De Laurentiis reveals Napoli plans but refuses to comment on Allegri: ‘You know the rules’

Aurelio De Laurentiis has held a press conference discussing the club’s plans for pre-season and their upcoming centenary year, but has refused to comment on the imminent appointment of head coach Massimiliano Allegri: ‘You know the rules’.

De Laurentiis sat down in front of reporters on Thursday, confirming that Napoli will hold two summer training camps in Trentino and in Abruzzo, despite multi-million offers to take part in international summer tours. He also said that the club plans to celebrate its centenary across the 2026-27 season, not just in the summer, and confirmed that the Stadio Maradona is in need of major redevelopment.

“We are scripting the story of these 100 years. When we’re talking about a centenary, I believe that it should be celebrated for the full year. If we take August 1 as the date, it means that from August 1, 2026 until July 31, 2027, I want to celebrate,” De Laurentiis said when discussing the club’s upcoming 100th anniversary (via TMW).

“We have an impressive series of celebrations, activities, appointments that, if we were to burn through all in one go, we would not be able to launch this great concept of ‘Napoli è, Napoli esiste, Napoli è filosofia e realtà di vita’. So please, follow us on this journey that will last a year.”

De Laurentiis went on to discuss the infrastructure that Napoli have available to them. The club President is not concerned about the state of the training ground, but hinted that it might be more cost-effective to build a brand new stadium rather than to redevelop the Stadio Maradona.

“We’re here to talk about my relations with the city, the local area and the municipality and the stadium issue. We want to be considered as a great team, but even when Ancelotti arrived I said that the Stadio Maradona was a dump. That opinion hasn’t changed. Even by spending €200m, the problems with the Maradona would not be solved.

“There are no problems with the training ground. We will have a separate conference about the stadium. These structures will be a recurring theme over the next five-year period.”

Napoli have recently confirmed that Antonio Conte has left his position as head coach by mutual consent, and whilst Allegri is widely expected to replace him on an initial two-year contract, De Laurentiis was unable to comment on legal grounds.

“Napoli doesn’t even have a coach at the moment, and even if we did, we couldn’t announce it. You know the rules. It’s pointless to make a mess.”

He later added: “I will introduce the coach when the regulations allow me to. I’m not one to go against the rules. I can disagree with them, because sometimes they were made at a certain time and become outdated. We agree to play in a competition that has rules, and so we respect them. When the time comes to announce the coach, we will announce it.”

De Laurentiis assured the reporters present that parting ways with Conte does not mean that Napoli intend to give up on their fight for league titles: “I won the Scudetto with a coach who hadn’t even won it before, only the league title in Russia. So rest assured, as long as you see my face present (we want to win titles).”

He later continued: “For many, the league isn’t important. For me, both the league and Champions League are important. After the first Scudetto, I said that we would aim for big things in Europe. It didn’t go well, but we got over it and finished second. Next year we hope to get back on track after these two training camps.”

De Laurentiis was also asked why Napoli tend to stay on home soil for their pre-season training camps, when so many other ‘top’ clubs across Europe take the opportunity to delve into new markets in North America or South-East Asia, for example.

He replied: “There’s a gentleman I like very much called Charlie Stellitano, and he offers me four or five million every time to jet off around the world. He wrote to me again about a week ago, I replied saying they would have to pay for everything and for €15m, I would give them five days of availability. But, I never heard from them again, they left me alone.”

De Laurentiis also revealed why Napoli tend to play away from home during the first round of the Serie A season.

“The first game will be away, because we need time to relay the pitch after these damn summer concerts. For years, I’ve been asking the league to let us play the first game away from home, and they have always politely accepted.”

Lastly, De Laurentiis gave his response to the recent comments made by Kevin De Bruyne, who claimed that he was ‘happy’ that Conte was leaving.