a Naples “perfect machine”, at 64 is no longer just an “almost winner” – Corriere.it

Now maybe they’ll look at it another way. Luciano Spalletti had to wait 64 years, completed on 7 March, to win the first scudetto in Italy. He had succeeded in Russia, with Zenit St. Petersburg, but in Naples it’s different because here he’s only third and the first two arrived thanks to Diego Maradona. For Spalletti it is a revenge on many clichés. If Napoli courageously revolutionized sporting director Giuntoli, the coach, who approved and even suggested the revolution, shaped a group that grew in his hands until it became the best team in Italy.

Naples champion of Italy, the Scudetto party and live reactions

The championship, celebrated well in advance, had actually won him hands down already during the winter. But Napoli went further, dominating the Champions League group, scoring four goals against Liverpool, a finalist a year ago and reaching the quarter-finals against Milan, a goal they never achieved. The bitter disappointment, for the elimination against the Rossoneri, mustn’t spoil the party and water down the sense of enterprise. Because this is what it is about, bringing a Scudetto back to the South 22 years after that of Roma in 2001 with Capello as coach and Batistuta as centre-forward.

In short, Spalletti has created a masterpiece. An extraordinary result, matured through the work of this coach who never stopped studying, a bench craftsman who divides his spare time between the Milan of the vertical forest and the countryside on the hills of Certaldo, where he was born, in the green heart of the Tuscan hills. Only those who don’t know Luciano read a contradiction to us.

Napoli is a small jewel, built in retreat and enhanced by the wisdom of the coach. Spalletti has given a game and a soul to the team. In his first season under Vesuvius he brought the Azzurri back to the Champions League, as his predecessor Gattuso had not done. In the second round he won by relaunching Meret, solidifying the defense with the Korean Kim who did not make Koulibaly regret and enhancing Lobotka, one of the keys to success together with Kvara’s irresistible dribbling and Osimhen’s stratospheric power. Just the Nigerian’s injury complicated the Champions League match against Milan.

But the championship is another thing. On 4 January, when he resumed after the long break for the World Cup in Qatar, Spalletti lost at the San Siro at Inter and many of his rivals hoped and believed that, as often happened to Big Luciano, the winter it would be the season of downsizing. The answer was an 8 game winning streak, which asphalted the competition and silenced it. From the 2-0 in Genoa against Sampdoria to the 2-0 in Empoli, passing through the significant 5-1 against Juventus. A Scudetto never questioned and deserved in every respect, certified in Turin at the Lady’s home. The Neapolitans could not ask for more than this.

Spalletti has arrived where other illustrious predecessors have failed, perhaps coming close, like Sarri, who lost the championship to Florence at the climax. The domination of Luciano and his gang was total, without hesitation, through the game. A modern and ancient coach at the same time. Nobody, in the last 40 years, has won more games than him in Serie A. Regularity was the trademark of this apparently grumpy, certainly angular, technician who he started in Empoli, his safe haven, where he stopped playing. He repaid the president Corsi with one double promotion, from C to Asuccessfully defended in ’98. Sampdoria and Venice, Zamparini’s Venice eats coachesshouldn’t be considered accidents along the way, but growth experiences from which Spalletti’s career took off. Udinese relaunched him, in Rome he won two Italian Cups and a Super Cup and the Scudetto came close to him repeatedly. He hoped to win it at Inter and he considered the interruption of the relationship with Zhang who preferred Conte to him a betrayal. Naples is the appointment with destiny.

His creature for long months was perfectpressing and width alternating with cuts towards the center of his exteriors. Synchronized movements, taking advantage of the depth that Osimhen offers. A team at the service of talent, but also talent for the team, the center of everything. For Spalletti, rules are rules. And the behaviors must be the right ones. There are no exceptions: all the same in front of the locker room.

The wait is over, the Scudetto belongs to Napoli and Napoli even if Spalletti, to better prepare him, chose to isolate himself in Castel Volturno. He doesn’t stay in the heart of the city, but he loves the colours, noises and emotions of the city. Still in overalls, he rolls his eyes and frowns when something doesn’t add up. Now with De Laurentiis there is another game on the renewal of the contract, which seems inevitable and perhaps will be. But it’s not obvious. Aurelio has already asserted the option until 2024 to close it here. Luciano wants to listen and understand. This issue will be addressed soon. Now there is only the joy for a Scudetto that this exaggerated team has made it seem obvious, but which is not at all obvious.