On the skin, and above all in the soul, of Luciano Spalletti there is the memory of Naples and of Napoli. Sunday evening will be a special night for him however it ends. The Certaldo-born manager has never hidden it, and he will repeat it in today’s pre-match press conference to anyone who asks him to recall what the azzurro of Naples left him.
The substance will be much as it was after the heavy defeat at Genoa: “I will experience this match as always, with great emotion and with a great sense of humanity. I owe a lot to Naples, as a city and as a people. It is impossible not to love that environment when you have lived it.”
A Twist of Fate, but Not the Arbiter of Spalletti’s Future
The fixture list has produced a curious irony. Massimiliano Allegri, who is suspended and will therefore not be on the touchline at the Allianz Stadium, is the man Spalletti faces at the moment his own position is being debated. But Tuttosport is careful to say that it would be misleading to call Allegri the arbiter of Spalletti’s future at Juventus. It would be equally misleading, the article argues, to think that the decision on confirming the Juventus manager will be taken on the strength of the Napoli match alone.
Everyone Under Examination
Within the club, everyone is on trial. The hard confrontation between CEO Carnevali and the squad, held in front of the manager, pinned the players to the responsibilities of those who are called on to pull themselves out of trouble, with no easy alibis or shortcuts.
The message is plain: the answers must arrive on the pitch and nowhere else, and they must not come from an upheaval on the bench. It is the same line that ran through Thursday’s Continassa meeting and Guido Vaciago’s editorial, and it sits against the more speculative reporting elsewhere about caretakers and big-name replacements. For the club’s management, the focus remains on the players’ response rather than on a change of manager.
