Antonio Conte’s Masterful Napoli Communication: A Shakespearean Study in Public Speaking.

Henry gets some help from up-and-coming writer William Shakespeare to explore the evolution of Antonio Conte’s communication style.

Public speaking. For some of us it creates a dread that can rarely be replicated, for others it provides an adrenaline hit that can be difficult to surpass. Having the attention of the room can lead people to shrink or step up: as the fictional Veronese show-off Mercutio says to piazza full of people about to watch him defend his best pal Romeo’s honour:

Men’s eyes were made to look, and let them gaze;

I will not budge for no man’s pleasure, I.

We won’t know what was said by Antonio Conte to his team at half time during Napoli’s latest home game against Genoa but whatever those words were, and however those words were conveyed, i partenopei emerged transformed and scored the two goals needed to win the game and end this cluster of fixtures at the top of Serie A.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Public Speaking

For me, speaking in front of others is a complicated matter. Yes, I host a podcast and a huge part of my day job involves speaking in front of other people giving lectures, running meetings or holding creative space in a rehearsal room. I often get wheeled in to do public facing events that others might not want to and my general MO is that of an extrovert with a posh English accent.

As a child, though, I had a profound stammer and in my early school days struggled to communicate when put in the spotlight in class. The UK’s National Health Service provided me a free speech therapist who recommended I took up theatre and also public speaking exams, having to read out loud extracts from prose writing, poetry and also giving presentations about topics that I was interested in as a kid.

It’s not a coincidence, therefore, that in my professional life I am drawn to Shakespeare’s plays since they are full of people who use the art of speaking in front of people to further their own dreams or ambitions or, whose downfall is accelerated by a lack of understanding of the power of the spoken word.

I have firsthand experience of knowing that speaking in public is a game that you can play. Language is a currency, a device which you can use – the more you play this game, the better you get at it. I love seeing how this relationship between language and action exists in the world of calcio, too and Antonio Conte is a fascinating case study of Shakespearean public speaking development.

“ I, your glass, Will modestly discover to yourself “ - Napoli Under Conte.

In footballing terms, the ability for a manager to express their ideas through words is fundamental. As Napoli fans, we have all been cognisant of the sea change in communication since Antonio Conte has brought to the club. Helming a Scudetto charge in Naples is a difficult process and, throughout the 2024/25 season, Conte was a master of expectation management and emotional manipulation.

At his unveiling, for example, he was keen to identify himself as a Southern Italian and someone who is at one with the tifosi in the city. For many Napoli fans ahead of the conference, Conte was unquestionably associated with hated Northern Italian rivals Juventus as both a player and a coach. From the get-go, Conte was, without mentioning the Turin club, re-positioning himself in the eyes of many. The first press conference was the right moment to do this, not leaving any oxygen for the Juve association to burn through.

His ability to turn the focus of fans back to themselves through language recalls for me, one of Shakespeare’s great schemers, Cassius in Julius Caesar. Early in the play, Cassius has to convince Brutus that assassinating Caesar is a good idea. Everyone in the audience knows what will eventually happen so we can enjoy seeing the process of how this comes about. Cassius describes himself as a mirror to Brutus,

Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear:

And since you know you cannot see yourself

So well as by reflection, I, your glass,

Will modestly discover to yourself

That of yourself which you yet know not of.

Cassius sets himself up not as different to Brutus in his approach but, rather, as his reflection. He plants the seed that Brutus has already had these thoughts and desires and it is his role, simply to bring them out in him. The tactic works, and thirty-three stab wounds later, Julius Caesar is no more.

Conte, sat down in his press conference viewed by the majority of Napoli fans as different to them. Representing a more cynical, Juventino attitude to silverware collecting at any cost. Over the course of a few sentences he, instead, suggested that when the fans look at him they are, instead, looking at a mirror. In doing so, the implication is that the people of Naples were getting the best of both worlds. A man who could lead them to glory, whilst understanding who they were.

Hot-headed no more – the evolution of Conte’s public speaking and communication.

Readers unaware of Conte’s time in Naples may be surprised at my comparison to his public persona and Cassius, one of Shakespeare’s most sophisticated communicators. The infamous press conference in Tottenham, in which he ended his reign through the power of words is one that has endured in the global footballing consciousness.

Here he called out the club’s owner, the players and the broader culture of club in an extraordinarily direct and emotional fashion. The result? He was sacked a week later.

Conte’s seeming inability to understand the correct moments to utilise emotion in public speaks to one of Shakespeare’s most hot-headed characters, the appropriately named Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy – a real historical figure who the London club are named after and where the club’s cockerel emblem comes from.

Hotspur spends most of the play ranting and raging and repeatedly makes poorly thought through public statements which lead to tactical missteps, and even war crimes in the race for power that the play centred around. As the tide turns against him, rather than pause to consider his next steps, he steps into his rage and, much like the man in charge of a football club named after him several centuries later, goes out swinging:

Come, let us take a muster speedily:

Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.

Conte’s time out of the game seems to have given the Pugliese tactician a period of reflection in terms of how he separates his private and public persona. The fraught negotiations to keep him at Napoli at the end of the Scudetto-delivering season were mostly conducted behind closed doors and resolved with great skill. The upshot for Conte was a vast transfer fund and seemingly unquestionably control of the club’s direction. The often-flabby mouthed owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis noticeably absent from public statements (aside from promises he is failing to deliver over stadium and training ground developments) over the past year and a half.

The difference between public and private persona and communication is a key Shakespearean trope. As Lady Macbeth famously says to her husband shortly after he has killed Duncan, the King of Scotland in secret,

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

Genoa Half Time – ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity’

So, let’s return to half time against Genoa. Napoli are 1-0 down and the mutters of discontent around the rather constipated deployment of a 4-3-3 formation that Conte’s instigated in contrast to the more prolifically used 4-1-4-1 are turning into louder clamours of grievance.

Does Conte lay into his team in a Harry Hotspur-esque pique of rage? The Shakespearean equivalent of throwing teacups at his underperforming team? The dressing room is a sacred space but the quotes from players indicate that Conte’s newly found oratorical smarts were on display.

Napoli MVP so far, Leonardo Spinazzola reflected back on his coach’s half time team talk after the game and said that Conte focussed on tactical tweaks like playing more deeply in Genoa’s half. Rasmus Hojlund was also quick to praise Conte’s clear thinking and advice,

‘He saw that I was particularly tired and told me, ‘Use your head.’ I also needed that, it helped me refresh myself and get back into the game.’

Conte’s own reflections indicate a man who was keen to find the positives to boost the confidence of his team who were 1-0 down.

‘I told the players that in matches like these, when it feels like everything is going against you, you might not win, but if the team stays compact and shows spirit, I appreciate that desire not to give up, to stay focused until the very end.’

Rather than the firey tempered Juventino on display, this version of Conte sounds like a stoicist, someone who can explain how the hard times can maketh the man. To finish our journey through Shakespeare’s plays, Conte resembled Duke Senior in As You Like It who has to address his weary court who have been exiled in a forest to avoid their death. Looking at the exhausted faces of the people he leads, the duke decides to speak of the good of their situation,

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

I would not change it.

I’m sure there will be time for Conte’s temper to be unleashed on squad this season but I have confidence that our coach’s new found expertise in communication will make sure it is a discerning moment, rather than an ill considered outburst. To paraphrase King Lear’s Fool, Conte will continue to have more than he showest, and speak less than he knowest.