Rudi Garcia lasted 4 months on the Napoli bench. A defeat at home against Empoli got the better of his position, after very complicated weeks. As if the marriage, although astonishing, was doomed to failure from the start of the relationship. Not spared by the Italian press, even less by its president quick to comment on the checkered results, Garcia has never succeeded in establishing himself as the right solution. And it is not the words of Aurelio de Laurentiis that will comfort him.
In an interview given to Corriere dello Sportthe tempestuous Neapolitan president reconsidered the choice of coach last summer, after the departure of Luciano Spalletti, crowned Serie A champion. “The first one I contacted was Thiago Motta. It’s not like I saw anything wrong, right? But he didn’t want to. Because you know what it is? You’re coming to take the legacy of someone who won the championship that way. And if things go wrong for me, he thought, what should I do? That’s the same thing Spalletti must have been thinking. He must have said to himself: I am leaving this city as a hero. Then I went to see Luis Enrique. He brought his people to Naples, detained me for three days and asked me for a lot of money. We even reached a near-deal, but then he said no, because he wanted to win even more. And it was Nagelsmann’s turn. I consulted five or six coaches, no more. But I said forty as a joke, to shuffle the cards. And finally, I landed on Garcia. Who in Italy had won two second places with hectic locker rooms, full of high-level players”says De Laurentiis.
Garcia condemned upon his presentation!
Rudi Garcia knew it, he was only a fallback solution in the eyes of his president. But he quickly disappointed him, if we are to believe the latter’s explanations. The journalist asks him when he understood that things would not work out with Rudi Garcia. And the response came, scathing. “The day I presented him to Capodimonte. I should have made a dramatic move and said: I introduced him to you, but now he’s leaving. Because someone who comes and says: I don’t know Naples, I’ve never seen a match… I should have understood. And instead, I laughed about it. The fact is that he repeated it on other occasions. It would have been enough for him to play the same football as Spalletti. Instead, he demanded that I fire a perfect physical trainer, to call one who… I was told: “the players like this one” (ironic). I should have stayed at Castel Volturno (the training center, editor’s note) morning and evening”launched De Laurentiis.
The dice were therefore loaded for the French coach, who failed to exploit the excellent work done last season. Between the poor performance of key players (Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia) and the desire to impose another style, he quickly attracted the wrath of Neapolitan supporters by losing several home matches. That said, his successor, Walter Mazzarri, is not doing any better, with 4 defeats and 3 victories in 7 matches…
