Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis says he regretted the appointment of Rudi Garcia from the moment he was presented to the public. The French coach was sacked by De Laurentiis earlier this year, and speaking in a long interview with Il Corriere dello Sport, the Partenopei owner explained why he had a bad feeling about the coach from the very start:
“The day I presented him at Capodimonte. I should have done a coup de Théatre and said: ‘I introduced him to you, but now he’s leaving.’ Because someone who arrives and says: ‘I don’t know Napoli, I’ve never seen a match…’ I should have understood. Instead I laughed at him. The fact is that he repeated it again and again. It would have been enough for him to practise the same football as Spalletti. Instead he demanded that I get rid of a perfect trainer (Sinatti, ed), to call in one who… They told me: he wraps up your players. I had to stay in Castel Volturno from morning to night.”
‘The first coach I contacted was Thiago Motta. But he didn’t feel like it. Because you know what it is? You come to take the legacy of a guy who won the Scudetto that way. And if it goes wrong, he thought, ‘what do I do?’ Which is the same thing Spalletti must have thought. He must have said: I’ll go out as heroes from this city. But who makes me do it again? Then I went to Luis Enrique. He had his people come to Napoli, kept me waiting for three days and asked for a lot of money. We had even come to an almost agreement, but then he said no, because he wanted to earn more. And then it was Nagelsmann’s turn. I consulted five or six of them, no more…..And in the end I landed on Garcia. Who in Italy had achieved two second places with turbulent dressing rooms, full of great players.”
“The transfer window? At least three operations in January. I need to reinforce the defence with a centre-back and a right-back, to have a back-up for Di Lorenzo. And then get a midfielder, maybe two. Elmas is already sold, he’s someone who wants to play all the time, he hasn’t understood that you’re a starter even if you don’t play ninety minutes. Zielinski said he wanted to stay in Naples all his life. But between saying and doing there is the fact that, being a Pole, he is only interested in the sun and the sea up to a point. Perhaps he is more used to certain mists. Osimhen? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we’re in the home stretch (for his contract renewal).”
