Aurelio De Laurentiis calls the 4-0 defeat to Milan the ‘worst moment of the last 18 years’ at Napoli and insists he will ‘for the moment not be selling any player, if anything we’ll bring new ones in.’
The President spoke at a press conference today that was ostensibly to talk about their pre-season training camp in the Abruzzo region of Italy.
However, much of it was taken up with questions about the future of director of sport Cristiano Giuntoli and the list of 40 names he has for the coach to replace Luciano Spalletti.
The chief was also asked about the transfer market, especially with reports defender Kim Min-jae is on the verge of a Manchester United move for over €50m.
“For the moment, we will not be selling anyone, if anything we’ll be bringing new players in. We started a new era and I hope it can go on for a few more years. Now we must try to reinforce even more in Europe,” said De Laurentiis.
“We’ll have to see how much the others will reinforce too, if we have hiccups, seeing as it only needs two or three injuries to wreak havoc. I have always fought against FIFA over the Africa Cup of Nations, because the dates are all wrong. How can you take away three or four fundamental players during the season?”
Napoli won the Scudetto for the first time in 33 years, but there was one moment that really stuck with De Laurentiis, the 4-0 home defeat to Milan in Serie A.
“I wasn’t so much upset by the Champions League exit to Milan, but I was very angry at the Serie A game played a few days before that, which we lost so badly to Milan. That was disconcerting. You cannot be Napoli and have that kind of season, then lose to a team that is comfortably on our level because they went out of the Champions League to Inter and had many fewer points than us in Serie A.
“You can lose with refereeing or VAR errors, we also missed a penalty, but that Serie A defeat to Milan, it didn’t even look like our team. That was completely unacceptable, I hate it when people say ‘it can happen’ in football. No, it shouldn’t happen!
“That night was perhaps the worst I’ve experienced in 18 years at Napoli. I might understand the strategy of losing in Serie A to confuse the opposition for the Champions League, but even then, there’s no need to lose 4-0. I don’t like seeing people leaving the stadium early.”