On the day of the official presentation the new coach outlines his team’s manifesto: “Avimma is struggling… no one can and must not beat us on this. My goal is for Napoli to be seen not as a passing club but as a destination.” On the Di Lorenzo – Kvaratskhelia cases he is clear: “In the end if there are problems they will solve them because the decision is always mine. And for me, for the president, they don’t move from here.” Regarding his working method, he quotes his friend Ventrone who is no longer with us.
On the day of official presentation by Napoli coach, Antonio Conte outlines the manifesto of his three-year experience in blue. “Enough chatter. Keep your head down and pedal. This is not the time for proclamations. Nor am I here to be a figurine on the Nativity scene. My goal is for Napoli to be seen not as a passing team but as a destination“. And just to be clear, brush up on that dialect avimma is struggling (we have to work) which can be decisive in bridging the gap even compared to stronger clubs from an economic point of view. We start again from the beginning, everything reset. With only one goal, which is not victory (“It’s something I can’t promise, because in the end only one team always wins”) but give everything and compete for victory.
And do it without fear: “Why would I be afraid to come here? Afraid of what? I accepted this challenge because there was a plan. And even if there was an offer from abroad there was a promise with the president. In my life no one has ever given me anything. But I have always achieved my successes by working hard, with effort and sacrifice. The Lord has given us a talent as a gift and we cannot do anything but always have the desire to improve ourselves”.
The Di Lorenzo and Kvara cases: “I decide who stays and who goes”
As for the certainty, which is the prerequisite for his arrival in Naples, it was clear: “There is a project, we can’t compete with the usual notes for the amount of wages and investments because we are talking about other realities. But we can do it for work culture and sacrifice: avimma struggles’… and on this no one can and must not beat us. We have to kill those in front of us in a sporting way, so that we can eliminate that gap. I hope as soon as possible because you know that from this point of view I don’t have much patience”.
De Laurentiis, clash with the PSG president who wants Kvara: “Incorrect and against the law, football is not in charge”
Questions of Di Lorenzo and Kvara or other ‘malpancists’, Conte is clear on this matter. “In Naples there is no confusion but clarity of ideas, we know what to do and we will do it. And for me Di Lorenzo and Kvara are untouchable. I was very clear with the president, before talking about economic aspects, I asked the president to let me choose who would stay and who could take other paths outside Naples. If we talk about reconstruction and think of giving away the best then it makes no sense, but I found 200% agreement from the president and the club in this respect. In the end, if there are problems, they solve them because the decision is always mine. I don’t accept the discontent argument“.
What will his Naples be like, he quotes his friend “Ventrone who is no longer there”
What will your Napoli be like? “The tactical identity will be tailored to the team. I have my own idea but it cannot ignore the characteristics of the players. What will we look like? Pissed off. The objective is always the same: to have balance and score one more goal than the others.”. As for working methods, he mentions his friend’s name Gianpiero Ventrone (“a son of Naples”) who is no longer with him and with whom he worked as a footballer and then as a coach at Juventus and also at Tottenham, before the illness tore him away from his dearest loved ones. “You have to work the right amount. In fact, I believe that today we work a third of what I worked as a footballer. I, on the other hand, I think you have to make the effort and you have to feel it. In hard work you learn to know yourself, to handle stress and manage it“.
Conte finds a pile of rubble (in a metaphorical sense) considering what happened in a terrible year, from a sporting and also human point of view. He is aware of this and faces the situation with pragmatism and a certainty: the reins for managing the team are in his hands alone.“Today’s present – added the new coach – is that Napoli finished 40 points behind the first, with abysmal gaps from the others that preceded them, in tenth place and out of the cups after so many years in Europe. And that we have to carry the pain inside us a little to do more this year.”
The jab at Ibrahimovic: “I’m a manager, maybe I was annoying”
Regarding the managerial role and way of interpreting his task, he is equally sincere. To Ibrahimovic’s words about the fact that he was not the profile “Milan was looking for”, he replied as follows: “I respect everyone, I consider myself a manager. I want to have a say, maybe somewhere else this thing could have been annoying…”.
