Kolkata: Four managers in less than one year, from defending champions to 10th and Victor Osimhen, one of the architects of their first league title since Diego Maradona was the lodestar, loaned because the club couldn’t sell him meant Napoli definitely needed “refounding”, as Aurelio de Laurentiis put it. So, the club president hired a man famous and infamous in equal measure for trophies and terrible endings – Antonio Conte.
The beginning has been so good that sudden severance, of the kind he had threatened early in his time at Tottenham Hotspur, looks unlikely. Midweek, after Napoli beat AC Milan 2-0 away, Conte spoke of breathing the “fire and enthusiasm” of the team, which, he said, was one of the best he had worked with.
Eight wins and one draw from 10 matches has put Napoli four points clear at the top. Juventus manager Thiago Motta sees them as title contenders. Conte did not want to go as far as a fifth Serie A title as manager but has conceded that “the craziest among us” did not expect this.
The start was anything but auspicious. Napoli lost 0-3 to Verona in August and, true to type, Conte waded into his team. “We melted like the snow in the sun,” he told Sky Italia.
New players, he said, would join. Romelu Lukaku, Scott McTominay, Billy Gilmour, David Neres and Alessandro Buongiorno did and Napoli have not lost since. They have seven clean sheets which was what they had managed in all of last season’s Serie A.
Can they go all the way, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was asked after Milan were conquered in San Siro. “Yes, obviously,” said the Georgian playmaker.
Kvaratskhelia scored the second goal against Milan, a screamer from range, after Lukaku had put them in front. Kvaratskhelia helping out more while out of possession is one indication of how removed Napoli are from the chaos under Rudi Garcia, Walter Mazzarri and Francesco Calzona that saw them end 10th last term after winning the 22-23 league. New signings bedding-in was another.
In a way that could be bewildering for Belgium’s national team coach, and those at Manchester United and Chelsea when he was there – no one gets as much out of Lukaku as Conte. The big Belgian has scored four goals already, the last of them after beating big central defender Strahinja Pavlovic. He is looking not like the player who just couldn’t convert from close range in the 2022 World Cup but like the one who got 64 goals in two seasons at Inter under Conte.
“Thanks Antonio. You changed me as a player and made me stronger…I am glad I had you as a coach,” Lukaku had said on Instagram after Conte left having ended Inter’s Serie A title drought that stretched from 2010 to 2021.
McTominay, a pure profit sale Manchester United needed to balance books, can play as a second striker, Gilmour is doing well as defensive midfielder and Neres is an option to keep Kvaratskhelia fresh. Like Conte’s teams, Napoli have often won without having much of the ball; Inter would do that with 30% possession against teams battling relegation. Like Jose Mourinho, Conte prefers to stay compact in defence.
Volatility – who can forget the touchline bust-up with Thomas Tuchel – is another trait Conte shares with Mourinho. Investing in experienced players a third. And both are known to have left teams in a shambles.
Conte’s departures from Chelsea, after winning the Premier League (30 wins, 13 on the trot) and FA Cup, and Inter did not go well after falling out with the management over recruitment.
His time at Spurs slid south for a lot of reasons: a health emergency, having to stay away from family and the death of former teammates Gianluca Vialli and Siniša Mihajlović and fitness trainer Gian Piero Ventrone. But before he left, in the season after Spurs got a Champions League spot, Conte also accused players of being selfish.
So, yes, things can sour easily. Conte, 55, has signed for three years and he has not held a job that long since 2014. But right now, things are going swimmingly. “Antonio is able to get inside the players’ head,” said Ciro Ferrara, Conte’s former teammate at Juventus. “He’s able to extract the best out of his players,” Ferrara told DAZN.
Like Arne Slot at Liverpool, the draw has been kind. Napoli also do not have to focus on Europe meaning fewer games and more training ground sessions. But beginning with Milan, tougher challenges await. Napoli host third-placed Atalanta on Sunday and play defending champions Inter Milan, Roma, Torino and Lazio next in all competitions. Matches that could indicate whether they are pacesetters or a team capable of something more.
