Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis has defended his decision to place the Partenopei squad in ritiro to concentrate on improving for the end of the season.
The Neapolitans were knocked out of the Coppa Italia after a 1-0 defeat at home to Lazio on Wednesday night, a disappointment that coincides with falling to sixth-place in Serie A – prompting the president to send them to a ritiro training camp away from the city.
“Napoli is a city full of distractions and now is the time of full concentration with success needing to be based on discipline,” the Italian tweeted – before telling Kiss Kiss Napoli: “Something is wrong and to regain enthusiasm we must get together and discuss it.
“Putting them in ritiro is not a punishment, it will serve to unite the group.
De Laurentiis’ attitude towards players going out in the night is apparent in the tweet, but he also is adamant that he does the right things for the club.
“Last year we invested €98 million and we cannot do that every year. We have the fans in mind but have to build the team year by year and things like the stadium place an extra demand on costs.”
The Azzurri president, who made his money in film producing, then discussed new proposals to play an extra Serie A game abroad – an idea he is in favour of.
“I embraced this immediately. It was originally going to be in London but I thought why not play in New York, Paris, Beijing? It is a beautiful idea to revive Italian football.”
