'Luckily, Luis Enrique turned me down and went to PSG'

It's not easy being a Napoli coach. It's a beautiful city with great supporters, and currently the team is Serie A champion and has good players, and everything should be fine, but then again, if you are a coach there, you have to deal with the owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, and that is actually the most difficult thing. The Italian film producer has an interesting character to say at least, and everybody who are connected with him in some way have to know that with De Laurentiis, there is no such thing as 'confidentiality'. In one of his latest interviews, he revealed that he talked to a lot of coaches in order to find a replacement for Luciano Spaletti, and if he didn't know that before, current coach Rudi Garcia has just found out that he wasn't even the fifth choice for the job. And what's worse, the Frenchman knows that he is on 'thin ice' with De Laurentiis after two defeats in Serie A, but still had to read in the newspapers that the owner is 'having a bad time with Garcia'. How unsubtle.

What's even worse is that Napoli boss doesn't care about confidentiality and just revealed to Repubblica some information about his coaching candidates and why some of them turned down the job. He also took a jibe at one of them.

“I interviewed Thiago Motta, but he didn't want to take the risk of replacing a coach who had achieved so much. I called Luis Enrique too and luckily he went to France. Look at the results he's having. He didn't convince me during a round of talks that lasted three days. I called many coaches“ he confessed.

Napoli coach on a short leash after a few bad results

As for Garcia, he is torn between supporting him a bit longer, or sacking him right now.

“I am having a bad time with him. I am an entrepreneur and I must be interested in what happens inside the company. The coach and the sports director are at your service. I will make appropriate decisions at the right time. The environment can't influence me, one must always take time to think. Every hasty decision is a wrong decision. In life, it's not possible to have everything here and now. It is necessary to keep our heads down and work hard. When you hire a coach who no longer knows Italian football, it's normal to struggle, the same would have happened to everyone,It's useless to blame newcomers, football is not like a building under construction, which won't collapse if you are sure it was built well. In football, there are incidents, injuries, and suspensions. There is no mathematical solution to win the title and I believe we'll be in the race until the end of this season“ said De Laurentiis.

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But Garcia should be aware, as his current boss has a habit of supporting his coaches before sacking them, and according to the reports in Italy, Antonio Conte and Igor Tudor are being seriously considered as replacements for the Frenchman. As reported by Di Marzio, De Laurentiis has contacted Conte to start sounding out the possibility of his appointment at Napoli. For now, it’s still unclear if he’s interested in the move nor how much he’d request in wages.