Massimiliano Allegri already had an agreement in place with Napoli before AC Milan’s final game of the season, it is claimed.
On Thursday evening, Fabrizio Romano has reported that Allegri will be the next Napoli manager, having been sacked by Milan around 72 hours prior. A deal was struck very quickly between the parties despite suggestions Vincenzo Italiano was in the frame to replace Antonio Conte.
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The news of course has a knock-on impact on Milan too. First of all, it will see them save up to €9m given the gross salary they owed Allegri for 2026-27 even after his sacking. It could also have some transfer implications, with Max believed to be targeting Adrien Rabiot again.
A deal before Cagliari
Gianluca Di Marzio has given a bit more background on Allegri’s move to Napoli including when the first talks took place. MilanNews transcribed what he had to say.
“Allegri and Napoli had reached an initial agreement last week, before the final matchday of the season. In reality, it’s a feeling that goes back a long way, as far back as last season, in March-April, when Conte sent signals to Napoli: it’s possible he won’t stay despite winning a Scudetto that came at the end,” he said.
“That’s when Napoli made a move, that’s when Napoli contacted Allegri, secured him. Then, the displays of affection, of love, towards Conte, as well as the final celebrations for the Scudetto, changed the plans. Conte decided to stay, Allegri received the call from Milan, and so everything ended before it was even formally and definitively established.
“Then this year, about a month ago, Conte decided to leave Napoli. At that point, Napoli made a move and contacted the coach he had agreed to last season again, reaching a first draft agreement for a two-year contract at around €6 million per season.
“The defeat against Cagliari dampens De Laurentiis’s enthusiasm a bit. It’s also a heavy defeat for Massimiliano Allegri himself. The parties are taking a sort of pause, a moment of reflection: De Laurentiis wants to explore the coaching market a bit, including young ones, to see if a different cycle can begin.
“He’s thinking about De Rossi, seriously evaluating Italiano, and scheduling a meeting with his agents. A positive meeting, except that De Laurentiis would like to close the deal right then.”
Curva Sud:
“Ibrahimovic is an absolute disaster, Tare and Allegri are the only real men.”
Allegri immediate signing with Napoli relieves Milan of paying a €9 million release clause and a full year salary. Securing a €12 million, two-year contract with a club the size of Napoli, who recently won the Scudetto, right after being sacked from Milan, is a complete career and market salvage for him. It’s truly ridiculous! 😄
It’s not at all, Allegri is a good coach, with the wrong staff at Milan, the players he’s been given is absolute mediocrity. It was never going to work. This isn’t his Juventus or his Milan he won the Scudetto with, this is a team filled with makeshift players, stop gaps from a previous regime. It was inevitable. The only people who don’t respect Allegri are people who don’t know Italian football. He’s very much valued, just NOT at MILAN, because he’s not a Milan style coach, even Capello was more adventurous.
“Italian football”, the football that has missed three world cups in a row. The football whose clubs regularly get knocked out of Europe in the group/league stage or the first knock out round. The football where every other year these is another scandal, whether accounting, referee, doping, gambling, you name it. The football where the stadiums are all 50 years old. The football where 80% of the clubs in the top division use the same defensive formation (3-5-2). The football where the best young progressive managers are coaching outside of the league. Am I missing anything?
I disagree. He failed at Juve too. With or without the players he wants, Milan has better squad than Roma or Como. No excuse.
Your confused mr bone head, he didnt fail at juve, unless you consider making champions league and winning the coppa italia in his second stint at juve a fail, I agree that Milan has a better squad than como and roma, but if you look at the results, Roma and como never really won against any of the big teams, they collected all the points against small teams which is where Milan failed
Finally someone with actual knowledge, ive been getting chewed up time and time again for saying the same thing. These people that hate on Allegri dont know much, youll see what he will do at Napoli, sure theyll finish above Milan next year.
Facts. Allegri may even win with napoli. The problem is milan’s management.
This statement means nothing. If they finish 5th and we finish 6th again, Allegri will have finished above Milan. Even if they finish 2nd and we finish 4th you’re statement will be true but without meaning. Our goal is 1. finish top 4; 2. Build on that and see if we can challenge for the title. Whatever Allegri does at Napoli is irrelevant, unless he maybe wins the title outright, and even then it’s going to be mostly irrelevant because it’s about what he did at Milan, and not anywhere else. Our goal was to finish top 4, he failed and played absolutely miserable football to boot. Explain how we were in the top 2 at the beginning of March and then collapsed to 5th? The players didn’t change, the transfer window closed on February 2. By the way, to “see what he will do at Napoli”, he has to do better than 2nd, because that’s where Conte left them. So according to your logic he HAS to win the title. BTW, he’s also inheriting another Conte side, which is what he did at Juventus in his first stint. Credit to Conte if he does win the title? Hmm.
That so ridiculous, if he were to win it eould be because he inherited contes team, if contes team is so good why didnt they win this year or get out of groups in cl, your clueless, he won 5 scudetti after conte, not just the first year, so there goes that dumb argument, my argument isnt about that he will do better than Milan at Napoli, its that he is a good coach, only fake football fans like you wouldnt understand how good he has been as a coach, your only interested in watching teams score 10 goals a game, go watch something else if your not happy
Nice bot! You’ve added emojis now after someone told you you’re devoid of emotion. Well played Ai well played.
LOL!!! The thing is that if it is AI, it evolves, creates a new account, you won’t even be able to tell it apart… It will become Max 2.0 hahaha
If this is true , I can suspect him he sabotage us in the last two or three months. Maybe he was in a secret deal with Napoli long time ago. The sudden involution of our team is suspect to me now.
You always suspect the most stupid sh*t. Everyone is always against Milan, or maybe you’re a lunatic?
Or maybe you are a naive idiot…
This is all rather overly dramatic in any case. Has no one here ever had a job and looked for another one? It’s fairly normal to have discussions with potential employers when still employed. You talk about the potential role, salary, benefits, etc. Then you make the decision to go or stay, and if you go you hand in your notice.
Given how turbulent the end of the season was for Allegri and how Napoli clearly knew Conte was off at the end of the season, I think it makes sense that Allegri and Napoli were talking. Nothing wrong with having a Plan B. If things had gone another way, he could easily have told De Laurentis that he was staying at Milan. Nothing much to see here IMO.
This is a very different scenario. In fact, it should be illegal. Why would he want to help Milan win and get into top 4 if he’s planning to leave to another team and possibly take some Milan players with him, like Rabiot. Easier to take Rabiot from Milan now that they are not in Champions League. What if the team he was going to was in direct competition for a top 4 spot and needed Milan to lose to make top 4. It’s a clear conflict of interest. Makes some of his poor decisions in the last month make a little more sense now.
You’re making the assumption that he was planning to leave and basing you’re entire argument on that. I’m not. What did you see the team doing differently in the second half of the season than they did in the first? Same formation, same starting lineups, except for some rotation up top where nobody was effective. So you’re saying the 19 first team players conspired with Allegri to not qualify for the CL? They stopped being effective because he asked them to play like garbage so he could go to Napoli? Lunacy. Allegri is a coach on the wane, most of our players are not good enough or mentally weak, and our management/ownership is a shambles. That’s all there is. I for one am happy Allegri has found a job at Napoli. It relieves us of his salary, and it takes Napoli out of the scudetto race (although this probably means another one for Inter).
Well this article if you believe it says he had already reached a deal with Napoli before the season was over. So it’s not really an assumption. How long before is questionable.
In most other sports leagues a team cannot make any kind of deals or even talk with an opposing team’s players or coaches until the season is over. It’s called tampering. If he’s going to another competing team, then hurting Milan would be in his best interest. Whether he actually did it or not, the possibility should not even be there. It’s a clear conflict of interest and shouldn’t be allowed.
Believe me, nobody is happier that Allegri is gone than me. I am excited about watching Milan games again after a season where all the joy of watching a football match was sucked out by Allegri’s style of football. I’m sorry for the Napoli fans who are going to have to suffer through a season of unwatchable football.
Did you not read what I wrote? Reaching a deal with another club or employer does not mean one “wants” to leave. It’s also about reading the room and having a job lined up in case it doesn’t work out in your current job. I’ve done it myself. Interviewed somewhere else, got the job offer, decided to turn it down and stay. It’s not that complicated.
Whatever it is that you do has nothing to do with it and is probably very different situation from working for a team is a professional sports league. Not a good comparison at all. Most employees are not under contract and can leave any time they want to work wherever they want. That is not the case in professional sports…for a reason.
Do you really not understand the point?
Let me simplify it.
Let’s say final match of the season. Team A and Team B are fighting for the final Champions League spot. Coach of team A has already been talking to team B about taking their coaching job and thinks he would rather coach team B next season. It would be in that coach’s best interest then to have team A lose so that team B who he will be coaching next season makes the Champions League. That is a severe conflict of interests.
Do you really not see the problem in this scenario?
I’m sure Allegri already knew what a sh*tshow he was in. He probably already told his agent to shop around quietly after the winter mercato.
haha clown show.. lol