As told in Conte’s book “Testa, Cuore e Gambe”, co-written with Antonio Di Rosa published by Rizzoli.
In the first two chapters on his life after retiring as a player, Conte gives us great insight on how he became the coach he is today. He describes Louis Van Gaal as his main role model, shares some insight in the experiences that made him a “my way or the high way” type of man, and explains why he keeps saying “we are professionals” when asked if he would ever coach a Serie A team other than Juve.
Right after retiring as a player, Conte signs up for the coach course at Coverciano. Less than a month later, he is offered to be the “vice allenatore” (the role Alessio currently has at Juve) for Siena’s coach DeCanio, by DS Perinetti who will play a big role in Conte’s career. In the book Conte, reveals that it was athletic coach Ventrone who suggested Conte’s name to Siena’s brass. Ventrone was on Lippi’s staff when Conte was a player, and the two had remained in touch. Since joining Juve, Conte has tried to return the favor to Ventrone by attempting to facilitate his return to Turin, something Juve’s brass (has wisely in my opinion) has vetoed at least twice. Conte at first turns down the offer, as he does not seem himself as an effective “number 2″. Conte describes receiving a phone call from Moggi a few days later, Luciano tells him he is crazy for turning down Siena’s offer (Moggi was also dumbfounded when Conte turned down a 3 year contract from Juve which we covered in part 3 of these reviews), to which Conte replied “You didn’t keep your promise with Juve’s Primavera job (which Moggi had supposedly promised Conte) and now you are telling me what to do?”. Conte however would agree to join Siena after meeting with coach De Canio who would turn out to be a big Juve fan. Conte was upfront with DeCanio, by telling him he would leave Siena if he was offered a coaching job elsewhere (Conte describes it as “patti chiari, amicizia lunga”- which translates to ”clear terms make long friendships” which applies to his time as Juve coach as well in my opinion).
At Siena, Conte got to work with Ventrone as well as former Juve players Tudor and Legrottaglie. The team would manage to avoid relegation in Serie A that season, clinching the “salvezza” mathematically ironically in a match they lost 3-0 to Juve. However all of Siena’s coaching staff, including Conte, was fired in the same summer that the Calciopoli scandal occurred. Conte would land on his feet by agreeing to become the coach of Arezzo in Serie B for the 2006-07 season.
Arezzo started the season with a 6 point deduction in a Serie B that featured top teams like Juventus, Napoli and Genoa so there was a lot of pressure on Conte to start well. Instead he struggled in his first 9 matches as a coach- after 4 draws and 5 losses he was fired from the job. Conte decided to improve his coaching knowledge by taking a trip to Holland. He visited the Ajax youth teams and became obsessed with Dutch coaching legend Louis Van Gaal (Conte recently complimented him for his work at Bayern Munich) who at the time was coaching AZ Alkmaar. In the book, Conte states that he was inspired by Van Gaal describing himself as “dominant and arrogant” two character traits that have often been often used for Conte as well (although there is no doubt Conte has toned down his arrogance in 2013). Conte describes attending two of Van Gaal’s coaching sessions- one of which was closed to the public. He was caught by a security guard (whom Conte describes as a mean version of Ronald Koeman) and was told in English to leave the training session. Conte mentions how this episode gave him motivation to learn English as he was barely able to understand what he was being told.
In March of 2007, Conte is asked to return to Arezzo as coach. Before accepting the offer, Conte makes it very clear to DS Pieroni that he wants more power on how the team is run (this certainly sounds familiar to all Juventini). Maybe going to Holland really helped, as he was able to collect 24 points in the last 10 matches, mainly by using the 4 2 4 formation he was supposed to bring to Juve. Ironically, Juve would mathematically win promotion to Serie A by defeating Arezzo (Conte describes complimenting his former teammate Deschamps for his work as Juve’s coach after the match), but would also relegate Arezzo by losing to La Spezia a few weeks later (Arezzo would have also avoided relegation without the 6 point deduction). Conte almost joined Sorrento in Serie C (Italy’s third division) for the following season but decided to wait for an opportunity in Serie B. He travelled to see numerous training sessions of other clubs at the beginning of the season, including Atalanta’s which had Del Neri as the manager at the time.
During the 2007 season, Conte’s friend Perinetti had become the DS at Bari. Conte would often ask him about the coaching job there, but Perinetti had strong reservations on hiring someone from Lecce as Bari coach since the there is a strong rivalry between the two cities. Conte was upset over this, since he strongly believes that if you are a professional these things shouldn’t matter (he often says this when asked about potentially coaching a Serie A team other than Juve as well). Ironically, Bari’s coach would resign after losing 4-0 to Lecce, and Conte was immediately offered the job. At the time, Bari had less than 1,000 paying customers at many of their home games, but after Conte improved the team’s result and quality of play the team had close to 15,000 spectators. Bari would finish the season with a comfortable mid table placement, by then Conte had become the idol of the Bari fan base. Conte very much appreciated how during the summer, Perinetti planned all of the summer transfers with him. Sounds familiar right?