Scudetto to Napoli, the 'miracle of Saint Anthony'

Three championships at the helm of three different teams. This had never happened in Italy before Antonio Conte. The Napoli coach is a kind of King Midas of football, what he touches turns to gold. His list of honours, on the other hand, speaks volumes about the Lecce-born coach's ability to take very little time to get to know an environment and a team perfectly, to intervene at the right time and in the right way to transform an ugly duckling into a swan and, as he said on the eve of the match, 'to have the pride of entering the history of Naples. I needed this challenge and now we have to enjoy the victory, after a very hard year'.

Napoli had finished last season in tenth place, out of all European competitions, after the disaster of the three coaches - Garcia, Mazzarri and Calzona - who had alternated without righting the fortunes of a team playing with the Scudetto on their shirts. At the beginning of June 2024, here was the coup de theatre prepared through a long courtship and staged by Aurelio De Laurentiis: the signing of Conte, back from a sabbatical year. The fact that he was a winner was known from the titles he won in Italy and Europe, but with him at the helm - he had only promised to take Napoli back to Europe, perhaps entering through the front door of the Champions League - the fourth Scudetto, the second of the De Laurentiis era, could immediately arrive. Instead, this is how it went, despite the difficulties encountered in the summer market (the problem linked to the failure to sell Osimhen, who ended up on loan to Galatasaray in extremis, the late arrivals of McTominay, Gilmour and Lukaku) and despite the disappointment of the winter market, for which Conte had asked for reinforcements and instead had been forced to endure the departure of Kvaratskhelia, sold to Paris Saint Germain, due to obvious environmental incompatibility.

But Conte, as usual, managed to hold the tiller steady. He loaded with work and responsibility the squad made available to him and deemed insufficient by him, he suffered and suffered without hardly ever complaining, and in the end he managed to achieve what he himself has repeatedly called, almost like a mantra, the 'miracle' of winning the Scudetto. The Napoli fans adore him.

What I like about this coach is his clarity, his way of always saying what he thinks. When the narrowness of the squad, due to a flurry of injuries, became more evident, he did not fail to direct a stylistic jab at the president, just before the delicate away match at Monza and that narrow 1-0 victory that was, however, a decisive turning point. Then came other victories, other unexpected setbacks, but in the end the miracle was accomplished.

As soon as the excitement of the triumph is over, however, the knots will come to the boil. What will Conte decide to do? Will he resign, not honouring the three-year contract he signed in June? Will he continue in Naples, but only after receiving assurances from De Laurentiis on the financial commitment to allow him to face the next challenging season with serenity? Will he move to Juve to try and improve the Bianconeri's fortunes after having 'miraculously' beaten Napoli? Or will Milan be the ones to secure his services? Everything is up in the air, nothing is decided yet and it is unlikely to be before the celebratory parade, scheduled for Monday afternoon.