Spalletti: Leaving Italy keeps me up, I'd do it again, on Napoli | OneFootball

Luciano Spalletti speaks out again, with the bitter tone of someone who leaves one of the most felt challenges of their career unfinished.

Spalletti breaks the silence: “Saying goodbye to the National team keeps me up at night. But I would do it all again. On Napoli and ADL…”

In a long interview with La Repubblica, the former Italian National team coach recounted the emotional weight of saying goodbye to the Azzurri, reflecting on the difficulties experienced during his months in charge of Italy and analyzing his exit from Napoli after the historic scudetto.

“Saying goodbye to the National team keeps me up at night” Strong words, full of lucidity and pain.

“That thought never leaves me. It keeps me up at night, it conditions me in everything,” Spalletti explained, recalling his brief but intense period as the Azzurri's selector. An experience that, in his opinion, has left a deep scar: “When they offered me the Italian bench, I didn't sleep for two days. The scar will be painful even when it heals. But accepting was not a mistake. The National team doesn't ask: it calls.”

According to Spalletti, the mistake was not technical or tactical, but rather communicative and perhaps emotional:

“I insisted too much, from the beginning, on identity and a sense of belonging. I wanted to transfer to the players the pride I felt, but I overloaded the environment too much.”

No doubt about the quality of the Azzurri Spalletti strongly rejects any idea of a National team lacking in talent.

“Italy doesn't lack quality, the players are of a high level. But the pressure was enormous, constant, and we couldn't free ourselves from it. We said we had to give more, but sometimes we couldn't even guarantee the minimum required.”

A lucid self-criticism that doesn't cancel out the commitment made, but highlights how the conditions around the group made the journey particularly difficult.

Napoli, the scudetto, and the separation In the rest of the interview, the former Tuscan coach also revisited the dynamics that led to the separation from Napoli, after the conquest of the 2022/23 scudetto.

“By leaving, I contributed to bringing out truths that became evident a year later. De Laurentiis understood that to win again, he needed a great coach and that not everything could depend only on him.”

A passage not devoid of venom, to which Spalletti adds a personal regret:

“The greatest disappointment? Not being able to parade through the city on the bus after the scudetto. That was a celebration that also belonged to the team and their work.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.