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NAPOLI ARE SERIE A CHAMPIONS!!!
72 Plays3 months ago
Napoli are the champions of Italy securing the Scudetto on the final match day 1 point clear of Inter Milan. Motts and Vos review Napoli's remarkable achievement of winning the Scudetto under Antonio Conte, highlighting the team's dynamics, key players, and the impact of Conte's management style. The discussion delves into the significance of this victory in the context of Conte's career, the contributions of standout players like Scott McTominay and Romelu Lukaku, and the future prospects for Napoli as a club in both Serie A and European competitions.
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Transcript
00:00:01
Speaker
Napoli, Napoli, Napoli, Napoli. We have our Scudetto champions. And if you couldn't tell by the intro, it is none other than Antonio Conte's Napoli.
00:00:16
Speaker
Insane ah Friday for matches. Both teams did understand the assignment. um But that's what happens when you do not control your destiny and one team does control their destiny.
00:00:27
Speaker
And Napoli, being the team that was ah able to control their destiny, got the job done and is hoisting the trophy as we speak. Deserving champions, in my mind.
00:00:38
Speaker
I don't really know what else to say. Best defense in the league. Antonio Conte, masterpiece. Serie A MVP officially got announced. Scott McTominay is going to have that trophy.
00:00:49
Speaker
And then... I mean, just all around full credits and happily they deserve to win the Scudetto most consistent team all year. All year. I'll say that they can they can consistently did their business wins draws. Not a lot of losses.
00:01:03
Speaker
We talk about Inter Milan. We talk about Roma. We talk about Atalanta inconsistencies and Napoli were the team that do it from the very other than the first game. The first game they played bad. And then from then on, they knew they understood the assignment game in game out.
00:01:17
Speaker
Got it done every step of the way. First game, ah they did lose to Verona, 0-3, obviously. And Conte came out and said, if I win the Scudetto with this team this season, it's going to be a miracle.
00:01:30
Speaker
And what did he do but win the Scudetto with this team in this season? And he... When he said that he didn't even factor in that they, so they were going to sell because he didn't know it at the time, their best player in Cavada in January.
00:01:44
Speaker
And oh, by the way, not replace him, but still be able to get this done is a great achievement from Conte. And it shows that. Attitude, fight, grit, belief can take you further than raw talent in this game.
00:02:02
Speaker
And this team, this Napoli team is the um the ah the best representative of that, that you can see. Like two years ago when they won, they had talent. They played beautiful calcio.
00:02:14
Speaker
They played great soccer. They had star players everywhere. this like This team, although some players are very similar, very different. And they don't, they lack the star quality player, ah in my opinion.
00:02:28
Speaker
And it didn't matter because Conte was able to get the guys that he, he wanted in the summer. He brought them in and he knew what he could do with those guys that he kind of said, I want these players, get me these players.
00:02:39
Speaker
And he did exactly what he was going to say. And he won the league. Yeah, that's all you can point to, right? That's what they're here to do. And you can say like one game a week doesn't matter. There's other teams that couldn't do it on one game a week.
00:02:50
Speaker
Not the strongest squad and in Italy, I think by any means. I think most people would say on the weaker end, especially if the teams competing the first for the Scudetto. And you hit the nail on the head. the The attitude of the team, the psychological aspect of it, right?
00:03:03
Speaker
Can't quantify that. Clearly made a difference for this team. Everybody was willing to die for the badge, starting with the manager, getting getting that psychological edge over every single opponent. And it's it really showed at the end of the game, right?
00:03:18
Speaker
They win the Scudetto. Scott McTominay literally lays down sobbing, essentially, on the ground. he's He was on the ground for a couple of minutes. Everybody kept coming over. and just overcome with emotion. You could see how much it meant to everybody on the field.
00:03:32
Speaker
And then who well, who else has it? Romelu Lukaku and Antonio Conte. He's brought him everywhere he goes. He's always delivered for Conte. Conte has always delivered for Lukaku at the same time. They had a huge embrace for like two minutes.
00:03:44
Speaker
Um, Just magical scenes in Naples. And it was insanity before the game and kind of after the game. Insanity. Inside the stadium, outside the stadium. Fireworks everywhere. may fire flames everywhere.
00:03:58
Speaker
That's what I was going to talk about next is the the scenes... In ne Naples before the game, during the game, when the goals happened after the game, the fight the the shots that you were seeing of the people outside the stadium was just mayhem. And then after they won, the piazzas and the squares had fireworks um going off, flames, just every single square was packed. There was no room to move at all.
00:04:24
Speaker
And that's what you get in Naples, right? Conte said that this is the first club that he's been to that essentially has accepted him and appreciated him and showed him love before he's done anything there right before he's proved himself ah because the other clubs that he's been to the inter the chelsea's the juventus of the world um they you you can't do anything but win napoli where is a good um club it's not known for winning as much obviously with their this is only their fourth scudetto so getting a guy like conte the fans knew what he brings and the winning attitude that he can bring and so they accepted him and loved him from the start and you see that and and how important and how much they love calcio in naples and you see how much conte loves it in napoli as well so
00:05:12
Speaker
great scenes um during the game, before the game, after the game, and just um both na the Napoli-Tan people and Conte have nothing but positive things to say about each other, which is great.
00:05:26
Speaker
100% Monson. Antonio Conte and the people of Naples match made in heaven realistically. And he's just going to show what he is. He's a serial winner. This is maybe the greatest achievement he's had in his career.
00:05:39
Speaker
um He won Inter's first kind of Scudetto in the new school Inter, I think, four years ago now, five years ago now. um Before that, one at Chelsea. Before that, three Scudettos at Juve and really started the reign that they had there.
00:05:53
Speaker
But in every one of those instances, it was kind of a ah bigger club that had the funds, had the players. And this is the probably the first time in at Tottenham, which is a completely different scenario in its own way.
00:06:04
Speaker
um But this was similar. This was a team last year that finished in 10th on 53 points, finished this year number one on 82 points. only major changes to the squad were losing your two best players in Oseman and then Kavaritschkelia in January.
00:06:20
Speaker
And then you add Scott McTominay, Romelu Lukaku, and Bongiorno, who missed a lot of the season. And they, i I don't think anybody out there will say they didn't overachieve, right? This was not a realistic goal.
00:06:34
Speaker
And the only reason that people like you and people like Marco Messina said it too, they could win Scudetto strictly because Antonio Conte. I don't think anybody was saying that because of the squad that he had. Without a doubt. they're They lack quality when you look at their lineup from top to bottom ah in terms of players.
00:06:52
Speaker
But this is who he is and who he what he's done in his career. Juventus, when he built up the Juventus that went on to win nine straight Scudettos, he started it.
00:07:04
Speaker
And I would say it was kind of similar in that era for Juventus where their players were not, ah they might have lacked in quality as well. They didn't have the brand names that Juventus got later on during the run and Kante was able to do it there.
00:07:17
Speaker
um But this one was even even more of a ah gap in terms of quality. Nobody, nobody had Napoli doing this. I, as much as I was confident in Antonio Conte, because of the lack of talent or just squad depth and knowing that they were going up against a team like Inter, who had 90 points last year, the best defense, made it to the Champions League final two years ago and made it to the Champions League final this year. Like that, that,
00:07:49
Speaker
That team is ah team that Conte is playing week in and week out competing against. So it was its it was hard for anybody to put Napoli over that Inter squad.
00:08:00
Speaker
And at the end of the season, he was able to leapfrog them for obviously Inter's tripped on themselves. But I don't want to. blame inter it's all antonio conte and what he he was able to do and the belief he was able to instill in these guys and my question to you is do we think that this is his greatest achievement of his career i would say definitely it has to be at this point right like winning the league with chelsea big deal winning scudetto's with juve big deal winning the scudetto with inter big deal but not not like this they they
00:08:36
Speaker
He put together teams there, and this, he didn't really have a full team that he put together. He kind of had legacy players, some players that probably wouldn't start on a lot of other teams that were competing for the Scudetto. I mean...
00:08:50
Speaker
realistically, the only player that's getting into the pretty much any team is Bongiorno, I would say. I mean, at the beginning this season, Labaka's breaking in Labaka. I would say he has a chance, but people aren't taking Scott McTominay and they're starting 11. They're not taking Big Rom and they're starting 11. Both of those players you just mentioned were wantaways on their their yeah clubs.
00:09:09
Speaker
they And you even go take them further, like, Politano was... wasn't somebody that people had their eyes on. It's like, oh, this is going to be a guy. Gio DiLorenzo, little bit older. Rachmani, still disrespected for some reason. I don't really know why, but started every single game, played every single minute, I think, of this Scudetto season.
00:09:27
Speaker
Was Kingman J's partner when they won Scudetto two years ago. Alex Morat had another insane season and just on squad alone. This has to be his greatest achievement. This is probably the worst team that he's had in a team that wasn't good enough to win the Scudetto team that came in 10th last year with with Victor Oxeman and Kavar Skellia for a whole season.
00:09:47
Speaker
It's it's it's insanity. Yeah. And you know what else I'll add to that is. For whatever reason, obviously, Conte, when he got hired for to at Tottenham, he started off hot, was able to get them to that that Champions League spot.
00:10:03
Speaker
But then the second season didn't do so well, got fired there. And that left a bad taste in everybody's mouth for Conte. And can he still kind of do that do it? Because he only is really good at...
00:10:17
Speaker
or he's struggled in his career when he has to manage two competitions. And so all the Italian clubs passed up on him. Juventus had a chance for him. They wanted Mata. Look where, look what that happened.
00:10:28
Speaker
Milan had a chance for him. Ibrahimovic said, we want managers, not coaches or whatever that quote was. And they went with Fonseca. Look how that, what what ended up happening there, right?
00:10:39
Speaker
Roma had a chance. Roma could have had a chance at him. They they ended up keeping De Rossi, but we talked about how is he going to be the full-time manager or are they going to find somebody? So they could have made a move on Conte. He was available for everybody.
00:10:52
Speaker
And if you were remember, Napoli signed him Very like after everybody, it was that there was nobody left essentially. And so Conte was it was almost like a prove it year. Like, can you still do this? Are you still Antonio Conte?
00:11:06
Speaker
And he went out and proved to everybody they made the wrong mistake. And De Laurentiis and Napoli was the one guy who made the correct mistake in hiring him. So I do agree with you. I think that this is his greatest achievement because of where they were.
00:11:22
Speaker
Who they had, the losses they had, and the players they didn't bring in. And I'll even take it a step further. The owner that runs the club, knowing what personality he is and what personality Conte is. So he had to balance all of those things and was still able to deliver the Scudetto to Naples.
00:11:40
Speaker
Yeah, and i think this off of the back of the tandem, what happened there, and people were kind of counting him out. the This has shifted that conversation dramatically because now with this, he becomes the only manager in the history of Italy to win three Scudetto with three different clubs, which is a ludicrous achievement when you when you think about that and like what goes into winning. I mean, we look at he built the team that Inzaghi is still running with and Inzaghi is only won one Scudetto with that team like.
00:12:08
Speaker
That's how difficult it is to actually get this done. He now has five total scudettos, which I think puts him in like top five among all managers ever and in and Italy. um And the conversation for me has to switch from Antonio Conte is a good manager to Antonio Conte is one of the best managers of all time. I would say he's top three for it has to be top three for Italian and managers at this point.
00:12:33
Speaker
I would say and then top five for with ah managers across Europe. Yeah, and i think I think everybody likes to... the Kind of the bar is Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp.
00:12:44
Speaker
But what Antonio Conte is has done... i mean, Pep Guardiola has only won the Champions League two times, I think. Two or three times. And he had the best teams in the world when he did it.
00:12:55
Speaker
And he's created teams spending massive sums of money. Antonio Conte has taken a different approach. I i think a comparison is probably Jose Mourinho. kind of taking on more difficult projects to build something and and kind of go for an underdog and overachieve a little bit like Jurgen Klopp.
00:13:10
Speaker
But I think he definitely deserves to be in those conversations. at the least At the least, I think he's right up there with Carlo Ancelotti in that conversation because I don't think Ancelotti wins the league with this team. I don't think Pep Guardiola wins the team wins the league with this team.
00:13:25
Speaker
I don't think Klopp does. And Klopp needs a couple more years. And I think the only other guy that may have been able to do this is prime Jose Mourinho. And that's kind of like a dying art of football. And like, it's talked down upon that, like you can be a very defensive team and go win.
00:13:41
Speaker
And there are different ways to win in football. And this, this just goes to show that. Yeah, um in terms of can could any other manager do this? In my eyes, that answer is no. Mourinho, I do like that shout. I don't hate it. However, he did kind of have a chance to do something similar with Roma.
00:13:59
Speaker
He was able to have success in Europe, um right? Winning a trophy there, but not in the Serie A, right? The Serie A is a tough league to win. So I genuinely do not feel like any manager in the world besides Antonio Conte could have done this.
00:14:12
Speaker
um And then in terms of where I stack him, in terms of greatest manager of all time, he's easily in the top five for me. um I agree. like it's The bar is the Klops.
00:14:25
Speaker
But one thing that Kante has is he's won multiple leagues now. He's won the Premier League with Chelsea as well. So he's conquered... that league and he's conquered italy three times or five times with three different teams something no manager has ever done before that is something that you can't just brush over he's took juventus from seventh won them the league and then they won nine years in a row so he built that that dynasty at juventus he started it
00:14:59
Speaker
He then was the sole person. i mean, I guess you could also pair him with Marata as well. That destroyed the Juventus dynasty that that he built.
00:15:10
Speaker
Because he went to Inter and took him two years and then he built this Inter squad, right? And then he left. And now guess what he just did again? beat the squad that he essentially built with Inter and winning the Scudetto. So that right there in and of itself, no other manager has done, right?
00:15:28
Speaker
Build three different teams or two different teams then beat them as well. um And then winning... Italy with three different clubs, also winning the Premier League with the club. So he's done it in multiple leagues. He's done it with multiple clubs.
00:15:43
Speaker
And the one thing that really ah you want to see, maybe if he can evolve and take that next step is manage two competitions, maybe get a Coppa Italia under your belt or a Champions Obviously easier said than done.
00:15:56
Speaker
But if he adds that to the resume, he's going from top five to maybe three, two, one Yeah, I agree. And I think one of the things that's kind of forgotten about Antonio Conte, and I kind of forgot until I just thought about it, is when he went to a back three at Chelsea, that wasn't really a thing in in top European clubs yet.
00:16:15
Speaker
And he made that switch and elevated so many players on that team that weren't that good. And now we see this... this being employed across Europe now as, as an actual way of playing in Zagy is kind of built off it in another way, but he was really a new wave. Everybody thought the only way to play football was pep, pep's pep ball, right? That was, that was the epitome of what you can do to win things.
00:16:36
Speaker
And he switched. He said, no, we're going to do a back three. And then we go into this season and no, we' we're going to go back for this season. And then at times it was back to his three, five, two and a three, four, three, and having that malleability and experience to go and learn. And,
00:16:48
Speaker
the sky's the limit for him still. He's only 55. So presumably he can keep coaching. We don't know if he's going to stay at Napoli. And that's a whole and nother conversation that I think we can talk in more depth about um when we do our normal episode on Monday, but we got to move on from him because there are other things to talk about with this club because it was Antonio Conte, but at the same time, players stepped up and we got it. We got to start with the players and or move on to the players. Now in the first one, you have to talk about a Scott McTominay.
00:17:13
Speaker
I mean, Serie A MVP finishes the season 12 goals, 4 assists from a midfielder. That doesn't even say anything about the defensive side of things that he does off the ball, presumably as good as anybody in this league, in being his his tackling, his pressing, everything he gives for the shirt and the passion he has to will teams forward, the psychological edge that he gives your team.
00:17:36
Speaker
That's a leader. That's a Serie MVP. Somebody that goes in and brings that every game. isn't in For $30 million, nobody thought it was going to be Scott McTominay. I think some people knew he was good and was kind of undervalued at United.
00:17:50
Speaker
Antonio Conte clearly did. But I don't think anybody expected him to come in and play as high up the field as he did. Become this goal-scoring threat that he did. And credit to Antonio Conte for seeing that, but also credit to to Scott McTominay. Because most of the time, when you bring a player from another league Into Italy. Into any other league. It takes a year.
00:18:08
Speaker
Scott McTominay hit the ground running and won Serie A MVP his first season in Italy. Insane. 100%. to top it off, he he did lead them. He did everything you just said. And then he also was the the goal scorer.
00:18:21
Speaker
Like he, every big moment for Napoli, he came up and scored a goal. They won five or six games off of his goals. And they won today off of his goal. He scored the game winning goal.
00:18:32
Speaker
ah Crazy goal. Scissor kick. Scissor kick right on cue. Who else would you โ it had to be him this type of season. what and And you're 100% right. Manchester United, he he was an extra for them. A one-way player. You want him, take him.
00:18:48
Speaker
And no, but like the, the Napoli, Napoli fans couldn't even pronounce his last name when they bought him. They had, they didn't know who this guy was. They didn't know what he was going to be. And now he he's going to be painted all over the, the city in Naples. He's going to be mural murals of him everywhere you look.
00:19:06
Speaker
Um, there's going to be dogs named after him. Kids probably will get his name. That's what it means to the Napoli fans. And. To have your best season, your first year in a new league can't be underratedly set. Like this has been his best season of his career by far.
00:19:24
Speaker
First year in the league. It's tough transition. We've seen players not be able to do that transition or even just stay in the league and move teams. Like Toon Coop Miners, for example, didn't really do much this season. Scott McTominay, new league, new team, new manager, new everything.
00:19:40
Speaker
and MVP, um nothing you can do but tip your cap to him. And then pair that with um Conte's absolute boy, Nikaku, who he brings everywhere for a good reason.
00:19:52
Speaker
Conte knows how Lukaku likes to play. Lukaku knows how Kante likes to play and wants to play, and it's a match made in heaven. And this is where Kante's quote that he said, you can get your wife wrong, but you can't get your your goalie and your striker wrong.
00:20:09
Speaker
And he's got his striker, his match made in heaven. if we Beginning of the season, me and you and logan's we Logs, we we all said, you get... 20 goal contributions from Lukaku. That is, oh my goodness, you'll take that all day long.
00:20:23
Speaker
He did more than that. 24 goal contributions, 14 goals, 10 assists, got one today, cherry on top to seal the deal really for Napoli. And then we mentioned it before, but that embrace between Lukaku and Conte at the end of the game you saw,
00:20:38
Speaker
what that relationship means. They literally hugged for a minute and a half, two minutes. It was amazing. um And those two players, very, very key for Napoli in the Scudetto winning year.
00:20:50
Speaker
On Lukaku, I've been saying this for a while, and I i think it's still kind of being overlooked. The season that he's having, it's it's insane that he's been able to do this. He should definitely be in the team of the season for me.
00:21:03
Speaker
Some people were giving Moise Keane Player of the Year in Italy, and Lukaku's going to finish the season with more goal contributions than him. And for whatever reason, it's not really being talked about because I think everybody is pointing to his goal tally, which still isn't bad. But 10 assists?
00:21:20
Speaker
From Romelu Lukaku is unheard of. Last year for Roma, I think he finished 13 goals, 3 assists or something like that. Without Lukaku, they equally don't get this done. And without Lukaku, Scott McTominay doesn't have the season that he has because Scott McTominay was playing off of him as almost like a second striker at times.
00:21:40
Speaker
And the only reason he was able to do that is because of Romelu Lukaku's hold of play, because of the presence that he can give. And then the fact that he just added this ability to create and find the right pass, it was the perfect storm for Antonio Conte at the same time. that He needed them as much as the players needed Conte to get this done.
00:21:58
Speaker
And these two guys epitomize that. You could almost give this as like a co-MVP, really, because the two of them in McTominay and Lukaku needed each other. um And neither of them perform like this without each other, realistically. Or without Conte.
00:22:12
Speaker
Or without Conte. And he had the wherewithal to say, you guys, in the next we're going talk about, in Zombo and Giza, Conte said the three of you are just going to get in the box, raise hell.
00:22:23
Speaker
And that's what they did. And I mean, Zombo had his injury issues this year, which kind of held him back. But even he's going to finish the season on 10 goal contributions, six goals, four assists from Zombo.
00:22:34
Speaker
Yeah, Zombo, for me, One of, if like the most, the most underrated player probably in the league. He plays every single game. ah He did get hurt a little bit this year, actually. But in terms of the Scudetto winning season two years ago, Scudetto winning season, he has been an absolute pillar in that midfield.
00:22:57
Speaker
He is very versatile. He has... ah He could score goals. He could break up play. He could defend. He could put a final pass in. he has create He's creative. There's nothing he can't do on the pitch. He's an absolute workhorse and a beast.
00:23:11
Speaker
He has done so much for this team, and this was a great bit of business when they got him from Fulham, I believe on a f free, no? Yeah, I think it was. they got on a free. So that that right there from De Laurentiis is a great move.
00:23:23
Speaker
And then the you have the other unsung hero of the midfield three in Labaka, who people do not... Maybe the second most underrated player in this league. he He might be one of the most other players in in the world, actually.
00:23:36
Speaker
He's the one of the best registras that you can have. You can control a game, kill the sting of a game, which is the most underrated aspect of a player to kill the sting of a game. and just recycle the ball keep the ball and go win you the game um and then you have what conte does best is he will solidify the defense and that's what we know he does and that's exactly what he did this season they only allowed 27 goals all season compared to last year i think they let in 50 60 goals last year so we cut that in half
00:24:09
Speaker
had the best defense in the league, and time and time again, the Serie comes down to the best def defense in the league, wins the league, and those unsung heroes of that group, Rachmani and Gio DiLorenzo.
00:24:21
Speaker
And I would even throw Mateus Oliveira into that mix because alexandria and Alex Moret definitely deserves a huge ah bunch of shouts. He's been kind of overlooked. But specifically, Rachmani and DiLorenzo.
00:24:32
Speaker
um I think DiLorenzo did enough this year. i think he started really well, was contributing a lot offensively, um and then had to like walk it back a little bit and was just good enough all year. Played 36 starts for Gio, 37 starts for Rachmani.
00:24:47
Speaker
um And those guys just deserve a tremendous amount of credit for being able to bounce back, hold down the defense, especially after the season they had last year. Gio DiLorenzo almost went to Juventus in the summer, I believe, too. People forget about that. Conte was like, he's going nowhere.
00:24:59
Speaker
Yeah, that, that almost happened for him to come back, captain, this team still have the support of the fans and get it done again. Gio Di Lorenzo was two. I think Maradona is probably the only other person. No, he's got two as captain.
00:25:11
Speaker
Zombo as captain, but Zombo, Labaka, Rahmani, Alex, Marat, these guys, Politano, these guys all have two. Now these guys are going to be in the history of this club forever.
00:25:24
Speaker
These players will be remembered forever. Um, it's very, it's just, it's a great all around. um So my where does Napoli go from here? That's the question, right? And it's I think there's two ways of looking at it. I think, number one, what's the immediate knock-on effect now? We have all these things that are going to happen this summer.
00:25:45
Speaker
Is Antonio Conte going to stay? are there zombbo and is ah Is Zombo going to stay? he he could He could walk. I mean, his contract's going to be up. And you go through the whole team. There's a lot of these. Raspidori, it's still question marks. Are they going to keep him?
00:25:57
Speaker
I think it's very clear that if they want to keep this moving forward with or without Conte, they need to spend some money. um Presumably, Victor Ozyman is leaving. i think there's not really a scenario where that doesn't happen.
00:26:10
Speaker
um And they will get some money from that. Cavarro's Gale is obviously gone. They have Champions League football now. more money. There's a lot of money to be going around right now. The question is how much is De Laurentiis going to put into the squad?
00:26:22
Speaker
And then on the other side of things, a bigger piece of that is where does Napoli as a club go from here? Because at the beginning of the season, we talked about them and I always had them in my mind as like kind of one of the biggest clubs or a bigger club in Europe. And we kind of have, and then as the conversation progressed, they're like a tier three club or a tier four club kind of thing for Scudettos.
00:26:42
Speaker
Like that's kind of it. Can they knock this on and become a massive European club now? I would say maybe they need to do some damage in the Champions League, which I think is realistic. But you know how two Scudettos in three years, that's the same as Inter Milan.
00:26:56
Speaker
you can You can continue to do this. Yeah. and also champions league semifins or quarterfinals yeah in that year but ah i think the only way that they'll be able to do that is one you need to keep antonio kte in there were some reports that he isn't extremely happy with deorentis and we'll get into deorentis in a little bit but he kantte has said if i if you want me to stay you got spend two hundred mil and there's a couple other things that he has for his guidelines to get him to stay so if you keep conte you can build on this and you definitely need to spend that money you cannot do what you did in the winter time to larentis and sell your best player for 80 million 70 million and then pocket it and don't put it back into the team um if they both can agree and buy in because they're both very fiery personalities and bring the squad uh or um invest in the squad they can build on this and hopefully
00:27:50
Speaker
be in this conversation for the Scudetto and going deep in the Champions League year in and year out. And I hope they do. It would be great to add another team to this mix where competing for European titles, competing for Scudetto's year in and year out in this league has become very competitive. And the fact that Napoli were able to do this in the probably the most competitive year we've seen in a long time and in Italy.
00:28:14
Speaker
a number of teams like we saw the resurgence of Bologna we saw how difficult it was for AC Milan who dropped into ninth place and have one of the strongest squads in the league spending all this money this is such a hard league to win now and the fact that Conte did it Napoli did it again again three times in two years fourth Scudetto I would love to see this turn into five six seven Scudettos in the next six years or something like that because I think they still have the core they have the money now they have the manager now De Laurentiis might have the know-how now, um and they could quickly become a major European club. And I hope they do.
00:28:48
Speaker
It seems like they have the the culture to do so. And the people in Naples have the attitude and they want that success now. i think what it's going to end up coming down to is that the owner Antonio De Laurentiis now I think we saw him this year take a backseat to Antonio Conte because he's normally very outspoken ah with his this Napoli team and he um lets his makes his opinion known this season with Conte very much kind of shut up let Conte do his thing and look what happened so now it's going to be is he going to continue to do that because people do forget that he did
00:29:26
Speaker
ah De Laurentiis came out at some point this year and said, I made a mistake with with letting Spoletti go. That was on me. He learned from that mistake, hired this man.
00:29:37
Speaker
Is he going to continue learning from his mistake? Is he going to invest rather than just pocketing all the money? Listen, I think that he does get a bad rep because. He prices his players too high and he he doesn't always invest in the club, but you got to look at what he's done in the last four years to Scudettos.
00:29:56
Speaker
He is making profits. He's staying away from the big price tag players, the overpriced players. um And he's doing a great job and I'm literally watching them hold ah the lift the trophy right now and De Laurentiis literally took it instead of letting De Laurentiis get it and walked to the to the the players. Insane moment right there, but that's who he is. That is who he is. He likes to take credit and so he needs to be able to take a step back and not take all this credit and allow the managers and players to do what they do best.
00:30:32
Speaker
Awesome. Well, was an amazing Serie campaign. 38 match days. There was a ton of drama. Still more to go on the weekend, but we wanted to hop on here, give you guys a quick episode following Napoli's fourth Scudetto win.
00:30:45
Speaker
We're going to be back on Monday. We're going back here all summer talking all things Calcio, all things Serie A, all things Italian football. We still have a Champions League final to play, and it's going to be a crazy week, and we'll be back here on Monday.
00:30:57
Speaker
Love it. Do not be a gaguz in Forza Calcio culture.
00:31:39
Speaker
Bye.