President Aurelio De Laurentiis took the rare step of publicly thanking former coach Luciano Spalletti for helping Napoli win the Serie A title, while the tactician responded by insisting ‘everything becomes easy with a whole city behind you.’
The patron has been rather reticent to credit Spalletti with too much of a role in last season’s triumph, which saw the club take their third Scudetto, 30 years since the last was achieved with Diego Armando Maradona.
This was part of the reason why Spalletti decided to walk away straight after that victory, and then Napoli tried to prevent the coach taking on a new role with the Italy team unless he paid the reported €3m release clause in the contract.
However, relations seem to have thawed between them, as they were both present today on a cruise ship to receive awards from La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“For the Scudetto, I above all thank Spalletti. He was able to model a working unit like few others,” said De Laurentiis.
“At the end of the first season, we removed six fundamental players from his squad and replaced them. Clearly, there were some doubts, the fans were against me in the summer for taking away six of their heroes.
“Spalletti was able to combine the past and the present, getting the best out of old and new players. Napoli would love to win the Scudetto every year, but we win just by being Neapolitan.”
De Laurentiis has started to realise just how fundamental Spalletti was to that title run, as he has already fired replacement Rudi Garcia and brought in Walter Mazzarri.
Spalletti was impressed by the gesture from De Laurentiis and gave his statement to news agency Ansa.
“Everything becomes easy with a whole city like Naples behind you. This victory made the city explode with joy.”
The coach, who hails from Tuscany, even got a tattoo to mark the occasion.
“When I walk around in Naples, people recognise me, but I am the one who wants to hug them. I never argue with anyone, if anything others argue with me and then I react. But I accept anyone who wants to return to being my friend after losing me for a while.”
Spalletti does seem to be on a sort of hatchet-burying tour, as he already made up with former Roma captain Francesco Totti after six years of very public animosity.