Paulo Sousa’s agent did not deny interest from Napoli in hiring the Portuguese coach, while Salernitana reportedly consider Andrea Pirlo as his replacement.
The Partenopei need a new coach after Luciano Spalletti decided to walk away, fresh from winning the first Serie A title at the club for 33 years.
There have been multiple reports over the last couple of days suggesting President Aurelio De Laurentiis is closing in on Sousa as the main candidate after he managed to secure Salernitana’s Serie A safety.
“Paulo has created a strong bond with the players, staff and whole city,” agent Hugo Cajuda told GianlucaDiMarzio.com.
“One thing is for sure, if one day I receive a formal offer to the coach from a different team, out of respect and consideration, the first people to be informed would be the director Morgan De Sanctis and President Danilo Iervolino.
“I have received many messages from other clubs for Paulo in recent weeks, from various different countries. This is normal when he shows this level of quality in his work, but there are no official proposals.”
Meanwhile, Salernitana are already said to be at work finding a replacement should Sousa be tempted by the interest from Napoli.
According to Sportitalia, the primary target would be Pirlo, who most recently worked in Turkey at Fatih Karagumruk.
Other options are Gennaro Gattuso, Vincenzo Montella and Francesco Farioli.
The aim is to get a firm response either way from Sousa about his future by June 20 so the club can start planning for the future.