Antonio Conte is considerably hooked on being an underdog, which explains why he runs away from golf equipment straight after success, however Susy Campanale feels Napoli needs to be offended by his description of the membership.
Going into the ultimate 90 minutes of the season, solely a complete collapse in opposition to already-safe Cagliari would cease Napoli taking the title now. They would want to drop factors and on the identical time for Inter to beat on-form Como on the Stadio Sinigaglia to show this round, much more implausibly to pressure a play-off with their defeat and the Nerazzurri selecting up a draw.
epa11898868 Napoli’s head coach Antonio Conte throughout the Serie A soccer match between SS Lazio and SSC Napoli on the Olimpico stadium in Rome, Italy, 15 February 2025. EPA-EFE/Riccardo Antimiani
Antonio Conte is ready to grow to be solely the second coach after Fabio Capello to win the Serie A title at three completely different golf equipment, having already succeeded at Juventus and Inter. In each these conditions, he bolted throughout the celebrations, insisting what they’d achieved might by no means be replicated. That is his mantra, and it does get moderately wearisome.
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If there’s something extra irritating than extreme conceitedness, then it’s fake humility, and Conte has it in spades. Each time he of reaching success till he got here alongside, the place proper to the ultimate second they have to present coronary heart to beat the obstacles of their path. With Juventus, they’d been on a dismal run earlier than he took cost, Inter had been with no victory in Serie A since Jose Mourinho’s Treble a decade earlier.
Napoli are not any Conte miracle
NAPLES, ITALY – MAY 11: Romelu Lukaku (2ndR) of Napoli celebrates after scoring his aspect’s first purpose throughout the Serie A match between Napoli and Genoa at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Might 11, 2025 in Naples, Italy. (Picture by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Photos)
Conte is attempting to color the identical image at Napoli, but it surely doesn’t fairly work. He focuses solely on the very fact they completed tenth in Serie A final season, not that lots of the identical gamers received the Scudetto at a canter solely the 12 months earlier than that. He acts as if the town didn’t have a year-long social gathering within the streets, forgetting the 30-year wait was already ended by Luciano Spalletti.
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He may’ve mentioned that their goal this season was to qualify for Europe, at greatest the Champions League, however no one else thought it. With the large investments of Romelu Lukaku, Scott McTominay, Alessandro Buongiorno and Billy Gilmour, plus the advantage of not having any midweek commitments to distract them, Conte’s arrival was at all times going to create a Scudetto push. It’s fake naïve to recommend in any other case, downright insulting to assert that it was “unthinkable and historic” for a membership like Napoli. They received the title in 2023, not 1923.
NAPLES, ITALY – APRIL 27: Scott McTominay of Napoli celebrates after scoring his sides first purpose throughout the Serie A match between Napoli and Torino at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on April 27, 2025 in Naples, Italy. (Picture by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Photos)
Maybe probably the most irritating side of Conte’s communications technique is his continuous insistence whereas on the identical time continually complaining. What number of occasions should he level out they’ve had just a few harm issues, as if no different groups had way more to cope with? His assertion that there was no one to name from on the bench was purely all the way down to his personal refusal to contemplate them, so for a number of weeks we’ve seen left-back Mathias Olivera squeezed right into a central defensive function whereas Rafa Marin rots on the touchline. Poor Giacomo Raspadori was solely given an opportunity as a result of David Neres was damage, in any other case he’d have been left watching from the bench too.
NAPLES, ITALY – MARCH 09: Giacomo Raspadori of Napoli (hidden) celebrates scoring his workforce’s second purpose with teammates and employees throughout the Serie A match between Napoli and Fiorentina on the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on March 09, 2025 in Naples, Italy. (Picture by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Photos)
All that is why we will anticipate Conte to stroll away this summer season, in all probability saying it throughout the celebrations. The row with Aurelio De Laurentiis is simply a part of the predictable sample with him. The remainder is realizing this treasured underdog standing is gone and expectations are raised, plus a tantrum over not having a powerful sufficient squad to be actually aggressive, failing to understand it’s his personal fault for not growing any of the opposite gamers. It’ll be off to the following underperforming membership for a similar previous routine. It’s by no means his fault if he fails, any success is at all times a miracle, don’t ever ask him to construct upon it.
