Napoli head coach Antonio Conte spoke to the press ahead of his team’s Serie A match against Udinese, addressing various topics from the team’s ambitions to player fitness and his vision for the club’s future.
On the €100 restaurant joke: “At the time, the joke was true. When you can’t, at that moment, spend what others can spend… I don’t understand why we need to dwell on this joke. And why I have to carry this joke around to be labeled as someone who always asks for things, I don’t understand. I find it unpleasant as a question for this quote. Ask it again, without the quote, it’s completely unnecessary.”
On achieving a masterpiece with this team: “I’m thinking about it even more after 7 months, that I can redo what I’ve done in the past, in all clubs, to grow the club. This is my goal, the past is there, it’s clear, but some don’t want to see, wherever I’ve been, the club has grown in all aspects. In Naples, I want to help the club grow, as the All Blacks always say: ‘Leave the jersey better than you found it’. I want to leave something better on the day I have to leave, and I hope it’s many years from now. The club must grow if we want to be competitive for the rest of the year, football evolves, what was done before needs to be revised, even tactically for us, the club must grow but I think about how to help the club, more than a player, what’s the main problem? We need infrastructure, a sports center, not one more or less player, to create Napoli’s home, develop a sense of belonging, a youth sector that doesn’t exist today.
Instead of thinking about 50-60-70 million for that player, I will never create controversy from that point of view, but I will give my opinion on the club’s growth as I have since I arrived. I must help and support the young but capable sporting director who needs to go through that journey. I’m here to support the De Laurentiis family, I’m here because I have experience of an experience in Naples, to give my vision, this is my goal, the rest is all nonsense, that I’m angry about this or that, I’m not angry but happy for what I’m developing with the boys and I come here happy because the boys will give me their soul. And the other goal is to seek excellence with what we have, we shouldn’t think about what we could have had. Let’s think about what we have! Let’s not ruin what we’ve built with difficulty, here everything seems taken for granted, but nothing is if you think about where we started. I talk about building, I hope that’s clear! I’m here to help the club grow, with my advice, then the club does it, doesn’t want to do it, it’s not… I can’t intervene, but I’m here to build something solid that lasts in the future. You don’t compete only with players worth 50-60-70 million, a 150 million market, selling 75, that’s smoke and mirrors, the essence is work, planning. I don’t sit in a 100 euro restaurant with 10 euros, I’ve never done it and I never will.”
On Buongiorno’s condition: “He’s improving significantly, at the moment Jesus is at a higher level and tomorrow Jesus will start and Buongiorno will start on the bench and will also work with some differentiated training to return to the level we all knew.”
On Billing: “He’s a serious guy, he’s entering our methodology, due to many issues we’ve had only this week we organized a friendly with Giugliano and I could see him in a real match and so he’s also working, physically he’s fine, he’s entering our idea of football, he’s serious, applied, he will give us a hand.”
On Okafor: “He arrived 4 days ago, he’s not in optimal condition, he’s started to work significantly with some additions, tomorrow he’ll be on the bench, he really has limited playing time.”
On what he fears most about Udinese: “We don’t fear anything, we have respect for everyone, but fear is not part of our vocabulary. Udinese is an excellent team, they have physicality, structure, which can also bother us on the counterattack. Great attention will be needed even on set pieces, they are all players over 1.90, all games require respect, every game must be fought for as we’ve done so far.”
On analogies with the past or unique challenge: “All experiences have their uniqueness, for many reasons, I always prefer to jealously guard the places where I’ve worked, now the present is Naples, certainly a beautiful story, a challenge I wanted for many reasons. I think that as a player or coach, living an experience here is really strong, I’m very happy about this, we’re working a lot and great improvements have been made. I repeat, there would be everything to build something important, with work we must have a correct vision and not be content. We must always be better than the day before.”
On Inter’s defeat in Florence and approaching Udinese: “I always say: let’s look at ourselves. Not at others. Let’s look at our growth, we have a difficult game and the boys know it. You say lower the enthusiasm, but rest assured: this team travels low to the ground, we’ve earned everything, no one gets a big head, despite what surrounds us. What surrounds us is often misleading, but it’s a journey we started in July, I don’t know where it will lead us at the end of the year, but let’s enjoy the journey, let us enjoy it!”
On whether the club is listening to advice on infrastructure: “More than talking and saying what should be done to be better… then the decisions are not up to me. From the beginning, I’ve tried to understand where it was, to adapt to everything, and find the right openings, the right directions to improve. I will continue to do this, as always. A shade? Of gray, I don’t have it. I’m black or white (laughter in the room), in the sense… let’s say red and blue, let’s clarify…”
On whether the points advantage puts more pressure on Napoli or Inter: “In this journey, we’ve been the team at the top of the table the most, I’m not saying you get used to it, but we have some experience in those positions, but Inter… we’re talking about a team that I don’t need to discover, they’ve won the Scudetto, Champions League final, this year they’re cruising in the Champions League, they have ambitions to go all the way. It would be an insult to say something about underestimation, they’re a great team, a historic club used to winning, we’re talking about nothing. Let’s not think about others, let’s focus on ourselves, with blinders on our path.”
On whether there are still margins for growth in field work: “In life, you must always be predisposed to learn, otherwise there’s no teaching or learning, I’m the first who learned a lot even last year while I was idle for personal reasons. To the basic methodology, I implemented a study and work that led me to grow, to be ready for this challenge, we started with an idea for the players and we went through steps finding many different solutions. If I hadn’t had the opportunity last year to carefully study many solutions, especially foreign ones, it would certainly have been more difficult. The team is growing, it’s clear to everyone, today it plays important football, we have room for improvement and we’ll continue like this, but it takes time.”
