Former Napoli manager Rudi Garcia has broken his silence on his tumultuous tenure at the club, offering a blistering assessment of president Aurelio De Laurentiis and the overall management of the team. In a candid interview with Carrè, Garcia shed light on the challenges he faced during his brief stint in Naples.
Garcia didn’t mince words when discussing his successor, Walter Mazzarri: “He has no class. He never thanked me for the points I left him, which were enough for qualification to the Champions League round of 16 with just one more win.”
Reflecting on the difficulties of taking over after Napoli’s Scudetto-winning season, Garcia admitted, “I knew I was taking a risk arriving after the Scudetto win. Usually, I don’t go where it’s difficult to do better. But it was Napoli, it was Serie A. The players subconsciously thought they could do exactly like the year before, but it doesn’t work that way.”
The French coach also expressed frustration with the club’s transfer policy: “I had asked for a defender, like Aguerd, and a physically strong midfielder. Instead, they bought prospective players who were then loaned out elsewhere. I wanted Osimhen and Zielinski’s contracts renewed to put them in the best conditions on the field. This year I’ve seen they’ve invested heavily in a defender like Buongiorno and a midfielder like McTominay.”
Garcia’s most scathing comments were reserved for De Laurentiis: “The real plot twist would have been to keep me, and perhaps Napoli would have qualified for the Champions League. Instead, they finished tenth. De Laurentiis said he should have fired me right from the presentation? Maybe he said those things because he realized he had been a bit of an idiot and to cover up certain mistakes.”
He continued, “I thought I was dealing with a gentleman at the beginning, but De Laurentiis turned out to be someone who meddles in things that aren’t his business. I paid the price for telling him to stay in his place. He told me that if I didn’t listen to him, he couldn’t protect me. But I don’t need to be protected…”
Garcia also revealed De Laurentiis’ attempts to influence team selection: “He wanted me to play one player for 45 minutes and then others in the second half, but at 60 years old, no one tells me who to put on the field. De Laurentiis understands cinema, but not much about football.”
Finally, Garcia painted a picture of a club in disarray upon his arrival: “When I arrived, everyone wanted to leave and complained about being paid too little. I tried to remotivate the group. Giuntoli had left, and no one intervened when Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia didn’t accept being substituted.”
