Antonio Conte’s Napoli contract has been torn up, with Napoli seemingly in disarray.
The former Chelsea, Inter Milan and Tottenham boss ended the season in Serie A by accusing the club of having ‘a lot of poison’.
Napoli have now announced his departure and are yet to fill the vacant managerial position, with Massimiliano Allegri frontrunner for the role.
There’s a huge amount of unrest at the club, with controversial owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, 77, even making light of the fact that key men Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne could leave.
The infamously outspoken owner, who previously said he would not sign players who went away for AFCON, has been at the helm since rescuing them from bankruptcy 21 years ago.
At a press conference announcing the end of Conte’s two-year stint, De Laurentiis said of the pair: ‘They’ve made statements that can be questioned or accepted, depending on your point of view. We’ll see at work. The new coach’s assessments. If they have to leave, they’ll leave. The world is full of footballers.’
Antonio Conte has left Napoli after saying there was ‘poison’ at the club
De Bruyne had spoken out against Conte’s conservative style of play and when asked if he was relieved to see the manager go, said: ‘Am I happy that Conte is leaving? For me, yes. As far as I’m concerned, he didn’t have to stay.’
At an end of season press conference, the writing had been on the wall when Conte told the owner he ‘completely disagreed’ that Napoli would have won the league if it hadn’t been for their injuries.
Conte’s exit comes as no surprise, especially in light of his explosive comments towards the end of the season – a move that will be familiar to plenty of his former sides, including Tottenham.
He said: ‘On Napoli I failed in one thing: I wasn’t able to bring compactness to Napoli and if you don’t manage to do it, it becomes difficult to fight against other teams. I’ve seen a lot of poison and those who spread it are failures.
‘Napoli doesn’t need failures, those who need a like. It needs serious people who want to love the team, just like the fan who pays for the ticket, instead these people should stay away because they are harmful.
‘I failed from this point of view and I understood that I would never be able to compact the environment. For me it was fundamental, so I raised my hands.’
He also explained that he felt his race was run at Napoli after a 3-2 home defeat by Bologna, saying: ‘After Bologna, what I felt were situations that I didn’t like and even there it takes balls to say things. I have never played anonymous seasons and I never will.
‘I was also ready to step aside, certainly some signings didn’t get in tune with the old group and very difficult dynamics were created that were right to report.
‘I called the president a month ago, I didn’t want to know anything and I told him “by virtue of the friendship we have, I perceive that my journey here is about to end”. The decision was taken by me.’
Owner Aurelio de Laurentiis (left), pictured with Conte after the last game of the season, spoke about the manager’s departure at a press conference
Napoli won their fourth Scudetto under Conte last season but were distant runners-up to Inter Milan this term.
Allegri was sacked by AC Milan at the end of the season after failing to lead them into the Champions League having replaced Sérgio Conceição midway through the campaign.
But the vastly experienced Italian seems poised to take the helm at Napoli and could be announced in the coming days.
De Laurentiis said: ‘Napoli doesn’t even have a coach at the moment, and even if we did, we couldn’t announce it. You know the rules. It’s pointless to make a mess.
‘I will introduce the coach when the regulations allow me to. I’m not one to go against the rules. I can disagree with them, because sometimes they were made at a certain time and become outdated. We agree to play in a competition that has rules, and so we respect them. When the time comes to announce the coach, we will announce it.’
