Agent says there is "nothing" to rumors of Sarri joining AC Milan

Earlier in the week, after a bizarre interview from the agent of Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri, a couple of equally-strange rumors started circulating. The first was that Sarri intended on resigning at the end of the season whether or not Aurelio De Laurentiis triggered the first of his one-year contract options. The second? That after doing so, he would sign on with AC Milan.

WHAT?!

The first rumor was fairly quickly put to bed, with a reporter at the Corriere del Mezzogiorno getting a look at some crucial contract terms in Sarri's deal with Napoli. Apparently there are some pretty steep penalty clauses in his contract if he resigns after an extension has been triggered and before the start of the next season, making it fairly unlikely that Sarri would walk away.

One supposes that another team that wants to hire him could talk to Napoli about working out a fee of some kind so he doesn't have to pay the penalty, but let's be honest -- De Laurentiis would never make such a process easy for another team, especially if he sees them as a potential competitive rival. The process would be so infuriating that it likely wouldn't be long before the other team found a new manager other than Sarri.

The second rumor seems pretty well done and dusted as well, thanks to a follow-up interview with Sarri's agent.

There’s nothing with Milan and couldn’t be in the future either, because we’re under contract with Napoli until 30 June and up to 30 May the club has a unilateral option.

These are misleading destabilisations but this is part of the game, at this point you look to create problems, not only for Napoli but I see that Milan have many as well. I repeat, Sarri has a contract with the Azzurri and Napoli have an option to exercise, but it hasn’t been triggered yet.

There was interest from Milan in the past and immense appreciation from [Adriano] Galliani but this is now water under the bridge. There were several meetings and conversations but it was limited to a demonstration of respect.

-Translated quote source: Football Italia

In other words, the papers wanted to fan the flames of a Napoli-Sarri divide, and pulled out his interview with Milan from last summer as the basis for a current rumor. Sure. OK.

It seems like all this drama is just paper talk at the moment. There's certainly some potential for it to become reality -- Milan will likely need a new manager this summer, after all -- but the chance is so remote that it's just not worth getting worried about.