Carlo Tavecchio dropped a shoulder and went past an imaginary defender. The FIGC president wanted to get the Italy coach's attention. "Look, Antonio," he said. "This is what I used to do when I played on the right wing."
The piece of skill was not executed out on the training pitch at Italy's leafy Coverciano headquarters; Tavecchio pulled it off in the press room instead. Italy were preparing for their first friendly of the international break against Spain, but journalists from a different nation were conspicuous by their attendance. They were English and the meaning behind Tavecchio's gesture wasn't lost on Conte: You better get dribbling because questions about Chelsea are incoming.
When they did, Conte was prepared. He downplayed the English presence -- "They're here to find out about the national team," Conte insisted -- and Tavecchio would have been proud of how he dealt with the first question in English. He turned to Italy's press officer, Paolo Corbi, and said that if he replied in that language, then they would know he had been studying. Could Corbi translate instead? Bravo.
Conte had successfully performed a step-over. He managed to dribble it. Why not keep them in suspense a little while longer?
But Conte did give the Brits something. "The word 'Chelsea' is not taboo," he explained before purposely muddying the waters, leaving the impression that his next move could in fact be a return to club football in Italy. "I could give you the names of a couple of Italian teams," he said. Roma and Milan. Except one of those vacancies has already been filled while the other has an incumbent.
It's rather telling that even amid all the speculation Milan will part company with Sinisa Mihajlovic at the end of the season, Conte no longer figures on the list of candidates, presumably because they know he is already spoken for. The presence of Gary Staker, Chelsea's player liaison officer, at the Dacia Arena in Udine on Friday was not considered a coincidence even if he could point to the involvement of Cesc Fabregas, Cesar "Dave" Azpilicueta and Pedro in the Spain squad.
Unsurprisingly, a backlash has begun and in that respect, Conte is more to blame than Chelsea. For example, Conte could have expressed himself better on his reasons for leaving his post after the Euros in France.
You see, Conte likes to think of himself as a "hammer." As Italy coach, however, the job is, in his opinion, "a beautiful anvil." You take a pounding from the Lega, Italy's equivalent of the Premier League, a pounding from self-interested clubs and a pounding from a demanding press. Conte could no longer suppress his disillusion.
If he couldn't affect a change of mentality even with the sheer force of his personality, then who could? It doesn't exactly make the job appealing to the next guy, does it? But no one would begrudge Conte that assessment. What got him into a spot of bother, however, was likening the national team job to "a garage."
Conte revealed that immediately after clinching qualification, he had seriously considered extending for another two years. But the length of time between then and the next international breaks (a four-month gap) had persuaded him otherwise. Conte wants to work. He needs to smell the scent of freshly cut grass on a daily basis. When you're closed in a garage, "the car inside is far from the grass." Instead, all you can smell is "the rubber [of the tyres] and the motor oil."
Never before had Conte's description of the Italy job as a "beautiful anvil" been more appropriate or more timely. Boy, did he get hammered for it. Conte was accused of profaning the sacred. He had slighted one of the most prestigious jobs in world football, showing it a lack of respect.
"In addition to English," wrote La Stampa, "he should decide to study a little communication too." An editorial in Il Corriere dello Sport wondered who he thinks he is. "Coaches who have won more at club level than Conte like [Marcelo] Lippi, [Giovanni] Trapattoni or [Arrigo] Sacchi sat on the same bench but never once dreamed of showing the same contempt for the job at the time of their goodbyes."
Comparisons were even made with how Conte had left Juventus, doubting how a club of their resources could ever win the Champions League. "You can't sit in a restaurant where it's €100 a head with only €10 in your pocket," he said. His successor, Max Allegri, then made him look silly by taking Juventus to the final in Berlin where he almost did the treble. "We should take it as an omen," Il Corriere dello Sport concluded. "The after Conte is almost always better than Conte [himself]."
It was a harsh assessment, over the top in many respects. And yet this situation is unprecedented. Never before has an Italy coach approached a major tournament with another job already lined up.
There is disappointment at having to come to terms with the position of coach of a four-time World Cup-winning nation apparently not being good enough anymore. Vittorio Pozzo, coach of Italy's triumphs in 1934 and 1938, wasn't salaried. He did it for nothing, making ends meet by working for Pirelli and writing for La Stampa. To him, it was an honour and a privilege. Conte, meanwhile, is the highest paid Italy coach in history. Enzo Bearzot, the pipe-smoking style icon behind Italy's victory in 1982, had lucrative offers from clubs in Italy and another, so legend has it, from one in London; he turned them all down. To il Vecio, no job was greater than the one he held with the Azzurri.
What's forgotten in all of this is that it's remarkable Conte even accepted the job in the first place, particularly at this stage of his career. It was a massive coup for Tavecchio. He landed the outstanding candidate even if an awareness of Conte's intensive, hands-on, day-to-day coaching style meant this denouement was entirely predictable.
As alluded to earlier, it has created quite a problem. Conte has laid bare all the structural problems one faces in this job, making it less attractive. The FIGC overreached for him too, asking Italy's sponsors to help out with his wages. Tavecchio's own-goal has been to say Conte's successor will earn less, hardly a turn-on for the first choice candidates, although worryingly, the best possible ones are either unavailable or don't believe the time is right.
Italy are heading for a crossroads. In the meantime, sympathy for Conte has diminished too. On Friday he apologised for his comment, claiming he was "misunderstood" and that Italy's impressive display against Spain was the best possible response. The Azzurri limited Spain to only three shots on target, two of which came in the action leading to Aduriz's goal. If it weren't for the excellent David de Gea, they would have won rather than drawn 1-1. "I have played Spain five times in the last four years," Emanuele Giaccherini said, "and I have never seen them in this much difficulty."
The experiment with a 3-4-3 and the showings of Lorenzo Insigne, Federico Bernardeschi and Simone Zaza after the interval was cause for optimism, generating excitement about the future. Just as Spain were without Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Diego Costa, Italy counted Andrea Barzagli, Giorgio Chiellini, Claudio Marchisio and, crucially, Marco Verratti among their absentees. Little reason to be blue, then.
Conte may have been in the garage for the past four months. But don't labour under the misapprehension that he has been working on a getaway vehicle. Instead his focus is exclusively on driving Italy to victory this summer.