SSC Napoli Going…Where?

Despite a promising start to the season wherein Napoli even aspired to a Champions League spot, the Partenopei went on to plummet in the league table during the second half of the season and ultimately finish at a lowly 12th place.

Prior to the ongoing campaign, owner Aurelio De Laurentiis had set his sights on a top six finish. The movie mogul wanted to see a more disciplined squad as opposed to last season, wherein there was much speculation over whether or not the stars were too young to handle the pressure the fanatic city of Naples was putting on them.

In spite of Europe’s powerhouses trying to lure away stars such as Marek Hamsik, Ezequiel Lavezzi, and Fabiano Santacroce, the club managed to hold on to their key-players—and add quite a few more.

Napoli had one of Serie A’s most impressive mercatos as they spent around £30 million in order to secure the services of Morgan De Sanctis, Hugo Campagnaro, Juan Zuñiga, Daniele Mannini, Luca Cigarini, and Fabio Quagliarella.

The expectations were high, but despite their impressive signings, their investments haven’t paid dividends.

Various injuries on the defenders have seen an incredibly shaky defense and along with Roma, the two clubs unflatteringly boast the highest number of conceded goals in Serie A.

While the rest of the squad has played below par, Marek Hamsik has, in particular, stood out and has by far been the brightest player in the Napoli side.

Newcomer Fabio Quagliarella hasn’t quite adapted to his new club and with Lavezzi, only recently rediscovering his goalscoring ability, the team only has nine goals to its name.

After seven games, the team has only collected a mere eight points and currently sits in 15th place.

The Partenopei have been defeated on every single one of their away trips—which, unfortunately, is nothing new considering the results from the former Gli Azzurri coach’s 11 games in charge from last season.

At one point, De Laurentiis even admitted to have made a mistake by firing the Donadoni’s predecessor, Edy Reja.

On Oct. 5^th—after much speculation—the club officially announced that Roberto Donadoni had been sacked and was to be replaced by Walter Mazzarri.

Two weeks previous to that, the respected sporting director Pierpaolo Marino left by mutual consent after having played a vital role in the club’s revival since he was responsible for bringing the unknown talents of Hamsik and Lavezzi, amongst others, to the club.

Riccardo Bigon has now been named the new sporting director.

The main question now would be is Mazzarri the right man for Napoli?

Mazzarri has five years of experience as a coach in Italy’s top tier. He served as Reggina boss during 2004-2007, when he went on to save the team from relegation in three consecutive seasons—most notably during his final at the Calabria club, considering the 11-point deduction due to the Calciopoli scandal.

In 2007, he took charge of Sampdoria and during his first season at the helm of the Genoa-based club, he managed to finish on an impressive sixth place. Antonio Cassano—notorious for fighting with his tacticians—even publicly praised Mazzarri’s coaching abilities.

During the following season, Sampdoria finished at a disappointing 13th place, but the side managed to go all the way to the Coppa Italia final—beating Italian champions Inter Milan 3-1 on aggregate along the way—where they ultimately lost out on penalties to Lazio. The former Reggina coach then went on to leave the club by mutual consent.

Although some question the eccentric De Laurentiis’ actions over the past few weeks, it was probably better to act right away than to wait until January—at least regarding the change on the bench.

Firing Edy Reja probably was a very big mistake, but letting Donadoni continue on would have been an even bigger one, considering he only managed to collect a mere 19 points in his 18 games in charge.

The situation at the club is very delicate at the moment with all the changes taken place, but there’s no doubt that Mazzarri has an extremely talented squad at his disposal.

The young side has all the qualities in order to succeed, but currently lacks the confidence and the ability to handle the pressure to do so. This is where the new tactician will need to begin.

De Laurentiis is keen to start on a new five-year project, and despite the poor start to the season, the team still has 31 games left to go.

Can they bounce back?