In Antonio Conte’s strategic playbook, certain events come around like clockwork. In between the Tottenham Hotspur manager’s many successes as a club coach, there are the regular confrontations with his employers. Any student of Conte’s career can pinpoint accurately when and on what terms he will pick those battles.
Ahead of Thursday's evening trip with Spurs to Manchester City, Conte steered his pre-match press conference towards the issue of institutional responsibility, of club executives facing – or, rather, not facing – up in public.
It has been a tough task answering questions about Spurs’ form lately. They lost the derby at home to Arsenal at the weekend and have lost five of their last 10 Premier League matches, and slipping out of the top four in the table.
“I think it would be good to have the club present in the media, to speak,” said Conte. “Otherwise, there is only one face to explain a situation which is better for the club to explain.” That face, that voice is always his. “I have never seen the club, or sporting director, come to explain strategy and vision. If only the coach speaks, there are sometimes misunderstandings.”
If that could hardly be mistaken for anything other than a challenge to the Tottenham hierarchy, in the middle of a transfer window that, publicly and privately, Conte has urged his bosses to use to strengthen the squad, it also echoed remarks he has made in the past about feeling exposed.
Here’s Conte speaking in the summer of 2020, 14 months into his previous job, as coach of Inter Milan: “There’s very little protection from the club, absolutely zero,” he complained. The third transfer window of his time at Inter was just opening when he said those words. Note the timing. Conte is 14 months into managing Spurs, and in his third transfer window of his time in North London.
Rewind to early 2018, into his second season managing Chelsea, and reporters were listening to Conte pointedly saying “the club must be ready to share responsibility,” and suggesting “the club prepare a statement, a statement of support”.
Conte had guided Chelsea to the league title the previous May, in his first season working in England. But by his 14th month in charge there, with his second season not matching the same standards, he was already referring to Chelsea’s 2016/17 title as “a miracle.” The same word – “miracle” – has started to creep into how he describes Spurs’ achievement in finishing fourth last season.
Tottenham 0 Arsenal 2: Player ratings
Thus the Conte calendar, where tussles with the board play out from one club to the next as deja vus. After this January window is over, the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy and his advisers will turn their minds to how hard to push Conte into prolonging his stay beyond June.
The Italian insists he is keen to build at Spurs beyond then, but he has a famously restless history. His stints at Chelsea and Inter lasted two seasons each. He was at Juventus, where he won a trio of Serie A titles, for a year longer, up until 2014, but it was a three-year period sprinkled with spiky remarks about a perceived lack of investment in the squad compared with spending at other European superclubs.
Ahead of the trip to the Etihad Stadium, Conte described City, English football’s leading superclub, “as the best team in the world at moment”. No matter that, like Spurs, Pep Guardiola’s side are fresh from a defeat in their local derby, City the narrow losers, via a controversial goal, at the weekend to Manchester United.
It’s a fixture that, Conte must anticipate, will be taken as a measure of Spurs’s progress, year on year. Last February, Tottenham went to City and pulled off an improbable 3-2 victory, Harry Kane outstanding, and, significantly, two newcomers from last winter’s recruitment, Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski, influential in directing Spurs’s effective counter-attacks.
Kulusevski, on a long-term loan from Juventus, scored within five minutes of his first start and set up Kane’s winning goal in the fifth-minute of stoppage time, just after Riyad Mahrez seemed to have salvaged a point for City.
“We were very good and showed great resilience,” recalled Conte of a win that began Spurs’ march up the table from the minor European positions to qualification for the Champions League. “Against Manchester City, you have to try to not make mistakes. You know, for sure, ball possession will be 70 or 75 per cent for them. If you have 25 per cent you have to be very good, move the ball well and create chances.
“Also, in this type of game, you need to be a bit lucky to get a good result.”
The bio
His favourite book - 1984 by George Orwell
His favourite quote - 'If you think education is expensive, try ignorance' by Derek Bok, Former President of Harvard
Favourite place to travel to - Peloponnese, Southern Greece
Favourite movie - The Last Emperor
Favourite personality from history - Alexander the Great
Role Model - My father, Yiannis Davos
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Read more about the coronavirus
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The years Ramadan fell in May
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
UAE squad
Esha Oza (captain), Al Maseera Jahangir, Emily Thomas, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, Katie Thompson, Lavanya Keny, Mehak Thakur, Michelle Botha, Rinitha Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Siya Gokhale, Sashikala Silva, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish (wicketkeeper) Udeni Kuruppuarachchige, Vaishnave Mahesh.
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – First ODI
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Directed by: Shaka King
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons
Four stars
Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier, in Bangkok
UAE fixtures Mon Nov 20, v China; Tue Nov 21, v Thailand; Thu Nov 23, v Nepal; Fri Nov 24, v Hong Kong; Sun Nov 26, v Malaysia; Mon Nov 27, Final
(The winners will progress to the Global Qualifier)
Muslim Council of Elders condemns terrorism on religious sites
The Muslim Council of Elders has strongly condemned the criminal attacks on religious sites in Britain.
It firmly rejected “acts of terrorism, which constitute a flagrant violation of the sanctity of houses of worship”.
“Attacking places of worship is a form of terrorism and extremism that threatens peace and stability within societies,” it said.
The council also warned against the rise of hate speech, racism, extremism and Islamophobia. It urged the international community to join efforts to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
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Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
