Aurelio De Laurentiis reflected on Napoli’s impressive work in the summer transfer window and their ability to successfully rejuvenate the squad.

The Partenopei had an interesting summer, losing a number of key first team regulars like Lorenzo Insigne, Kalidou Koulibaly and Dries Mertens, but bringing in exciting fresh faces like Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Kim Min-Jae and Giacomo Raspadori. This has paid off and the team now sit top of both the Serie A table and their Champions League group, flying high in the early stages of the campaign.

Speaking to The Telegraph, De Laurentiis first underlined his desire to entertain the Napoli fans.

“You know, my first job is entertainment, production of movies, production of fiction, theatre, for 55 years, so when I started to be involved in football, I was always thinking to entertain. 

“When we make a movie you must invest some ideas and a script and two years later to please your spectator. The same is in sport and football. You have an obligation.

“The fact we are No 1 in the table, and we are also with Bari in Serie B, is because since we are working around football, we work like movies or fiction.

“The only difference is when you make a script you know the end, you know exactly how to please the spectator.”

He touched on the difficulty of building a team and competing against the biggest sides in Europe.

“When you make a team you have many difficult problems and don’t know what will happen. There are no competitors in movies, only when you open on the market. There could be movies from Disney, Universal, Warner. 

“But when your team plays against the top teams like Ajax or Liverpool or Bayern Munich or anyone who is playing a certain level, you never know what can happen. You have the referee’s interpretation which you must respect. 

“But I don’t believe in luck. I produced, with the finance of my money, 400 movies and I never had a flop. That is not luck. Hard work, concentration, ideas and marketing. 

“If you don’t market your people and don’t know what is expected from you, it is like a show without pleasing the spectators. It is the same with football.”

The Napoli president spoke about the team’s work in the transfer window and how they did so well.

“During the summer I spoke to my collaborator about big decisions and how we must change the team, we must renew the players. We were lucky in the market but with our expertise we found some people we were scouting for three years, two years, one year. 

“In the negotiations we were smarter and faster than our competitors. We already had inspiration of certain players already here and the coach. Then everyone else liked to go to USA, Australia, China or Japan before the season – I never moved.”

Finally, De Laurentiis discussed Napoli’s pre-season preparations and how they helped them.

“If I must play against some important teams, I want to play in the place we were doing pre-season, strictly in Italy in the mountains at 1,200m. 

“When you prepare very well people, afterwards the results are there. There is also a section of psychology of people, not only the physical capacity. 

“When you must make a team you must mix psychology, intellectual and physical and you must make the group because the individual will never make a real victory. You must be a group. After you can have a big personality players, others are more timid but that is life.”

2 thought on “De Laurentiis: ‘Napoli were smarter and faster in the market’”
  1. lollllll..smarter maybe, faster no..napoli was facing Hugh criticism over it’s inactivity in the market , even rumors of selling the club started to surface, then all of a sudden, after the sale of Koulibaily, woke up

  2. Faster = Kvara & Kim
    Rumors are rumors, he will never sell the club.
    Go back to Milano and have a risotto, that’s all you are good for.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tickets Kit Collector