- Rob Fleming
- 16 June 2023
Chelsea midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko has been released by the Blues
Chelsea have officially announced the departure of Tiemoue Bakayoko, their midfielder, as his contract has expired.
Antonio Conte is an Italian former football player, whose last managerial job came at Tottenham Hotspur.
As a player, he is most famous for his spell at Juventus, the most successful club in the history of Serie A and one which he captained. He also enjoyed huge success with Juventus as a coach, before stints at the Italian national team, Chelsea and Inter Milan.
Conte played as a midfielder and moved to Juve after a short spell with hometown team Lecce. He also represented Italy 20 times.
Prior to his stint as Juve manager, which was the first to see him recognised as one of football's best coaches worldwide, Conte managed Arezzo, Bari, Atalanta and Siena.
He went on to win the Serie A three times as manager of Juventus and once with Inter Milan, as well as the Premier League and FA Cup with Chelsea.
He was named head coach of Tottenham Hotspur in November 2021, following the sacking of Nuno Espírito Santo.
However, he was sacked after just 16 months in charge in March 2023 after he launched a furious rant about the state of the club following a 3-3 draw at Southampton.
Conte and Juventus
Conte joined Juventus from Lecce as a player in 1991, having been signed by Giovanni Trapattoni. After winning the UEFA Cup in 1993, Conte and Juve enjoyed a tremendously successful 1994/95, winning both Serie A and the Coppa Italia.
In 1996, Marcello Lippi made Conte the new Juve captain. Alessandro Del Piero was later promoted to the role, but Conte won the captaincy back due to Del Piero's injury in 1998/99 and went on to keep it.
Conte won the 1996 UEFA Champions League title with Juventus as they beat defending champions AFC Ajax on penalties after a 1-1 draw. He went on to win more Serie A titles in 1996/97, 1997/98, 2001/02 and 2002/03. He remained with Juventus until retiring in 2004, after making 418 appearances, and scoring 43 goals, in all competitions.
Conte returned to Juventus as head coach in 2011 and guided the club back to the summit of Italian soccer. He won Serie A titles in 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14. Prior to his arrival, Juventus were still in a rebuilding process after having been forced into Serie B as a result of the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal. After he left Juventus in 2014, the club's success continued under future head coaches.
During this time, he served a four-month touchline ban for alleged failure to report match-fixing attempts during his time as head coach of Siena.
Conte stepped down from his role at Juve on the second day of pre-season amid rumours of discontent over a perceived lack of transfer funds. A month later, he was appointed head coach of the Italy national team.
During his first season at Inter, in 2019/20, he lost the Serie A title race to his former employers.
Coaching Italy
Following a disastrous 2014 World Cup campaign under Cesare Prandelli, which saw the Azzurri eliminated in the group stage, Conte led them to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, beating Belgium 2-0 along the way.
Italy were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Germany on penalties, but by then, Conte had already agreed to join Chelsea by the end of the tournament.
Conte at Chelsea
In 2016, Conte was announced as the new head coach of Chelsea. In the 2015/16 season, the Blues had struggled, finishing 10th despite being defending champions. Conte was brought in to restore the glory days which the West London club had experienced under Jose Mourinho.
The 2016/17 season got off to a mixed start. Chelsea enjoyed some positive results but then lost 2-1 at home to Liverpool and 3-0 to Arsenal. Conte reverted to a 3-4-3 formation and it proved a masterstroke.
Chelsea set a then-record of 13 straight Premier League victories and steamrolled to the title with 93 points. Along the way, Conte was criticised for over-celebrating the Blues' 4-0 win over Manchester United by former Chelsea boss and then-Red Devils manager Jose Mourinho.
The 2017/18 season was not as successful for Chelsea. Going into the new campaign, the Blues replaced Diego Costa, who had fallen out with Conte, with Alvaro Morata. The Spaniard struggled to settle in. Much to the annoyance of Conte, Nemanja Matic was allowed to leave for Manchester United.
Chelsea finished in a disappointing fifth place in the Premier League. However, they won the FA Cup beating Manchester United in the final.
Conte was sacked ahead of the 2018/19 season and replaced him with compatriot Maurizio Sarri. A legal battle ensued, which saw Conte succeed in his efforts to pursue a case of unfair dismissal against Chelsea.
It cost a reported £26.6million for Chelsea to pay off Conte and his staff.
Taking a bold move to Inter
After Conte's time at Chelsea concluded, he endangered his legendary status at Juventus by being unveiled as manager of bitter rivals, Inter Milan.
Conte was tasked with trying to overhaul his former club's dominance in the Serie A standings alongside trying to bring European success back to San Siro.
His first season saw Inter unable to close down Juventus in the title race and the Old Lady claimed their ninth consecutive Serie A title.
Inter did make it all the way to the Europa League final in 2020, however, but lost out to a Sevilla side that claimed their sixth Europa League title in just 15 years.
However, in Conte's second season in Milan, he managed to win the side's first scudetto in 11 years, topping the table with 93 points - 12 clear of rivals AC Milan in second.
But despite his success at Inter, Conte reportedly fell out with the board over transfer activity, and it was announced on 26 May, 2021 that Conte left the club via mutual consent.
Tumultuous spell at Tottenham
Conte took the reins at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on November 2, 2021 on an eighteen month contract.
Talks with Tottenham to become the new manager to replace Jose Mourinho actually began in the summer but swiftly broke down, and Nuno was appointed into the hotseat at the end of June.
The 47-year-old only lasted four months in the role, and was sacked after a 3-0 defeat to Manchester United. Nuno had won the manager of the month in August, but left the club in eighth place with five wins and five defeats in the Premier League.
Conte's arrival at Tottenham at the end of 2021 was meant to usher in a new trophy-laden era for the club given his past success at Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan.
After a rollercoaster opening few months, in which Conte threatened to quit following a 1-0 defeat at Burnley in February 2022, he guided Spurs to an impressive top-four finish by beating rivals Arsenal to Champions League qualification on the final day.
A flurry of transfer activity in July, after smart January business to recruit Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski, heightened expectations in N17 and Tottenham won five of their opening seven Premier League fixtures.
Defeat at Arsenal on October 1 sparked a difficult period, though, with Gian Piero Ventrone, Conte's friend for three decades and the club's fitness coach, dying at the age of 61 before later in the month losses to Manchester United and Newcastle followed.
A string of poor first-half displays blighted Spurs before the unprecedented mid-season break in November but an impressive turnaround in Marseille saw them progress into the Champions League last-16 prior to the World Cup.
Uncertainty over Conte's long-term future remained after the Premier League resumed and so did Tottenham's inconsistency with back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and Manchester City casting further doubt over how long the serial-winner wanted to stick around battling for fourth position.
More trouble would follow in February with Conte, after two more close friends in Sinisa Mihajlovic and Gianluca Vialli died over the winter period, required to have his gallbladder removed.
It saw the former Inter Milan boss miss five matches across two spells after doctors ordered him to rest again having initially rushed his recovery back to the touchline.
Conte's second return coincided with the Champions League last-16 second leg tie with AC Milan but he failed to provide the inspiration to overturn a 1-0 deficit and Spurs produced a limp display to exit after a dull stalemate.
It occurred seven days after a shock FA Cup reverse to Sheffield United, where Harry Kane was among several key players rested, and large sections of the fanbase had now reached breaking point.
A home 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest threatened to arrest the slump and appeared set to give Conte the chance to see out the campaign, but after launching a furious tirade against his own "selfish players" following the dramatic draw at Southampton, chairman Daniel Levy and the board were prompted into action.
Conte left Spurs after winning 41 of his 76 matches in charge of Tottenham, ending his spell with a 53.94 win percentage.
Personal life
Antonio Conte married his long-term girlfriend, Elisabetta, in 2013 after 15 years together. The pair have a daughter - Vittoria. Conte is a Catholic.
Conte was reportedly mocked in the 2020 UEFA Europa League final by Sevilla's Ever Banega for his hair transplant, which appeared to deeply anger him. Sevilla beat Conte's Inter Milan 3-2 in the match.
Reported net worth
After earning a reported £6.5million per season during his time at Chelsea, he was believed to be on £12m-a-year at Tottenham.
Conte was worth an estimated £15-20million.
