reaches its end on July 10.


When this point in time arrives, Antonio Conte is going to be kicking off his managerial career as the head coach of the Premier League club Chelsea.

It still remains uncertain as to who is going to succeed Antonio Conte and take charge of the Italian national side but one potential candidate that has emerged to become the head coach of Italy is Claudio Ranieri.

Claudio Ranieri is attracting the attention of top clubs and national teams that are interested in offering him a managerial position for their respective teams and this is mainly due to the historic Premier League season that saw Ranieri pushing Leicester City to their first Premier League title in the history of the club.

For the past few weeks, Ranieri has been linked with Italy but the 64 year old stated that he wants to focus on winning more titles with Leicester City; however there is a possibility of him actually becoming the head coach of Italy but only after his time with Leicester City finalizes. Continue reading

Steve Clarke says Antonio Conte will find Support from John Terry

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Former Chelsea assistant manager Steve Clarke says that new manager Antonio Conte will receive the best possible support if John Terry stays at the club next season.


It looks almost certain that Terry will leave Chelsea at the end of the campaign. His contract runs out in a few months and the club has reportedly told the player that it will not be renewed. Terry, though, is still hopeful about signing the deal if it arrives on his table. Conte has had a hugely successful career as a manager, but he has not experienced life outside Italy yet.

He has managed only Italian clubs and is now with the Italian national team. This situation is largely similar to that of Carlo Ancelotti when he arrived from AC Milan in the summer of 2009. Back then, Ancelotti was assisted by a strong spine of the team. The likes of Frank Lampard, John Terry, and Didier Drogba knew the club from the bottom up and it was easy for Ancelotti to settle. The current Chelsea team does not have such figures aside from Terry. Further, Conte is yet to start learning English and language problems could be a major hurdle. Continue reading

Frank Lampard says that Antonio Conte is not going to tolerate with players

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Frank Lampard says that Antonio Conte is not going to tolerate with players not in line with his philosophy when he comes to take charge of Chelsea in the summer.

Lampard expects those players to be sold by the Italian without second thoughts.Conte will come to the club after his role with the Italian national ends after the Euro 2016. Lampard admitted that the club was in a state of transition when Jose Mourinho arrived almost three years ago. The arrival of the Portuguese was expected to make the club a dominant force for the next decade.

This was not the case after Mourinho found themselves once again looking for a new job inside three years. The club also has failed to qualify for the Champions League next season. Many now feel that the club has gone backwards. Lampard felt that Chelsea were in a promising position with the likes of Eden Hazard, Juan Mata, and Kevin De Bruyne were all young and starting to dominate the team. Now, those young players have either been sold or they are suffering from a catastrophic dip in form. Lampard says that Conte now has a big job on his hands to rebuild Chelsea from the bottom up. Continue reading

Paolo Di Canio backs Antonio Conte

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West Ham legend Paolo Di Canio has given his backing to Antonio Conte, who is widely expected to take charge of Chelsea in the summer.

The 46-year-old has only experienced Italian football up until now in his managerial career. He is currently in charge of the Italian national team. This job was secured on the back of his impressive spell with Juventus. However, Conte recently confirmed that he was stepping down from his role as the national team boss after the Euro 2016. He took charge of Italy only after the World Cup 2014 from Cesare Prandelli.

Many would have expected him to carry on until the 2018 World Cup and this decision comes as a major surprise. However, he has never looked comfortable with national team management since there is no day-to-day involvement. Chelsea have had a revolving door of managers, but there seems to be a change in the attitude of the club in recent times. The club parted company with José Mourinho midway through the 2015-16 season only because results were extremely poor and the club found itself in the middle of a relegation battle. Di Canio revealed that he spoke in length about English football with Conte only two months ago, but the discussion never featured Chelsea according to the West Ham legend. Continue reading

Italian football went through a very tough period in the previous decade

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Italian football went through a very tough period in the previous decade but it is slowly climbing up to the top according to the national team manager Antonio Conte.

Italian clubs were regarded as the finest in the world during the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, rising TV money helped the Premier League to attract a number of stars towards the turn of the century. Even though the Premier league was not able to compete with the Italian league in terms of trophies won on a European scale, the English league was largely seen as the best competition in the world.

The domination now is being conducted by the Spanish league, butConte reckons that the tables are turning in favour of the Italians once again. Juventus reached the Champions League final last season when they were narrowly beaten by Barcelona, who were the huge favourites ahead of the competition. Juventus are now on a winning run of more than 13 matches and it has seen them claim to top of the Italian Serie A from an improbable position only a few months ago. Conte says that the Italian FA has taken similar steps to that of Germany 15 years ago. This means investing in the youth and it will pay dividends in the future according to the former Juve boss. Continue reading

Belgium have been one of the most surprising packages

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Belgium have been one of the most surprising packages in the last few years when it comes to national teams.

They were little known among the European giants, but they have been named as the second-best team in the world in the latest FIFA rankings. Such has been their rise in world football that many of starting them to see is the realistic contenders for the Euro 2016 alongside Germany. This is the view of Italy manager Antonio Conte, who is himself under great pressure to get results with Italy in Euro 2016. Belgium will be in a group containing the likes of Sweden and Republic of Ireland.

However, the biggest opponent in the group will undoubtedly be Italy. After having failed to even get past the group stages of the World Cup 2014, there is a lot of pressure on the shoulders of the Italian players. The team reached the final of the previous European Championship. Hence, they will be at least expected to match or go beyond this stage for the 2016 edition. Sweden will also have a lot to prove since this is expected to be the last major tournament for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker is regarded as the linchpin of everything good done by the Swedish. Continue reading