The technical commissioner Luciano Spalletti spoke in a long interview with Corriere dello Sport, also returning to his adventure at Napoli, the Scudetto, his relationship with Aurelio De Laurentiis and his farewell to the Azzurri bench the season following the triumph: “I am sad I chose it and embraced it when I left Naples after that thing”, he confesses. “It would have been easier and more natural to move forward, to work with a group that we had brought to the top, to enjoy the happiness of the moment, that which the people of Naples felt. I chose sadness.”
Spalletti then continues his reasoning…
“I don’t know how to train cynicism. For me, coaching means loving the player, knowing how to defend him, adding something to him. There is a shy player who isn’t able to fully express his potential and so I intervene with work. At Napoli I had a couple of them. With exercise I try to bring the shy person into the ideal condition to raise his performance level. I can’t do anything on the surface. The first year in Naples I lived in a hotel, wonderful, they brought breakfast to my room in the office. In order not to waste a single second, even the smallest detail, I saved myself the half-hour drive from Naples to Castel Volturno”.
Have you ever had to make a decision?
“I have always decided for myself. The profession means 365 days of hard work. After the first year my collaborators said to me “but what are we left to do? They have all sold”. Mertens, Koulibaly, Ghoulam, Ospina, Insigne had left , Fabian Ruiz. So much quality. I wanted to feel like the coach of Napoli and you are only the coach of a team if you do something actually important always in the Champions League”. Clear and direct message. So I left to get that thing over there, it happened, I could have stayed longer, we had brought the performance graph to the highest level.”
The talks with De Laurentiis?
“I have two ears and one mouth. I know how to listen and speak at the right moment. De Laurentiis has great communication skills, a fluent language. And then it always depends on which De Laurentiis you find yourself in front of, there are at least four
