Having reached the Champions League, the Lecce coach makes it clear that his story under Vesuvius is over. Unless De Laurentiis has a joker to play in his pocket…
Antonio Conte is further away than close to Napoli. It is not yet time for official announcements, but the words spoken after having received the certainty of qualification for the next Champions League leave little room for different interpretations. It is true that De Laurentiis is capable of any turnaround and that there is an active contract on the table until 30 June 2027 to deal with, but the feeling that Napoli is ready to greet the leader of the fourth championship in history is more than a suggestion.
The Lecce coach did not hide, despite not wanting to formalize a decision taken a few weeks ago and which also involved the Neapolitan patron. If it were a farewell, it wouldn’t be an escape and it would be something different than the stormy end of relations with Juventus and Inter. And it would also be a logical ending to a two-year storyvery intense and successful especially in the first of the two, very costly for the club’s coffers and which – taking stock – was a win-win for both parties.
“We did what we had to do, the president knows very well what my thoughts are. He has already known it for some time. Let’s wait, the club is already working for the future, let’s wait for the last match and then it is right that together with the president we say what was then born. Already decided in fact? We have already been speaking with the president for a month, I have expressed my thoughts and my intentions” he said. Nothing more, not even in the face of the insistence of those who would like to know immediately: “Am I not revealing anything today? Absolutely not, I would also disrespect the president with whom we have a friendship. I would not disrespect this friendship, but precisely by virtue of this friendship it is nice to be honest about everything.”
The balance for Conte is positive: a championship, a probable second place and an Italian Super Cup are on the board. The regret of the Champions League played very badly and of that trip to Copenhagen which precluded the chances of reaching the playoffs in February (“The result that the others achieved”). More generally: “I promised that, when my experience in Naples was over, I would leave a solid and ambitious group, capable of fighting and always annoying. Remember that I always said: ‘We are not the strongest, but we have to become the toughest’. Napoli must annoy Juventus, Milan and Inter every year.”
Words that smell of farewell and that open up hot weeks for two benches: that of the Napoli of the future, if the sensations are confirmed (and De Laurentiis has evidently been working on it for a month) and that of the national team because the free Conte becomes a huge temptation also for the future president of the FIGC.
