MAURIZIO SARRI returns to Napoli for the first time since leaving the club on Sunday night and was given a febrile reception by one group of fans.
A banner declared the coach a “hunchback b******” who had “dropped [his] pants” when signing for current club Juventus.
Between 2015 and 2018, Naples-born Sarri led the Partenopei to a series of title challenges that were scuppered by the Old Lady.
And after a year at Chelsea, the Italian angered his old team when returning to Serie A with the domineering Juve.
That is despite him famously giving their fans the middle finger from the Napoli bus while en route to Allianz Stadium in April 2018.
A reference to that moment was made in a banner hung up by fans at Stadio San Paolo before Sunday’s game, reading: “Sarri, hunchback b******.
“You said a lot about Juve but then you dropped your pants.”
Sarri isn’t the only man with a target on his head when travelling to Naples this weekend with Gonzalo Higuain also possessing a strong case as public enemy No1.
After three impressive goalscoring seasons on the Mediterranean coast, the Argentine controversially left for Juventus in a 75million deal.
Furious Napoli fans subsequently burned their shirts with his name on and club president Aurelio De Laurentiis dubbed him an “ungrateful betrayer”.
And with Higuain enjoying a rennaissance of form under Sarri in Turin, the coach has insisted his place in or out of the team will have “nothing to do with the atmosphere” at the 7.45pm kick-off.
