Ahead of his Premier League debut, Antonio Conte has been speaking to the media in an attempt to portray the kind of man he is, before he is swept into the relentless Premier League machine. We know already of Antonio Conte's manic intensity and extraordinary will to win; the kind of Italian boss who's ring nobody can kiss as he is too busy gesticulating madly on the sideline.
Conte seems to have the indomitable will to win that Klopp, Mourinho and Guardiola have, meaning he is an important part of a most compelling Premier League season. Conte, it seems is a little bit crazy; the kind of crazy that makes you a winner.
You can be forgiven for slipping into caricature when discussing Conte: the obsessive, gesticulating genius who broods over defeats for weeks, waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, haunted by the cauterized memories of a misplaced pass or a sloppy goal.
You would also be proved largely right, going by Conte's quotes to Miguel Delaney of the Sunday Independent.
You *may* remember in June that Conte was in charge of the Italian team who lost 1-0 to Ireland at Euro 2016, and the memory of the defeat still rests uneasily with Chelsea's new boss. When he wins, he says he sleeps well. When he loses, not so much:
But when it did happen that I lost, I need to think quickly too know the reason. For example, in Europe, whe we lost agaisnt Ireland, it happened.
We have already qualified, but we lost the game, and I didn't lik this. In the middle of the night, I wanted to watch the match again to understand why, which is the reason because today we lost.
Conte went on to say that the resting of eight first-team players was not the reason for the defeat, instead citing the pitch as "terrible" and hailing Ireland's "incredible" intensity.
To be fair to the Antonio, he's not the only man to watch Robbie Brady's goal back.
Although he may be the only Italian.
