NAPOLI WERE BARELY AN HOUR into their celebrations when the questions intruded. Club owner Aurelio De Laurentiis wouldn't say whether Antonio Conte, the manager who resurrected Napoli from last season's horrific 10th-place finish, would return next month. He would try his best, beg even, but wouldn't force Conte to stay.

Conte avoided the subject altogether, saying now was the time to celebrate the club's fourth Scudetto, won on the final day of a grueling campaign, and that he and De Laurentiis were celebrating together.

Napoli had been here before. The 2023 Scudetto was less the opening of an era than the end, with one of its chief architects, Luciano Spalletti, parting ways shortly after winning their first Serie A title in 33 years. Talk of his departure didn't ruin the party at all. Nor did the nagging feeling that their other heroes, Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, could skip town. Fans partied in Fuorigrotta, the rugged suburb around the Stadio Diego Maradona, and in Piazza del Plebiscito, the main square in the heart of the city, all the same.

But the very suggestion of a coaching change so soon after such a triumphant achievement reveals a fundamental issue at the club: It's big enough to attract winners but not exactly where they want to stay.

Much of that's down to the way De Laurentiis manages Napoli. Conte admitted they're winners who have different ways of winning. De Laurentiis always tries to spend within Napoli's means. Conte wants the players he wants, and that's how it is. But De Laurentiis will never lose a power struggle. Turnover is less of a defect than it is a feature of his teams, and if he continues to replenish his squad, he'll continue to have the support of the entire city.

But he can't take all the credit this time around. If the last Scudetto was De Laurentiis' crowning achievement, arriving nearly two decades after he lifted the club from bankruptcy, this one belongs to Conte.