‘Furious’ club owner has typical strop, Southampton need to ride this one out

 

Corriere dello Sport report on Monday that Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has had a strop. Napoli drew 1-1 with Palermo at home on Sunday and that meant they didn’t leapfrog AS Roma into second place.

The Italian newspaper report that despite Napoli coming to an agreement with Southampton (the figures in this claim are stated as €17m plus €3m in bonuses) De Laurentiis’ rage after the match led him to become so ‘furious’ that he’s ‘frozen’ the sale.

Ridiculous, right? Well, yes, but this is Aurelio De Laurentiis so it’s no surprise. The film producer is notoriously ‘eccentric’ and has had many emotional run-ins with journalists and footballers.

There’s every chance he’ll calm down and get the deal done, but Southampton need to let him have his strop, perhaps empathise with his anger, and then try and get the Gabbiadini deal smoothed through.

Sniping back at the Napoli president would be justified, but it would also make things worse.