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Antonio Conte insists he had no agreement with Juventus: ‘To anyone who tried to approach me, I said ‘I won’t speak to anyone until I’ve talked with President De Laurentiis.’
The Napoli coach released an interview with Sky Sport Italia, publicly speaking about transfer speculation of his return to Juventus.
The serial Scudetto-winning coach had been linked with a return to Turin, but he decided to continue at Napoli after a meeting with President Aurelio De Laurentiis. Conte still has two years left in his contract at the Stadio Maradona.
“What upsets me is that, just a month before the end of the season, there were talks of me going to Juventus, suggesting I could leave Napoli,” Conte said.
Conte denies agreement with Juventus
“I had no agreement whatsoever with Juventus. To anyone who tried to approach me, I said, ‘I won’t speak to anyone until I’ve talked with President De Laurentiis.'”
When asked whether his Napoli stay would further upset Juventus fans, Conte replied: “Only the stupid ones can follow these things. For me, Juventus was and will always be Juventus, just like Lecce. No one will ever be able to undermine the feelings I have for my own story and where I grew up. It bothers me because many people take advantage of my public image; I realise my name carries a certain weight.
“Even this year, at the Napoli presentation, people started asking me to jump and chant, ‘whoever doesn’t jump is a Juventus fan.’ I stopped them and said, ‘You can’t ask me to do something I will never do.’
“The same applies when I eventually leave Napoli. It’s about respect.”
Conte confirmed that he didn’t like some of Napoli’s moves in his first season at the club, especially when it came to transfers.
Conte: ‘Some things didn’t really make me happy’
For example, Partenopei sold Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to PSG in January but failed to secure an adequate replacement.
“I think everyone is aware of what happened in January. During the season, some things didn’t really make me happy,” Conte admitted.
“New players arrived only in the last week [of the 2024 summer transfer window]. McTominay, Gilmour, Neres and Lukaku. Honestly, I didn’t like that.
“You all know what happened in January,” insisted Conte.
“I believe I was good at accepting and not giving excuses to my players and myself.
“When you sign, there are honours and duties. When we spoke, they admitted there had been mistakes; it happens in the first year of marriage. As long as I was reassured on this aspect, we continued. We must defend the Scudetto and protect our work.
“I signed a three-year contract with Napoli. The objective was to build a solid base, not a base that could collapse after the first [difficult] situation,” Conte concluded.
“The first target was to return to Europe, not even the Champions League. In my mind, the last step to try to win the title was in the third year.”
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