Spalletti, Napoli and the secret notebooks in the cabinet – Corriere.it

On the bench he has no notebook, no inkwell. Luciano Spalletti doesn’t write anything, he memorizes. He asks his staff to film this or the other sequence. He doesn’t look at the exchange folder either. It goes on instinct, or so it seems. Yet almost everything he does has a logic, a consequence. A basic consistency. Because every game is ready long before the kick-off. the natural account of very long hours – those few that remain net of travel and competitions every three days – spent at the training camp to work. The rate of intensity and high concentration, there is nothing but his team, his staff, the tactical alchemy to burn the opponents. For Spalletti there is a protective cover for the dressing room, which must move in a world of its own.

Isolation? Yes, this is also one of the secrets of Luciano, a record-breaking coach in a Naples that (re) lives a football dream and that recognizes his skill and concreteness. So no slate of good and bad on the bench, but notebooks (many) kept in the locker of his office in Castel Volturno. Memories of everyday life (not just Neapolitan) that he updates and jealously guards. Or perhaps extreme confidentiality. Spalletti attentive man, notes sensations and even emotions. He puts his idea of ​​public communication on paper, but also those concepts that can represent a motivational boost for players. Luciano’s secret notebooks travel with him, from one city to another. From one nation to another.

You find us Totti, you find us Icardi up to Insigne, Mertens and the protagonists of these days. The brave captains with whom he also went to clash. Interrupted relationships that in the collective imagination were relationships of strength that he wanted to win over. Spalletti holds the label and marches on it: the essence of the character, the egocentrism to which he gives in to give further strength to the motivations. The gasoline of the man in the overalls – that’s how he goes on the pitch – to keep the engine running constantly and make the most exciting season of his career last as long as possible.

Spalletti, a country man, expects a rainy day to ruin the sowing for months. He doesn’t tell tales, but he begins to believe in something. The multifaceted, eccentric team. versatile and also complicated to deal with. Napoli knows how to be one and three, it adapts to the opponents it crosses and every time it finds the ability to express itself in a different way. Twelve victories, 46 goals scored between the championship and the Champions League: it wins hands down at the moment, yet it is not a team that divides, rather it collects support and even sympathy. Just like his coach, who experiences an unprecedented moment of benevolent attention from the critics, ready until yesterday to remind him of the titles he did not win in Italy and the quarrels with the spiteful captains.

Spalletti shuttles between the field and his office, he doesn’t give up a single centimeter and is wary, very wary of whoever smiles and caresses him. The commitment increases in proportion to the skepticism it feels. And in these moments that the protagonist vein lights up and exceeds. Naples a city that involves him, Naples a team that is making him a dreamer. Will he have already written the word scudetto in the notebook?