Massimo Moratti was surprised by Napoli’s choice to bring back Walter Mazzarri and opened up about some of his regrets during his time at the helm of Inter.
Partenopei president Aurelio De Laurentiis decided to sack Rudi Garcia at the start of the November international break, following the team’s disappointing loss to Empoli, and he surprised many by bringing back Mazzarri, who had previously spent four years in charge from 2009 to 2013.
Mazzarri did a convincing enough job in his first game back with Napoli, guiding them to a tense 2-1 win away to Atalanta. Now the Scudetto holders are gearing up for an away trip to Real Madrid in the Champions League, where victory could really ignite enthusiasm around the Italian coach.
Speaking to Radio Anch’io Lo Sport via TMW, Moratti first discussed Napoli’s decision to bring back Mazzarri.
“A choice that I didn’t expect from Napoli, but he’s an old lion who knows football and he can also be useful psychologically. Having won against Atalanta is already important, it was a difficult match. Mazzarri has experience.
“Why didn’t it work at Inter? I went halfway through that period, but he did what he had to do. It happened at the time of the corporate change. It wasn’t very simple.”
He touched on some of his greatest regrets from his time in charge of the Nerazzurri.
“There were so many things I could’ve done or not done. Players sold that maybe we should have kept. Experiencing situations, you often do things because you’re a little forced. I’m sorry about many things.
“Pirlo, for example. Roberto Carlos, another. Players not purchased no, because we tried to get them all. But I’m talking about players sold because that was needed for the budget, there were some reasons. We knew they were very strong.”
Finally, Moratti was asked if Milan were in the running for the title this season.
“They’re indecipherable. At times they seem like a beautiful team and then they have fragilities. They have some players who aren’t very well known, thanks to Pioli who made them perform. But the derby was overwhelming, it’s hard to think that they could do better than Inter.”