NAPLES – Let’s forget about it or get over it. Aurelio De Laurentiis already wants to move on. “I’m not disappointed, in my life I have almost always won. And when I rarely made a mistake in a film I admitted my mistakes and started again. In football I brought home a championship with my accounts in order and in a world where others are full of debt. In the summer they will all be very curious to discover the new Naples, but we are starting with a total reconstruction, we need to invest well and don’t be in a hurry. Lady Luck can give us a hand, but I prefer to trust my professionalism. I knew perfectly well that this season we would not be able to compete for the scudetto again. This miserable year had its deep roots as early as March 2023 and helped us understand how serious our problems were, which can only be understood. from the inside. Maybe I was wrong to send Garcia away. Who knows. I also took on some responsibilities that were not mine, maybe certain mistakes were part of the course of the story. It won’t be a tragedy if you don’t go to Europe after 14 years. The important thing is to work with passion and not to get by. Dignity and professionalism lead to success, it has been the philosophy of my whole life”, said the president, without waiting for the last two races of the year.
The total revolution
The watchword is to move on as soon as possible, above all to leave behind the disappointment and melancholy of the present. Napoli is already projected into the future and this explains the unusual choice of Aurelio De Laurentiis to present the team’s next summer retreats (from 11 to 21 July in Trentino in Dimaro and from 25 July to 10 August in Abruzzo in Castel di Sangro ) on the eve of the championship match in Florence. There is no longer any margin to save the catastrophic post-scudetto season and the president is trying to move in advance in view of the next one, in which the Azzurri will be forced to hunt for a difficult redemption. But ADL still asked for patience and chose not to say too much about the maneuvers underway during the traditional meeting in an elegant restaurant in Posillipo. “I know you are expecting information from me, but our work is still in progress and for the moment we will therefore only talk about the summer retreats. Then there will be another press conference by May 31st and that will be the right opportunity to do the point about the whole future that we are organizing. I can give some news that doesn’t exist, or we’ll get into the mess. You know me by now, I want to be precise about the only preview that has been around for some time: it will definitely happen a new sporting director, who we hope will be able to emerge as soon as possible and begin to act on both the incoming and outgoing market. There is nothing else definitive for now.”
Welcome to Giovanni Manna
De Laurentiis therefore welcomed – albeit without naming him – Giovanni Manna, who will be the new sporting director. Napoli, however, still needs time to complete the most important operation: the hiring of the coach who will be entrusted with the team. The agreement with Antonio Conte does not exist for now and the other three candidates are currently under contract: Gian Piero Gasperini with Atalanta, Stefano Pioli with Milan and Vincenzo Italiano with Fiorentina, who on Friday evening (8.45 pm) hosts the Azzurri at Franchi. Who knows, maybe it’s a cross between the present and the future.
De Laurentiis and Conte’s arrival: “Let’s stay calm”
De Laurentiis did not go too far on Conte. “Let’s be calm, otherwise it seems that there is only one man capable of taking us out of this situation. I took Sarri from Empoli and Spalletti who few wanted. The market choices have always been made by scouting and my part as an investor is I did it, also buying in January. I didn’t hold back even when I realized that the season was compromised. Kvaratskhelia still has a long contract and I’m very calm.”
