there is high tension with De Laurentiis

The embers are burning. Under the skin, yet they are just about to surface. From now until May 26, the last day of the championship, Napoli will live like this, suspended on the abyss of their own bad moods. The fate of a composite dressing room, made up of temperamental personalities and tempers which, without Spalletti, turned out to be ungovernable. The nerves are tense. Very tense. I don’t like the withdrawal but it’s just the last straw. But the very idea of ​​punishment doesn’t go down well with some of Naples. That in the last hours, a Castel Volturno, tried to ask Francesco Calzona to act as an intermediary with Aurelio De Laurentiis to change his mind on the decision to send everyone to seclusion starting tonight. But Ciccio, who is the operational arm of the owner in the field and embraces everything from day one, backed out. In practice, he made it clear that he fully supports the company’s decision which, for 48 hours, sends the team to a hotel in Caserta. To meditate. To prepare for the match against Roma. To try everything in the comeback for a place in Europe.

The ransom

On the verge of a nervous breakdown. The climate is very harsh. It cannot be otherwise. There are no prizes for Europe. Nothing beyond what each player already has in their contract. Calzona does nothing but remind everyone, obviously at the urging of De Laurentiis, of their responsibilities towards the fans and the club that pays them. Napoli no longer thinks it’s time for carrots: just the stick. De Laurentiis at the moment is not even announced in training camp with the team. Maybe he’ll go tomorrow. But he has little desire after the disgrace of Empoli. At the beginning of the week, he communicated to Di Lorenzo the decision to change plans before the match against Roma, ordering his withdrawal. Punitive. A word that in these parts still rhymes with the mutiny after the match against Salzburg in 2019. It was precisely the lack of desire to return to retirement, after the 1-1 draw on the night of the Champions League, that triggered the rebellion that the following month led also to the exemption of Carlo Ancelotti. Today Calzona, who is finally allowed to speak before a match (the only club to avoid pre-match conferences), will explain the moment without the haste and frenzy of a post-match when he is subjected to the via crucis of interviews. The coach from Vibo Valentia wants to save face. His. He no longer has any chance of remaining on the Napoli bench next season, but many think that if he had arrived earlier the fate of the season could have changed. You don’t live with regrets, though. But Calzona eats his hands and it’s obvious that he too has a devil in his hair: if Napoli had gone to the Champions League, he would have been the coach of the Azzurri again next year. Empoli was once again fatal: with Roma it is obvious that he thinks he is sending some signals to the team. Some of the starters are trembling but between today and tomorrow we will understand how Calzona plans to intervene in the team.

The threat

Calzona reiterated that something else looms over the team: the team knows this well, De Laurentiis told Calzona and Di Lorenzo that if things go badly with Roma he will send the team back to retreat in Caserta. Starting Tuesday. With an early departure for Udine, perhaps already on Saturday. De Laurentiis already has “heads to cut” in mind in the locker room for next season. It will be another year zero, like the summer of farewells to Insigne, Mertens, Koulibaly, Fabian. The withdrawal one month from the end of the championship sounds like a move of desperation for the team who have very tense nerves after the blatant protest from the ultras in Empoli. By the way, there will be no more than 42 thousand spectators at Sunday’s match against Roma: for the first time, there won’t be a full house. The sign of a frost that has descended between the public and the team. Just under 20 thousand tickets sold for the Southern derby. But the thermometer of the moment will be the turnout next weekend for the championship film “I’ll be with you”.

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