Aurelio De Laurentiis

... they're a bit stricter.

Who would be the better wingman on a night out, Beppe Marotta or Aurelio De Laurentiis? Has to be Marotta, no? De Laurentiis sucks all the energy in the room.

[laughs]

Well, I was gonna say, Marotta I think is more... is a lot more charming, and I think he's actually more giving.

I'm joined by Sheridan Bird.

So let's start with the first question, which has been sent in from CJ Barile, who says, "After losing eight of his last nine Champions League matches, three in a row in all comps with Napoli, and nine of his last 14 [chuckles] matches with both Milan and Napoli, is it time for De Lar- De Laurentiis to sack Allegri and is it time to call it quits on Allegri's, uh, coaching, uh, essentially as a top coach?" Basically, is he finished at the highest level?

Well, I think anyone after three games or four games, which is what the equivalent of one month in a new job for a person in an office or in a s- a legal studio or something, you'd, uh, you wouldn't wanna be fired that quickly.

So the answer's no. It's, uh, keep an eye on it.

Uh, obviously that's not true because they have dropped points left, right, and center, but I would say the season starts now for Napoli and give Allegri more time.

Um, w- look, I, I, I agree with you on that, and I do think that losing to Como, Inter, and Arsenal, um, well it's not good to lose, especially for Napoli, uh, that...

To be fair to, to, to the criticism against them, I mean when, when De La- De Laurentiis and Allegri say things like, "We can win the Champions League this season," y- it's, it's unnecessary because when you say stuff like that you automatically put pressure on yourself and you say, you know, y- you, you invite pressure on yourself and you invite people to scrutinize you more harshly.

Um, so I think that's, that's poor communication from both of them when they say that.

And I think if they get into the Champions League, get to the knockout stage, qualify again for the Champions League, not spending too much.

And then next summer, you'll see the actual rebuild again under the next Napoli project under Aurelio De Laurentiis.

Because I do think that these players have seen, we've seen the best out of them.

I mean, De Bruyne looked good tonight.

Hope you're both doing well.

I was wondering if you could do your best Napoli 11 under the Aurelio De Laurentiis era.

And this is an interesting one.

I'm just going to make a little note.

uh of uh of of when uh when when this is uh right i've got i've got i'm i'm gonna read you my team and then i was thinking you can read me your team so i'm playing a four three four three four three two one The goalkeepers, there's quite a few goalkeeping candidates, but I've gone with Vanja Milinkovic-Savic because I think he is qualitatively the best goalkeeper Napoli have had in the Aurelio De Laurentiis era.

back four three of those players pick themselves really uh di lorenzo on the right kimming jay and kuli bali in the center i don't think anyone comes close to them the left back is a tricky one because you've got quite a few players you got armero zuniga mario rui fawzi gulam i've picked leonardo spinazzola because i think he's the best player as a player overall out of all of them midfield three this is difficult because you have absolute quality players here but i can't go past jorginho jorginho as the the the in front of the defense was absolutely ridiculous as a player um in napoli ham chic club legend no discussion my final thing was do i pick lobotka who would probably get in the way of of of Jorginho well yes because I think again I'm choosing the best players not necessarily players that work in the system so those are my midfield three as for the the two behind the one I'm going with Pocho Lavetti and Ciro Mertens, fantastic players.

I think they're the two best players that you can fit in that role.

Well, maybe it's not going to be that brief, but I'll try to be brief.

So there's never been good blood between De Laurentiis and the Ultras in general.

That went extremely bad two years ago.

I think it was three years ago.

where De Laurentiis all of a sudden started banning drums flags and everything else from the stadium so well he asked the police to do that and you know if the ultras aren't allowed to bring flags and drums they don't go in at all because that's a matter of principle and I understand that so they decided to basically boycott the stadium for a few months and that turned our stadium into a library this was 2023 I think it was quite bad

and that was in the build up to the Milan game

right in the

Champions

And Atletico Madrid on high alert as the captain considered a departure.

However, the arrival of new head coach Antonio Conte and a renewed foundational vision from President Aurelio De Laurentiis ultimately convinced the 33-year-old to reverse his stance and recommit entirely to the Napoli project.

Operating primarily as an indefatigable right back, Di Lorenzo remains the tactical linchpin and emotional heartbeat of the Napoli squad.

Known for his relentless overlapping runs, defensive solidity, and exceptional leadership qualities, he played a defining role in delivering Napoli's historic...

I'm left wanting more.

You know, I question more even De Laurentiis' judgment on selecting Allegri.

I'm not sure.

Was it because he was the only available guy? So he could have just get somebody else.

I don't know.

You know what my

theory is? What is it? My theory is, because I listened to a lot of what De Laurentiis said, and he said, I've been in charge for 20 years, 20 plus years.

The only thing I'm missing is Champions League football.

Well, Napoli's squad isn't there, and it's an aging squad, so they couldn't bring someone like Italiano in, so they brought in Allegri to kind of see what he can do with these experienced players.

they haven't really done much on the transfer window um he's defended them sorry i just sneezed um no um so he hasn't uh he hasn't allegedly just um defended them um just defended napoli saying what's the point in in signing a player that doesn't improve an already high quality squad so he's kind of he's doing his company man routine which he always does he always defends the club the players everywhere he goes That'll buy him favours with De Laurentiis.

But the problem is that the fans aren't on board.

And you could tell that already.

Okay,

but you say we haven't shown much ambition, but De Laurentiis says that the next step is the Champions League.

But how long

have we been saying that, though?

Well, the last time he...

I mean, listen.

How long have we been saying a lot of things, right? And not for nothing, but the last time De Laurentiis made such a claim was when we won the Scudetto.

Yeah.