NAPLES, Italy — Antonio Conte walked away from Napoli on Sunday after two seasons, one title, and a parting confession that sounded more like an autopsy than a farewell.
The 56-year-old coach confirmed his departure at a press conference alongside club president Aurelio De Laurentiis, hours after Napoli closed the season with a 1-0 win over Udinese. Conte called the president a month ago to say the project had run its course. "I didn't bring unity to the environment," he said. "I failed because I didn't unite everyone and I put my hands up."
The matchup already has enough history; the job is to keep the reading list shorter than the tension.
It was an odd thing to say for a man who delivered Napoli their first Serie A title in decades. The club had finished 10th the season before his arrival, one of the worst defending champions in the league's history. Conte won the league in his first year. He finished second this year, hampered by injuries that never fully eased.
Conte's resume needs no embellishment. He won Serie A with Juventus and Inter Milan, managed Chelsea and Tottenham in England, and took an unfancied Italy team to the quarterfinals of the 2016 European Championship, where Germany beat them on penalties. He is now among the leading candidates to return to the Azzurri bench, a job he held from 2014-16.
But when asked about the Italy role, he brushed it off. "It's all just talk," Conte said. "I might well take time out and rest."
That rest may be well-earned. What he leaves behind is a club that remembers how to win, and a dressing room that apparently could not be unified even by success.
What Conte actually won at Napoli
Conte took over a team that had finished tenth the season before his arrival, a embarrassing position for a club with Napoli's history. In his first season, they reclaimed the Serie A title. This year, with injuries mounting, they finished second. The trophy was the point. Everything else became complicated.
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