Manna: ‘No point hiding Napoli issues, building long-term here’ | OneFootball

Napoli director Giovanni Manna notes Napoli are trying to ‘build something long-term’ and goes back over his unusually frank explanation of transfer difficulties. ‘There’s no point hiding them.’

The match with Udinese kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 19.45 GMT.

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

There was a surprise result on Thursday when Inter played their rescheduled trip to Fiorentina, which had been abandoned due to Edoardo Bove’s medical emergency, and lost 3-0.

That opened up a three-point gap at the top of the table and it can be further extended this evening when Napoli host Udinese, as Inter by a strange twist of fate will face the Viola again tomorrow evening in the return fixture at San Siro.

“In order to achieve results, but above all to build something long-term, we must be united and all work in the same direction, both on and off the field. It is a union of intentions that we started in the summer and so far it is bearing fruit,” Manna told DAZN.

During his press conference following the end of the transfer window, Antonio Conte suggested that Napoli needed to grow with their facilities and infrastructure as well as the squad.

“When we are talking about a project, there are many aspects to it. The coach looked at it from 360 degrees and has the experience in his career to do that, so I feel fortunate to share this work with him every day. There are some factors that are outside the club, we are moving in that direction for the training centre and the stadium, those too are important to grow and consolidate our status.”

Manna honest about Napoli problems

Noah Okafor Napoli

Napoli saw their transfer window blown wide open by Kvaratskhelia’s push to join Paris Saint-Germain, which Manna explained during a press conference was close to “blackmail” against the club, refusing to sign a new contract.

The director also outlined why the negotiations for Alejandro Garnacho of Manchester United and Karim Adeyemi of Borussia Dortmund failed, instead picking up Noah Okafor on loan from Milan with an option to buy.

“I thought it was my duty to clarify some situations and in 2025 I feel there is no point hiding them. Okafor has the characteristics we were looking for in that position, which is to take men on and get to the near post. He scored quite a few goals for Milan last season, he is lacking in match fitness and there’s no point denying that, but as we do not have any cup competitions, we hope to get him back to 100 per cent as soon as possible,” concluded Manna.

There are some fitness concerns for Napoli tonight, because Mathias Olivera was already out of action and joined by Leonardo Spinazzola, who sustained a muscular problem in training yesterday.

It means Pasquale Mazzocchi is the only available left-back and he starts this evening, while Alessandro Buongiorno is on the bench two months after a back injury.