Unai Emery reported to have rejected Napoli offer to stay at Sevilla

See, the thing about hope is that it's a real jerk. Hope that your team can win a match. Hope that they come back from a deficit, and they do. Hope they can hire a competent, exciting manager who seems on his way to big things.

Then your team loses. Then your team makes up that deficit, only to fritter it away painfully. Then that manager decides to stay where he is and uses the contract your team offered him to get a new deal at home.

That seems to be the case with Unai Emery, based on a report from Spanish radio station Cadena Ser. They indicate that, despite Napoli giving Emery a big-money contract offer and every guarantee he asked for as far as structure and authority, the Spaniard has rejected the chance to be the Italian club's newest manager.

Despite some indications yesterday that he was negotiating with English club West Ham as well, Cadena Ser seems to believe that he's rejected them as well, electing to remain at Sevilla. The fact that it seems Sevilla decided to match Napoli's contract offer euro for euro surely has nothing to do with it, right?

It always seemed a little odd that Emery wanted out of Sevilla. After all, he's done fantastic things there over the last two and a half years, and now he's gotten them in the Champions League for next season. Why would he walk away from that now, especially with none of the team's he's been talking to offering the same level of football for his first season? Turns out, he probably never intended to leave after all, which makes much more sense.

Still, it was fun to dream, but now we're left with the lingering frustration of Napoli getting used to get someone a better deal somewhere else. That's never fun. Napoli now need to identify their next manager, quickly, so they can move on with the rest of their summer.