Antonio Conte © Gallo Images

Napoli coach Antonio Conte hopes all goes well for his friend Claudio Ranieri after he comes out of retirement to take over at AS Roma, but only after their Serie A encounter this weekend -end is completed.

Ranieri was tempted to return to management with a return to where he started as a player, and his third spell at Roma comes after the club has already sacked two coaches this season and with the team 12th in the table.

A trip to leaders Napoli is Ranieri’s first order of business, and Conte is looking forward to meeting the 73-year-old.

“I am happy to see Claudio, I have great esteem for him and there is also friendship,” Conte told reporters before Sunday’s match.

“I’m happy with the chance he was given. It will be a difficult game, for us and for them. Last year Roma finished ahead of Napoli, they are in the Europa League and had a good transfer window .

“They are not working as expected and I hope for Claudio that everything will start working after Sunday’s match.”

The arrival of Ranieri in place of Ivan Juric not only brings the danger of the “new manager bounce”, but also disrupts Conte’s plans for the match.

“When a team changes coach, there is an important contribution to the nervous level,” Conte said.

“They are on their third change on the bench. It is inevitable that, if Juric had stayed, we would know what kind of team we were going to face.

“Now it’s a conundrum, we don’t have much information and we don’t know how they are going to treat us. So let’s think about us, there is a desire and enthusiasm to continue on this path.”

Conte’s Napoli may be top of the table, but he knows it’s still early, and with just two points separating the top six clubs, which include Atalanta, Fiorentina and Lazio, for now , it’s a different title race than usual.

“Only 12 matches have passed and many teams find themselves with very few points,” he said.

“We are doing well, but so are the others. There is not one team that has outpaced the others. There is perhaps a little surprise to see certain teams in these positions in the standings.”