Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti admitted that he could leave at the end of the season, but it was up to the newly crowned Serie A champions to decide.
While speaking at press conference Saturday ahead of Napoli’s Serie A clash with Inter, he addressed speculations in the Italian media that he is leaving at the end of the season following disagreements with club president Aurelio De Laurentiis
“The club will say it, not me. We discussed it at dinner. I am not the one who has to say it,” said Spalletti.
“The President said he has ambitions of winning the Champions League, as he is the one who took this club from zero to this level.
“We worked everything out in that dinner we had a week ago, I clarified everything that evening. If you want to keep guessing, cold, warm or hot, you can, but it’s all been defined.
“There was no need to negotiate anything. I did not reject any salary increase, I don’t need to pay any clauses or do anything. It is not true that I received offers from other clubs, that is false. It is false to say I am waiting for other clubs or that I turned down any proposals.
“My aim was to give the fans joy, but am I happy? I don’t know. It depends, they are two situations that are very close together. True happiness is when you make others happy. We were able to make the fans happy this season and are more relaxed, but if I look at it the other way, imagine making all those people unhappy, and that becomes really difficult to deal with.”
De Laurentiis on his part said he does not clearly understand what his manager meant.
“I don’t know what he meant by that, you’d have to ask him. It is not linked to what we said to each other at dinner. As far as I am concerned, I don’t need a pair of wings, but a pair of boots. I don’t need wings to fly anywhere.”
The reports suggest Spalletti fears he has achieved the maximum possible with this Napoli squad, winning their first Serie A title in over 30 years and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals, and is concerned anything else would be a disappointment.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s game against Inter, Spalletti added: “We are motivated in general, but more so against Inter, seeing as they are the only opponent we have failed to beat this season in Serie A. We also congratulate Inter, Roma and Fiorentina on reaching the Finals of their European competitions.”
