On Radio Napoli Centrale, during Umberto Chiariello’s Un Calcio alla Radio, he spoke Antonio Corbofirst signature of La Repubblica:
“I won’t comment on the new stadium for a reason, in this city and at this stage there is a lot of talk about projects and journalists do so with great wisdom. But what intentions does the president have? What does he plan to do? What is his idea of future? The discussion concerns something on which we journalists have no possibility of intervention; as for Plato, the world of ideas and the world of things do not coincide. The fans and the team have understood that the season is over and the cycle of Napoli and that we need to change. The President instead behaves today, in absolute good faith, as if it were a normal day in which the sensational, unprecedented failure of a club that wins the scudetto and then disappears is celebrated.
We are at the end of the line, the team and fans understood it, but not the president. He must decide whether to leave or stay, relaunch and re-establish. On the stadium it was a meeting of courtesy and opportunism that is not denied to anyone during elections. I could comment on this if De Laurentiis had gone to Fitto with a feasibility project: I, De Laurentiis, bring together 20 entrepreneurs and we are ready to move forward, but yesterday this didn’t happen, it was a nice aperitif meeting. I don’t give it any weight, because when politicians say we have to think, it means they have failed. If there isn’t a feasibility project, what are we talking about? The sports center, however, I find feasible. You have to understand what the future city is before planning: Barcelona, when it conceived the future city, first called together sociologists and psychologists and only then began to plan. Here overnight we say that we want to put the stadium in Bagnoli. Let’s take an example, 50 thousand people: how do we bring them to Bagnoli? It seems like a utopia to me, but it may be that I don’t understand anything and I too give up my years of reporting. Close to Afragola, where the station already exists, I would have imagined it with greater feasibility. There are already access routes, we can start thinking. But how do you get to the city center? We need a super ring road above the buildings. I respect De Laurentiis, he is a concrete person and he knows what he wants. I think that all he is doing is putting pressure on the municipality to do a restyling of Maradona. The sports center in Bagnoli seems good to me, because it is going to redevelop a part of the city. The problem is not solved just by going to Fitto without documents or feasibility papers. It’s not enough to say “I’ll put the money in”, even the richest entrepreneurs in the world have profit as their goal. That’s why I’m skeptical.
Moving on to the sporting season, is De Laurentiis’s responsibility alone? They tell me that in De Laurentiis’ circle there are a series of advisors external to the company and he must beware of anyone who gives him bad advice. He must rely on objectively competent people. It’s fine to take another manager besides Manna, as long as they are compatible. If you take one who wages war on the other, it’s not good. Chiavelli is a very good accountant expert in tax issues, he is the best there is as regards contracts and above all for clauses. He is really good, but he is someone who, I am told, opposes certain events and acts as a brake on decisions. The most obvious of errors was made on Micheli in a role that was not his. A piece of advice for De Laurentiis: use the board of directors to periodically and frequently have moments of collegiality in which there is discussion, even if the decision-making power remains with him. There is a very solid gross active financial position of the company and if it puts the right people in the right place it can do great things. But it needs to be renewed. Optimism depends on the speed with which the renewal is carried out: the more time it wastes, the less successful it is.”
