“These Things Happen, It's Part Of The Growth Process”

Written By Onyeka Daniel

It started out well for current Serie A leaders, Napoli at the Stadio Olimpico as they took the lead into the half time break against Roma in their own round of match but eventually conceded a late goal to drop points for the first time in their last 5 games played.

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And for Antonio Conte, he seemed visibly irritated after Napoli conceded a stoppage-time equaliser against Roma, leaving with ‘a bitter taste in the mouth, but at least it shows we are feared. The Partenopei were hoping to take full advantage of the fact Inter were held to a 1-1 draw by Milan.

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Also, third-place Atalanta also stalled on Saturday. It was all going to plan when Leonardo Spinazzola’s well-placed lob opened the scoring at the Stadio Olimpico, but Angelino’s volley through a sea of legs in stoppages allowed Roma to snatch a 1-1 result.

When he arrived for the post-match interview, he heard the end of Gianluca Mancini’s comments saying Roma created many chances and Napoli only threatened the once. “Maybe he didn’t realise what was happening because he was inside the game, or saw a different match,” shrugged a visibly irritated Conte on DAZN.

“A draw away to Roma is not a bad result, while seeing Roma celebrate like crazy to score a late equaliser against us also means we are doing something important here. Without doubt, we could’ve done better on that situation, because Angelino scored the same goal he did against Eintracht Frankfurt and we had studied that video.“

Roma were coming off seven consecutive victories at the Olimpico, which is always a tough place to play. We inevitably leave here with a bitter taste in the mouth, because we were leading until the 92nd minute without even particularly suffering under pressure.

“These things happen, it’s part of the growth process for these lads. It’s another point in the locker and we go forward, happy with what we are doing and the gradual improvement.” Conte has always been adamant that Napoli should not be seen as the Scudetto favourites, nor even necessarily strong contenders, insisting their progress has been faster than expected.

“After last season, there were a lot of problems here, as they ended with 53 points and we now are already on 54. After such a negative campaign, we had to press the reset button and start from scratch both in terms of self-esteem and tactically.”

“As so many players arrived late in the summer, we had to go through a few different outfits to find the one that suited this squad. Now we are a team and seeing how joyful Roma were at getting a last-minute draw at home proves they fear us.”

“Our last three games were against Atalanta, Juventus and Roma, we picked up seven points. If I had been told before them that we’d get those results, I would’ve happily taken it. We must learn that details make the difference and work to learn from this, because we have to finish games off sooner.”

“Nonetheless, the players are doing something remarkable.” Finally, Conte was asked if he believes Napoli will find a replacement for PSG-bound Khvicha Kvaratskhelia before the end of this transfer window. “I saw the transfer deadline was moved to February 3, it keeps getting longer rather than shorter, and this is an absurd period for coaches.”

“It creates instability and it is not something that we want,” shrugged the coach. Meanwhile, the club director, Giovanni Manna insisted that Allan Saint-Maximin is still not a Napoli player and confirms interest in Pietro Comuzzo.

The former Juventus executive made these statements before kick-off where he talked about issues relating to the club and the transfer market. They have sold Kvaratskhelia for around €70m this month but haven’t yet found a replacement.

They’ve been in talks with Alejandro Garnacho and Karim Adeyemi for several weeks, but Fenerbahce’s Saint-Maximin now seems to be the closest target. “We lost a great player. January is always difficult, and we did what we could within our capabilities,” Manna told DAZN.

“Saint-Maximin is not our player; we’ll see what happens.” The French winger could join Napoli on loan, allowing the Partenopei to make a relatively big investment in Fiorentina centre-back Comuzzo. “Certainly, this has been a complicated transfer window for us because we had to part company from one of our best players,” Manna continued.

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“We are working on it. Comuzzo is a player with great potential who interests us, but we don’t want to go beyond our parameters. We know it’s complicated, but we’ll try our best.” He further added. The deadline for Italian teams to sign new players is today’s midnight, February 3.

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