Antonio Conte is a difficult man to please. In the end Juventus found it exhausting, Chelsea likewise. It has not taken bosses at Inter Milan too long to sympathise with his previous employers.
The 50-year-old is demanding of his players, his owners and his supporters. He strives for excellence, for greatness and anything less is simply not acceptable.
And so with a squad that find themselves in a fierce battle with Juventus for the Serie A title, Conte wanted backing to acquire the star quality needed to get them over the line. Given what he had, and how they had fared to date, he was still not satisfied. The puzzle he was putting together remained incomplete.
Antonio Conte is having to squeeze everything he can to deliver a league title to Inter Milan
Christian Eriksen has arrived this month in a bid to add more creativity to a stuttering side
Ashley Young (left) and Alexis Sanchez (right) are among the Premier League players recruited
Romelu Lukaku has 14 league goals and is crucial to Inter’s bid to end Juventus’ dominance
‘There is not much money, the director has been clear,’ Conte said recently. ‘We must be good at finding situations that can bring us benefits. We must find cheap opportunities, otherwise I see it being hard.
‘The ideas are there. If there is the possibility, we will improve. What you can’t get with money you have to get with intelligence and wit.’
Go back even further, the night they threw away a two-goal lead in the Champions League to Borussia Dortmund, and Conte was apoplectic with the tools at his disposal.
‘Apart from Diego Godin, these players haven’t won anything and lack experience,’ Conte told Sport Mediaset.
‘We have too limited a squad to face both Serie A and Champions League football this season. I mean limited in terms of numbers and quality. Some players have to be on the field constantly and in the long run, you do pay for that. I am furious because this cancels out the good work.’
In Conte’s mind, Juventus never dither. If a player can strengthen them, consider the deal done. Nobody in Turin so much as hesitated when the chance to spend £100million on Cristiano Ronaldo presented itself. A deal nobody thought possible was done – that is where the sides differ and changing that is central to Conte’s plan.
They spot weaknesses and strengthen. The spine of that team has Matthijs de Ligt, Miralem Pjanic and an attacking trident of Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higauin and Ronaldo.
Juventus’ defeat at Napoli means three points separates themselves and Inter in the table
Juventus’ Juan Cuadrado (left) and Alex Sandro (right) show the gulf in quality in wide areas
Victor Moses (left) and Young will need to be greater than the sum of their parts for Inter
Conte is within touching distance of two trophies after they booked their semi-final spot in the Coppa Italia on Wednesday and so everyone at Inter knows they are close to finding the recipe for dominance.
Parma’s loan sensation Dejan Kulusevski was a primary target and at £30m seemed a sensible investment. But Inter dithered and Juventus skipped the line, securing one of the most exciting young players in the country.
Playing wide on the right, he would have slotted into the flank for Conte. Instead they got a 34-year-old Ashley Young out of Manchester United.
Barcelona midfielder Arturo Vidal has previous working under Conte and the boss made it known it was the Chilean he wanted to bolster his midfield with this month.
Instead they got Christian Eriksen for £17.5m, a player who has ghosted through the last several months at Tottenham.
It would have been easy for the club’s owners to dig their heels in over a move for Eriksen. The Dane was out of contract with Tottenham in the summer and could have made the move to Milan for free in a few months time. From a financial prospective, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Young did provide an assist on his debut and Inter need consistent production from him now
He is lacking in pace at 34 but has shown he can delivery a wicked ball in for the strikers
He refused to speak to media after the draw to Cagliari and was later tested for an irregular heartbeat. For a man who is always on the edge of exploding, adding to his stress seemed like the wrong way for owners to go.
If they could not deliver Kulusevski or Vidal, the least they could do was hoover up the Premier League’s lost property box.
There’s Victor Moses, who did not get a look in under Frank Lampard at Chelsea, in on loan as well as Alexis Sanchez from Manchester United. His impact so far has been utterly forgettable.
And so Conte is sitting on his boiling point, animatedly moving across the touchline in games as his side do their best to squander a genuinely exciting title race.
Three successive draws – to Atalanta, Lecce and Cagliari – have sounded the alarm. If it wasn’t for Juventus’ rare slip up at Napoli, the gap could have been six points and on the cusp of being insurmountable given the Bianconeri’s stranglehold.
Conte has appeared on edge and has already criticised the club for pushing him to cheap stars
But Conte deserves credit for positioning the club where they are now, as one of the biggest threats to Juventus in recent years, along with the 91-point Napoli side then under Maurizio Sarri.
Injuries are always a concern; the lack of depth had the potential to run the wheels off all the good Conte has established in this side.
And so with Kulusevski off the market and a move for Layvin Kurzawa failing to get off the ground, it become availability over quality with the deadline looming.
It was to be a return to the Premier League, a return to England to find under-appreciated players who could fit – and ultimately, thrive – in the system. Introducing Young and Moses.
Young’s move raised eyebrows, naturally, given he is long past his prime. It read #NotForEveryone in the club’s announcement and that felt like it captured the reaction.
But he left a side in turmoil for one in title contention. Left a manager without much pedigree for one who has won the biggest honours. From Young’s perspective, it was a no brainer. It was, perhaps, more curious why Conte signed it off, was this that ‘intelligence and wit’ he spoke of?
Eriksen needs to hit the ground running in Conte’s system with season-defining games ahead
In Conte’s preferred 3-5-2 system, along with the reliance on wing-backs, there is great expectation placed on the three creative central midfielders.
Stefano Sensi, a summer arrival from Sassuolo, has been one of the players of the season in Serie A and is almost assured of a starting role when fit. That leaves two spots.
Nicolo Barella, purchased from Cagliari once Conte replaced Spalletti is another to have a spot in that midfield three locked down. It was his goal on Wednesday night against Fiorentina that secured their Coppa Italia semi-final berth.
But the key now is how does Eriksen fit into all this? On paper, he is not a natural fit, not in a 3-5-2, or even the 3-4-3 Conte used against Fiorentina. Those three successive draws only exacerbated the need for a traditional playmaker, a ‘trequartista’ as they say in Milan, for Lukaku and Martinez.
When given the service, the old-school strike partnership in attack has proven time and time again they can finish – 25 Serie A goals between them shows that.
It will remain a genuine concern that Eriksen’s peak performances have been gone for some time. His last 12 months at Tottenham have left a lot to be desired, even if he could point to his focus being on a project elsewhere.
Juventus showed no qualms in paying big to get Cristiano Ronaldo and that irritates Conte
What the Dane walks into is a side full of players long written off. Sanchez, for all of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s insistence he ‘will prove youse wrong’, was gone without much argument from United while Lukaku, Young and Moses left without much plea to stick around.
But Conte is a fine coach; after all, they are a win away from trading places with Juventus. Right across the pitch Conte can now point to depth. That’s important – even if he sought a greater standard of player.
They need big results between now and their trip to Atalanta to round out the 2019-20 campaign. Following the visit to Udinese, Conte and his players face two title rivals back-to-back on the road.
First comes Lazio and then Conte makes his return to Turin to face his old side, and in the eyes of many his biggest rivals for the title, Juventus. Win those and this group of cast offs will be hailed as an overwhelming success and in touching distance of a famous title. Lose them and Conte will be like a caged animal who has ripped the chain off the wall.
