first the Scudetto, then the contract – Corriere.it

Another race-trap gone. Napoli also sweeps away Cremonese with three goals. Yet we are sure that next time – against Sassuolo – the ritual will repeat itself. This is not superstition, however. Spalletti keeps his feet on the ground, doesn’t let go, doesn’t give in too much to the happiness of the moment. Always look long, Lucio. It goes beyond everything. How is a night up there with 16 points over Inter? Serena, period. The man, Spalletti, dominates the scene like this: I have guys ready to destroy themselves in the fieldthat’s enough for him to snatch an applause and smile.

The look that seems lost in the void while solving a tactical problem; his eyes lit up as he dictated game times from the bench. Spalletti the man who looks for the joke, who likes to speak in metaphors. the Tuscan who replies piqued when he has the sensation of being attacked. All together: the instinct for confidentiality and the vanity of taking the stage. One, none and one hundred thousand: this Lucio (a box with many things inside he likes to say), and his Naples looks a lot like him: he suffers and wins, wins and does not rejoice. He plays three matches in one, follows four match-teams in the space of 90 minutes. A good team but, if needed, even less; patient and then suddenly explosive. Able to take breaks, then get back on track as if nothing had happened. Seizing the moment, the moment to do what needs to be done every time.

This is Spalletti’s journey: after winning in Russia, becoming a bare-chested icon in the midst of the storm to celebrate the title, he decides to stop for two years. Another scene: Tuscany, the hills, the animals and the production of wine. Who has seen him, Spalletti? The man who has always placed in Rome, in Milan, on the Inter side but has never won. And who then did nothing to get rid of the label of obnoxious and also a loser? De Laurentiis chose him to replace Gattuso, Naples conquered him and elected him a man of providence.

Spalletti sensed this and moves on the edge of balance: the enterprise of bringing the scudetto to the city that won it only with Maradona a stone’s throw away, but the fear that the box full of things could suddenly give way it consumes it. Day and night the thought of still having to do, say, work. She stays in her office in the Castel Volturno sports center to torture herself only at the thought that she might get a bad star. But in the meantime she keeps the wine cold, because he’s thinking about the big party. Championship and Champions, it’s difficult to stay on two hot tables without getting burned, especially in Europe where the territory – for Naples never went beyond the round of 16 – unexplored. The future is built with the present, woe to tell him that his team has already won or is about to win; never bring it to the level of the contract that it will have to or will be able to renew. Spalletti has opened a cycle, if and when he ends it, a deal that is not on the agenda. If everything has a price, his work will be evaluated at the end, when he will be able to say (without shouting) that he has also won in Italy.