Antonio Conte exposed the emotional toll of a debilitating title race and admitted that Napoli's involvement had pushed him outside his limits.
Their penultimate match of the campaign was a roller coaster, ending in a 0-0-yellow game on Parma on Sunday that saw them hit the woodwork three times and destroyed a stop-time penalty after a long VAR check.
It means that Napoli has only won two of their last eight in the Serie A (D5 L1), after five consecutive road victories.
They also signed 10 games in the competition this season, including eight in the second half of the campaign.
After Inter had also drawn their match against Lazio, Napoli went into the last round with a one point lead over the second Nerazzurri placed, but Conte admitted that the season took his toll to him.
“It is certainly the most difficult season of my career,” Conte told Dazn.
“I gave everything, I went further than my limits. I also know I am exhausted. I am just the end of this season.
“Napoli is great for passion and enthusiasm, but it also entails demands and expectations that are often higher than the realistic possibilities.”
Napoli can secure their second title in three years at home against Cagliari next Sunday, if they match the result of Inter In Como.
The partenopei gets a chance of 83.3% to conquer the Scudetto according to the OPTA supercomputer, with the hope of Inter on a turnaround at 16.7%.
“We are close to the Scudetto, but we still have to take that last step. It will be taken on our home grass, with the support of our fans,” Conte added.
“It is a very difficult campaign, we have achieved what we wanted to do, what the leaders had at the end.
“We have been at the top for a long time, despite a season full of difficulties, but we have never complained, we went on, and we are there to achieve something unthinkable and historically for Napoli.”
But because of his red card in the last minutes of the Parma match, Conte will not be on the couch against Cagliari after what looked like a scuffle with Parma coach Cristian Chivu.
“I was annoyed by Parma's obstruction today, because I was used to English football, where there are not all these stops for cramps, injuries, pretending I was injured, so it annoyed me and that's why I was sent,” he said.
“It annoys me because you work all year round to have a decisive competition. I trust the staff and these guys, I especially trust the crowd in the Maradona stadio.”