The real reasons Napoli pushed Conte out

Three months after the split, new details point to a dressing room worn down by his methods and club officials eager to reclaim their influence.

by Gennaro SanninoTuesday 6 October, 12:18 CET· 4 hours ago

Lo stadio Diego Armando Maradona durante una partita di Serie A

Il Maradona in una serata di Serie A — Foto: Gaetano Capaldo · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

New detail has emerged, with more precision than before, on who really wanted Antonio Conte out at Napoli. Three months ago, when the split between the club and the head coach had already been agreed by both sides, Napoli showed an unusual unity: everyone, for different reasons, pulling in the same direction — getting Conte out of the door.

The push from inside the dressing room came from players who could no longer take, physically or mentally, the "iron sergeant" methods that had shaped every training session for two seasons.

The longer-lasting resentment sat elsewhere: among club executives, senior figures included, and staff who for two seasons had felt pushed to the margins by the "Conte system", and who needed to win back their own centres of power, big and small.

A version not everyone buys

A different account of the same story points elsewhere: people close to president Aurelio De Laurentiis are said to have convinced him that Conte had become "a dead weight." The plain facts argue against that version. This was the same Conte who had just brought Napoli the Scudetto and the Italian Super Cup in the two seasons before leaving the bench at the end of the campaign. Conte himself recently called his time at Napoli "wonderful", while admitting it had drained him of "all his energy."

A dead weight.

A coach who won a Scudetto can still be shown the door so club executives get their power back: written now, that line carries double weight. Massimiliano Allegri's Napoli arrived with a mandate to consolidate fourth place and push further in the Champions League. They sit ninth with 7 points from 5 league games. The record from the first six matches of the season — confirmed by the club on Monday 5 October after a closed-doors meeting between De Laurentiis and Allegri at Castel Volturno — reads two wins, one draw and three defeats.

It is no coincidence that banners against De Laurentiis reappeared at Fuorigrotta, the Naples district around the Maradona, after the draw in Florence. The same fanbase that three months ago greeted the end of the Conte era as a release is now asking who really runs the club. Frosinone visit the Maradona on Saturday — the first chance to see whether the centres of power reclaimed inside the club are worth anything on the pitch.