The Nerazzurri president: “Conte is a good communicator, but his team is the favorite.” And on the transfer market: “We’re not holding anyone back, but Frattesi has never expressed any intention of leaving”

The usual back-and-forth between Antonio Conte and Beppe Marotta. After this afternoon’s victory over Cremonese, the Scudetto-winning coach said: “Napoli isn’t yet capable of leading the pack for many reasons. We’ve just started down a path, and structurally we aren’t ready. Juventus, Milan, and Inter are different in terms of structure, reserve teams, payroll, and asset value. If a team other than these three wins, they’ve done something extraordinary. You can’t bury your head in the sand if there’s a difference; then you try to bridge that gap on the field, but we’re talking about different realities.”

And here is Marotta’s response to DAZN before the match against Atalanta. “I don’t want to get into a debate. Conte is a good coach and a good communicator. He knows how to divert attention and manage communication. Napoli is clearly the favorite; they’re the defending champions, they’ve invested significant funds, and they have technical consistency—they’re the only ones who haven’t changed coaches. We’ve changed our model and invested in young players. We’ll all give it our all until the very end, but I believe that Napoli, based on merit, is the serious contender for the final victory.” Marotta then spoke about Frattesi: “We don’t want to hold anyone back. That’s not the case with Frattesi, though, because he hasn’t expressed any intention of leaving. We’ll have the chance to discuss this with him.” And he ruled out a possible arrival of Palestra: “I can rule out Palestra as a target for us. He’s an Atalanta player: there’s no point in pursuing avenues that lead nowhere. We know it’s a lean transfer market, where there aren’t many options, but Inter and the others have an obligation to see if they can add something to this team.”