In wake of Chelsea’s appointment of Antonio Conte as manager for the 2016-17 Premier League season, what better time than the present to take an in-depth look at the recurring theme of managers in similar positions, and whether Conte is likely to follow suit.
An away team manager bites his nails as the clock strikes 65 minutes with the deadlock still yet to be broken against a seemingly impenetrable opposition defence, the decibles emitted from the home fans raise along with the gaffer’s heartbeat, bereft of tactical options, in dire need of someone capable of snagging that vital winner and sparing him the uncomfortable explanation to the boss come Monday morning.
Cue the ever-impactual understudy that is the ‘super sub’. A scenario all too familiar for managers moments before they give that one man the nod…
“Do what you do best.”
It seems that Italian managers who ply their trade in England carry with them an air of embodying this ‘managerial super sub’ complex, almost always employed as a ‘fix-it’ solution to the poor performances of a sub-par predecessors and often thrown into the deep end that is a club in turmoil. Thriving under intense pressure, and to an extent, struggling in the absence of it.
Not dissimilar to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer snagging the winning goal in the 1999 Champions League final for Manchester United off the bench, Brendan Santalab lobbing Ante Covic to send the RBB into jubilation or Henrique scoring a hat-trick against Newcastle Jets after replacing Jean Carlos Solorzano, and then returning to the bench the very next week.
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With an uncanny knack of bailing out clubs of nigh-on impossible situations and preventing complete internal meltdowns, it seems that Italian managers must be in a perennial state of do or die intensity and passion in order to succeed in the Premier League.
Here, we look at four examples of Italian Premier League managers that have achieved quite remarkable things in short time frames.
Click NEXT to view manager #1
