You don’t need official announcements to know when a relationship is over. Conte’s words speak for themselves. And the future already looks elsewhere
Napoli-Cagliari in chiaro in tv, arriva la richiesta UFFICIALE (Foto: Ansa) – serieanews.com
Sometimes you don’t need a farewell letter or a press conference with a knot in your throat. All it takes is a sentence. Maybe not even too long. All it takes is that tone, that way the words slip – and cut.
Antonio Conte has never had a problem telling it like it is. But when he decides to do so with measure, weighing every syllable, it becomes even more evident that something is broken. And not since yesterday.
The last outing in front of microphones seemed like the classic moment when one tries not to say it explicitly, but lets it be understood with almost ruthless clarity. Like when one looks at the other and says, “It’s not your fault-it’s me who’s changed,” but he’s actually meaning the exact opposite. There, we are at that point there.
“Many things were said at the beginning of the year by me. Some I can confirm, some I cannot.” Already here you can see the air in the air. But then comes the real blow: “I don’t deny anything, but you realize some situations. And I don’t feel like confirming everything I said.”
It is not just an admission. It is a closing of the circle. It is Conte looking the project in the face and saying, “I believed in it, I believed you. But that’s enough.” Because if there is one thing that sends him over the edge, it is having to pass for a liar. He, who has put his face, character and a clear idea into Naples: to turn the club into a point of arrival, no longer just a showcase. And this is where the donkey falls.
Il delirio per Napoli-Cagliari: quasi 400mila in fila su TicketOne
“I had said that Napoli should not be a passing club,” Conte added, “I would not like to pass as a liar about things that were not fulfilled. The reference is clear and Conte also names names: the Kvaratskhelia case, his sudden transfer, to words never digested, to that balance lost at the most beautiful.
Il delirio per Napoli-Cagliari: quasi 400mila in fila su TicketOne (screenshot da TicketOne) – serieanews.com
For Conte, that affair was the dividing line. The exact moment when he realized that certain things, in this city, cannot be done. That there are bigger dynamics that outweigh even goodwill, competence, sacrifice.
In eight months he has built so much. He has revitalized a team that seemed adrift. But he has also discovered that certain balances rest on promises that, when tested in action, risk becoming words in the wind.
And now? Now all indications are that Antonio Conte’s future is becoming less and less tied to that of Napoli. The signs are all there. And they are not even that veiled anymore. No communiqués are needed. The impression is that the ending is already being written, and that it will be an ending without clamor but with a few, very harsh lines to tell the epilogue.
And while the club reflects, there are those who watch from afar. Those who study the situation, like Juventus, lick their fingers. Because when someone like this approaches the crossroads, there is always someone ready and waiting for him at the crossroads. And that someone, we know, is not that far away.
