Manna confident Conte ‘will want to continue’ at Napoli

VENICE, ITALY – MARCH 16: Napoli manager Antonio Conte before kick off at the Serie A match between Venezia and Napoli at Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo on March 16, 2025 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Timothy Rogers/Getty Images)

Napoli director Giovanni Manna is confident Antonio Conte will ‘want to continue with us’ next season and gives an update on the Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa contract talks ahead of the Milan match.

It kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s Serie A games on the Liveblog.

The Partenopei need a victory to keep their Scudetto dreams going, but host a Milan side desperate to climb the table and get back into the European places.

Conte has been linked with numerous clubs for this summer, including Milan and a return to Juventus, so will he remain at Napoli?

“The coach still has two years on his contract, we started this project and are completely focused on today, so any discussion is superfluous right now. He decided to join us and choose this project last year, so we trust he will want to continue with us. It’s not a problem,” Manna told DAZN.

“Inter are a strong team, we have to be concentrated on our match against a very strong team. We need to stay concentrated and focus only on ourselves, because if we get distracted by the other sides, it will be a problem.”

Napoli focus on the present

While Ruben Loftus-Cheek was rushed to hospital today for emergency surgery to remove his appendix, Napoli also lost a player late on, because Scott McTominay is not even on the bench due to flu symptoms.

However, David Neres è tornato in the starting XI and Napoli return to the 4-3-3 formation, having used 3-5-2 in his absence after losing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain.

“David is a strong player with fundamental characteristics for this team, which is he can take men on. We welcome him back after a month and a half, we hope he will be at 100 per cent to help the team.”

Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa had been in doubt after a muscular injury with Cameroon, but he too is starting in midfield. Manna was asked about the contract renewal talks for the midfielder.

“Frank has two years on his contract with an option, so this is not something we are talking about right now. We’ll discuss it at the end of the season, but we must be focused on today. We have to keep going to achieve our objective, which at the start of the season was a place in the Coppa Campioni.”