Former Manchester United and Internazionale player Young recently shared his career story on the "High Performance" podcast. He stated that Conte's intense training extended his career until he was 40.
Do you feel healthier at 37 than you did at 27?
I feel I became healthier. The reason is this: when I went to Internazionale, many people had stories about Conte's bizarre and interesting training sessions. We could play a match on Sunday, and then on Tuesday or Thursday, do some crazy running drills. Imagine covering the entire pitch, doing a seven-minute block, thirty seconds sprinting, thirty seconds resting, just running back and forth like that for seven minutes.
One set of seven minutes, thirty seconds sprinting, thirty seconds resting, sprinting at about three-quarters of your full effort, like a hundred-yard dash. Then rest for two minutes, switch to twenty seconds sprinting, ten seconds resting, for another seven minutes. Rest for another two minutes, fifteen seconds sprinting, fifteen seconds resting, another seven minutes. The last set is ten seconds sprinting, ten seconds resting. After running, people would collapse – not an exaggeration, truly collapse.
Some would just lie on the ground, everyone helping each other, knowing they still had a set of six shuttle runs to do. And this might just be the morning training. On Tuesdays, we'd have two sessions a day, and we'd have to come out for the second part in the afternoon, everyone would be drained from the first session in the morning. For me, it was crazy, but I think it was these training sessions that gave me the longevity in my career, allowing me to play until I was forty. Because the load was simply too high, cardiovascular capacity went through the roof.
When did you suddenly realize what these running drills had given you?
We were playing away against Atalanta. I remember I crossed the ball into the corner, and we scored from it. I scored in the first half, and in the second half, I was thinking, we are physically so much stronger than them. After the game, talking to some of their players, they said our fitness levels were completely different. At that time, Atalanta's manager had even said his players were much fitter than ours, but after the game, he went to Conte and said, I don't know what you do in training, but your fitness is so much better.
You have to know that Atalanta is known for its fitness. In Italy, tactics are very important; in England, it's completely different, but Conte's preferred way was like that, and he wins wherever he goes. Anyone can criticize him, but my goodness, it's amazing to be able to write "I played under Conte" on my resume, especially since I was thirty-four at the time.
What else did he do to test if you had the mental fortitude to play in his team?
Sometimes you'd arrive at the training ground at nine in the morning, and he'd tell you breakfast at ten, training at eleven. Everyone would be ready, but at 10:54, we'd ask the first-team coach if we could go, and he'd say not yet. We'd send the team manager to ask, and he'd come out and tell us: the coach said lunch at twelve, go back to your hotel rooms to rest, and training at two in the afternoon. Everyone would look at each other blankly – we arrived at nine, what was all that waiting for? He was testing the players, seeing who couldn't hold it in and would knock on his door, seeing who would lose patience first.
Some older players did go to talk to him face-to-face, and these people were all eventually cleared out, not staying long. Over time, you get used to it, but precisely because of this, that team had incredible cohesion, one of the most united locker rooms I've ever been in. The coach's actions actually brought the players together. Of course, we knew some of his arrangements were wrong, or rather we felt they were wrong, like having people come in early only to train in the afternoon. But that's Conte's way.
If you ask Tottenham Hotspur players, Chelsea players, it's the same situation. His blueprint has never changed. As long as you keep winning, you can't question him. However, this is also why he never stays anywhere for more than a year or two.
But then things would go sour, what do you think happened?
I think that was the turning point, players started to feel it was too much. Players started to break down, there were a lot of injuries. Even some of his staff didn't agree with his methods, but he basically had the same staff at every team he managed. They were obviously thinking, I have to follow him because he's a winner. But players are players after all. Players will communicate, they will get together. Some players have more sway than others. At the different clubs he coached, they would go over the coach's head to the board and say, no, this is really too much.
I remember in meetings, if we lost a game, we would review the entire match, and he would stop every two minutes and ask, why did you do this, why did you do that? We would be in the meeting room for three and a half hours, and a player's attention span is about ten minutes. It simply couldn't last that long. He was losing players, some players were falling asleep in meetings. It was a disaster. If you do this year after year, it's not good. Because with that comes so many injuries. Basically no regard for family, especially for the staff.
As players, we would come to training and then go home. Staff would come in hours before us and leave hours after us, they wouldn't see their families, everyone had children. So it was very hard to do, the work intensity was very high. That's why he really doesn't stay for more than a few years.
In contrast, Sir Alex Ferguson seemed very different.
The gaffer knew every single player inside out. He knew your family, he knew your friends. He knew if you'd been out, whether you'd been drinking. He had a way of knowing everything and keeping the entire squad happy. Being able to keep twenty-five to twenty-seven players happy is a skill in itself. But his man-management skills were something I've never seen in any other manager.
Obviously, eleven players would start, and they would be happy, but the key was to keep the players who weren't playing happy too. For those substitute players, he would put an arm around a player he might need in a few weeks and say, son, I need you for this game, make sure you're ready. It was such a simple phrase.
He always had an open-door policy, you could go to him anytime. Whether it was to talk about football, personal problems, or just to chat, he would talk to you. That's why I'm still in touch with him today, even though I'm still scared of him. He just had that aura.
I remember being in the car with my wife, and my phone rang, it was the gaffer calling. I immediately told her, pull over. She said, what? Are you just taking a call? I said, no, no, no. I even took a sip of water before answering the phone. If you talk to anyone who played under him, everyone will say the same thing.
Do you remember what he said to you that made you feel that way?
I remember a conversation on the training ground. It was after I signed and had done all the medicals. He met me at the front door, stopped me before I went in, and he said, son, I've got to tell you something. When you walk through this building, you'll feel what it's like to play for Manchester United. You're either a winner or you're a loser. Winning here feels incredible. Losing here, we don't even want to talk about it. You either move forward or fall behind. That's it. He said, if you have that winner's mentality, you'll win here, but if you don't, not many people can last. I actually walked through that door thinking, oh my goodness, I'd better make sure I win.
Ferdinand said Sir Alex Ferguson always gave you a hard time, is that true?
Of course. He didn't care who you were. If he had to criticize someone, he would do it. As for him kicking boots and throwing water bottles, it's not a lie, it's true. But that was his style. He didn't talk much, nor did he interfere much with training. But his office overlooked the training ground, and sometimes you knew he was watching. You'd just see a figure in the window, or if he came out, you'd see him sitting there in a big jacket, with a hat or hood.
But like I said, he just had that aura. When he wanted to give a player a hard time, he was merciless. But if you did something wrong, you would be blamed. To some extent, even without him saying it, we players would say it to each other. In training, if someone wasn't giving 100 percent, you could turn around and say, come on, are you kidding me? Get yourself right. Everyone pushed each other.
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lolosky_kg
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This one is pure documentary. Every manager and their styles