No Conte – De Laurentiis backs Rudi Garcia to turn things around with Napoli

Napoli’s owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, has shunned talks of Antonio Conte taking over the reins at the club, after a poor start to the season, Soccernet.ng reports.

A misfiring attack struggling to score goals, an out-of-form Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and a touchline fall-out with Victor Osimhen have shown signs that things are not going well with ADL’s decision to appoint Rudi Garcia as Spalletti’s successor.

Luciano Spalletti led the club to their first league title in over three decades, before deciding to take time off football to enjoy life. A few months later, he was appointed to be the coach of the Italian national team.

Meanwhile, for Garcia, the results on the pitch speak volumes, but De Laurentiis has backed him to turn the fortunes of the team around following the end of the International Break.

The 74-year-old mentioned that for most top clubs, changing coaches isn’t always easy, and he takes responsibility for the clubs’ results so far.

“In life, you can have doubts, if there have been any mistakes I take responsibility for them. This summer’s choices were mine, made with the new collaborators. A change of technical guide is always traumatic and then there aren’t many coaches around who practice the 4-3-3 with the defence high as happened with Sarri and Spalletti who delighted us,” the club owner said in quotes revealed by Tuttomercato.

The club owner mentioned that the coach was coming under fire for the team’s performances, but reiterated that the Frenchman has his support.
“Garcia felt at the center of media criticism and I had to hurry to extend my hand to him. I told him: don’t worry, you carry on. Mistakes have been made, but we hope not are repeated and we are here to support you,” he added.

With rumours circulating that the club had contacted Antonio Conte in a bid to sort out the club’s problems, ADL said; “Don’t ask me about Conte, it would be a disturbing action at this moment. We went on holiday with him in the Maldives years ago. We maintained a relationship, we even spoke when he was in England. The rest is just gossip that demolishes whoever is in charge of coaching the team today and which annoys me.”

Gli Azzurri fans will hope the support of the club owner will back the club towards all three points away to Hellas Verona tomorrow.