De Laurentiis met Italiano before turning to Allegri, claims Bargiggia

The journalist says the Rome meeting fell through only because Italiano was still tied to Bologna — and adds a blunt verdict on the coach Napoli hired instead.

by Rosaria CimminoFriday 11 September, 19:19 CET· 2 hours ago

Bargiggia: «De Laurentiis aveva già incontrato Italiano, poi il dietrofront su Allegri» — Grafica Arena Napoli

Before Massimiliano Allegri, Aurelio De Laurentiis's plan for the Napoli bench pointed somewhere else. That is the account given by journalist Paolo Bargiggia on his social media channels: the Napoli president met Vincenzo Italiano in Rome, while Italiano was still under contract at Bologna, just days before switching to the coach he actually appointed.

"The chairman had met Italiano in Rome a few days earlier, then had second thoughts because Italiano still had to get free from Bologna, and that is why he turned to Allegri."

Bargiggia says the meeting looked like the prelude to a deal that never happened. He added that Napoli's current situation is "fairly worrying," but that De Laurentiis will certainly not go as far as sacking, at least in the short term, a coach he chose at the very moment he was pursuing Italiano.

Allegri was confirmed on 3 July 2026 on a contract to 30 June 2029, replacing Antonio Conte, who left after finishing second last season on 76 points. If Bargiggia's account is accurate, the appointment owed more to the tight summer timeline than to any change of heart about the coach who was passed over.

A harsh verdict on Allegri

Bargiggia did not stop at the transfer-market story. He also went after the way the current coach is covered in the press.

"De Laurentiis is not a football man, but everyone by now knows Allegri doesn't play football. He has an image, a way he's perceived by the press... The journalists who back Allegri — it's not clear why, maybe in exchange for a phone call, half a story, a soundbite — back him against all the more obvious reality."

Bargiggia closed with a direct jab: Allegri's Napoli "play badly regardless of whether they're facing Arsenal or Genoa, and the age of the squad has nothing to do with it."

The claims land with Napoli 12th in the table on 3 points from three matchdays, having lost three straight games across the league and the Champions League. Reopening the debate over July's coaching choice on the eve of the Bologna game does little to calm an already shaken fanbase. Supporters are no longer just asking whether Allegri is getting things wrong on the pitch, but whether the appointment itself was made out of conviction or simply to beat the summer deadline.

Bologna visit the Maradona on Sunday 13 September at 18:00 CET (17:00 UK). They are now managed by Domenico Tedesco, who is suspended and will be absent from the touchline. It is the same club that, over the summer, with Italiano still under contract, made the operation described by Bargiggia impossible — a detail that Napoli's current league position makes hard to dismiss as a footnote.