Conte on ‘very, very difficult’ goal with Napoli, verdict on De Bruyne and Lucca

NAPLES, ITALY – MAY 23: Antonio Conte, Head Coach of Napoli, kisses the Serie A TIM Scudetto title trophy after his team’s victory in the Serie A match between Napoli and Cagliari at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on May 23, 2025 in Naples, Italy. (Photo by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)

Antonio Conte admits that winning back-to-back Serie A titles with Napoli is a ‘very, very difficult’ goal to achieve, but insists that he and the team will lay low and let the others do the talking as they prepare for the start of their Scudetto defence. 

Conte gives Napoli preview for 2025-26

Napoli will get their 2025-26 season underway with a trip to newly-promoted Sassuolo on Saturday evening, in what will be their first competitive match since winning the Scudetto on the final day of their 2024-25 campaign. 

Conte is now faced with the challenge of becoming the first ever Napoli head coach to win multiple league titles, and the first coach to win back-to-back Serie A titles since Massimiliano Allegri with Juventus in 2017-18 and 2018-19. 

“The fact that I could be the first coach to win two league titles with Napoli means that nobody has ever managed to do it before, so this already makes us understand the difficulty of doing so,” Conte said on the matter in an interview with SportMediaset. 

“We have to stay calm, it’s a very, very difficult goal. We’ll see what happens this year. We’re pretty calm. We’ll fly low and let others do the talking. We have to speak in facts.”

Conte was also asked if he feels that Napoli are worthy favourites for the 2025-26 title, to which he replied: “I don’t think it should be the coach who answers this question. There are experts, and they make their predictions and will say whether we’re complete or not. 

“In pre-season, everyone says they worked well. We have also worked hard, but now we have to bring all of that onto the pitch. I don’t care who the opponent is, the important thing is that others see Napoli as an opponent in the fight for the Scudetto.” 

Conte gives verdict on De Bruyne and Lucca

Conte also gave his opinions on two of Napoli’s new recruits. 

The Partenopei head coach had nothing but positives to say about Kevin De Bruyne, but feels that Lorenzo Lucca still has plenty of room to grow. 

“He immediately understood the difference between Manchester City and Napoli,” Conte said when asked about De Bruyne’s impact thus far. 

“He’s been very humble, attentive and intelligent. He’s fit perfectly into this environment.”

And on Lucca, he added: “If we’ve signed him it’s because we think he can help the team. We signed him to let him grow behind Lukaku, so we’ll see how long that takes and how much he can give us.”