More often than not, a manager's personality follows them from the pitch to the dugout.
The cerebral Pep Guardiola; the all-action Mauricio Pochettino; and the wild, energetic,
relentless Antonio Conte.
The Italian is set to be/has won the Premier League in his first
season at Chelsea but, as both a manager and a player, he hasn't always been such an instant success.
Born in Lecce in 1969, Conte made his debut for his hometown team aged just 16.
Even then he was a terrier of a midfielder, but his career was nearly over before it really begun - Conte
broke his leg only a year after his first game, an injury that nearly caused him to retire.
He recovered, quickly became a fixture in the side and caught the eye of Giovanni Trapattoni at Juventus.
Conte, just 21 when arrived in Turin, was initially starstruck.
“There was the great Trapattoni. There was Roberto Baggio. I was very emotional. I was a player-fan,” he later admitted.
He eventually established himself in the Juve
team, but it wasn't until Marcelo Lippi arrived that
he really made the most of his talent, starring as a box-to-box midfielder with a seemingly
limitless capacity for work.
In 13 years at Juventus, Conte would win five league titles, one
Coppa Italia, the UEFA Cup and the 1996 Champions League, all the while a workhorse
among artists like Zinedine Zidane and Alessandro del Piero.
Conte retired in 2004, and a year later he became assistant manager at Siena, before
moving on to take charge of Serie B side Arezzo in 2006.
The beginning of his managerial career was little short of a calamity, sacked after nine
winless games, before his successor somehow fared even worse, and he was brought back
to oversee relegation.
In 2007 he got another chance, appointed as Bari manager and asked to get them out of relegation trouble.
He not only did that, but the following season got them promoted to
Serie A. From there, another setback, as he moved to Atalanta but lasted only 14 games.
A return to Siena, who he led to his second
promotion from Serie B, then brought him back to Juventus in 2011.
Juve had got through four managers in the four years since returning to the top flight
following their demotion after the Calciopoli scandal, and turned to Conte after a series
of disappointing league finishes.
“He is the first piece in the jigsaw to return to winning ways,"
club president Andrea Agnelli said at the time.
"He got everyone together in the gym to introduce himself," wrote Andrea Pirlo in his autobiography.
"He had some venom ready for us.
'Lads, we've finished seventh each of the last two seasons.
Crazy stuff; absolutely appalling.
I've not come here for that.'.”
Pirlo also told of Conte's wild temper, of the half-time tirades even if Juventus were winning.
He was “allergic to error”, Pirlo wrote.
The approach worked, with some gusto.
Juventus won Serie A without losing a game, and
would go on to lift the next two league titles as well.
In the middle of that, however, he would serve a four-month suspension after being
found guilty of not reporting match-fixing, charges relating to a game towards the end of his tenure at Siena.
Despite the ban, Pirlo admitted Conte occasionally made his way into the dressing
room “by mistake”.
He was later acquitted of the charges.
Although he was a domestic success with Juve, his record in the Champions League was
disappointing, only managing to reach the quarter-finals.
In 2014 he stepped down, admitting that “it would be difficult” to continue
winning with the club, complaining about a lack of financial clout.
"You cannot eat at a €100 restaurant with just €10 in your pocket, can you?" he said.
One place where transfer fees were not an issue was the Italian national team, which
he took over after Cesare Prandelli resigned in 2014.
With a squad that paled in comparison to ​ the great Italy sides of the past, not much
was expected of the Azzurri, but thanks in part to
a well-drilled and familiar defence, transplanted almost wholesale from Juventus, they
reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, losing only to Germany on penalties.
And from there, Chelsea.
At his first press conference he used the word “work” 32 times,
letting his players know what they were in for.
Despite a sticky start, a formation switch to a
3-4-3 shape ensured success for the remainder of the season.
“ I was expecting a good coach, but not that good,” said Pirlo of
his old boss, a sentiment most in England would surely echo.