All and all a quiet week, eh?

By: Joe | January 29th, 2008

With so much going around concerning the club it’s difficult to determine where to start and what news to include. It has been an eventful and emotional week for the squadra partenopei. Here’s a recap:

* For the second time this season, Napoli lost to Cagliari. A Cagliari side that hadn’t scored two goals in a match in 10 weeks, had lost six consecutive matches and hadn’t won since the sixth week of the season. Pasquale Foggia came on as a 60th minute substitute and
turned Cagliari completely around. Napoli surrendered two goals in stoppage time
to lose what may be the worst defeat since the playoff promotion loss to
Avellino three seasons ago. Jeremy at the Cagliari blog is so pumped he doesn’t know
what to do with himself.

Hint: getting a result against Juventus, or perhaps just maiming a few bianconeri, would suffice, bro. Cagliari demonstrated all the heart and passion that my beloved Napoli have shown these last few years. And for those who may saw that Napoli simply lost focus during the final few minutes, I would respectfully disagree. From the moment Foggia came on, we had
no answers. Our defense couldn’t close down the spaces, our midfield kept coughing up the ball and the substitutions? We brought on Serie C veterans Gianluca Grava and Francesco Montervino and “one trick pony” Roberto Sosa. If you’re scoring at home that means we left Samuele Dalla Bona, Emanuele Calaio and Roberto De Zerbi on the bench (De Zerbi wasn’t called up for the game because we had a deal to send him out on loan to Brescia). Suffice it to say, it was black Sunday for anyone supporting Napoli blue. And then….

* The dreaded votes of confidence came for coach Edy Reja. President Aurelio De Laurentis said Reja was his man and had his full back and blamed injuries and suspensions for our poor form. I’m not buying it. Losing Mirko Savini is a wash and while keeper Genarro Iezzo was out for the Cagliari match, backup Matteo Gianello did a decent job and given Iezzo’s form this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if he would have been even more out of position than Gianello was on the late shots that chipped over him and hit the crossbar. Direttore Generale Pier Paolo Marino than said there’s no crisis (which may in fact be true) and the coach is not under any risk of losing his job. Again, I’m not buying that either as the perfect storm of events are swirling around the club and there are too many qualified candidates out there to think Marino hasn’t made some inquiries and would be ready to pull the trigger if things continue down
this path. And then…

* Marino went out and made some deals. €17 worth of deals. Considering Napoli spent somewhere south of €27 in transfers over the summer, the deals were tantalizing and amount to a huge infusion of youth, talent and excitement into a squad that has become more and
more predictable as they look to hang on for dear life. 24-year old Midfielder Daniele Mannini
was purchased from Brescia for €8 (link says the number is €5, it isn’t). Mannini is a dangerous
winger who plays primarily on the left side but is versatile enough to play on either side. Marino compared his talents to ManUtd’s Cristiano Ronaldo…hopefully with less hair product and without the speedo and diving goggles. Inter Milan were thought to have had the right of first refusal on Mannini and would have loaned him out to another Serie A side, but Marino swooped in and grabbed him. As of this writing, we’re still not sure if he’s coming immediately or in June.
Marino has said a decision will be made by Wednesday. With the recent injury to keeper Genarro Iezzo, Marino went to South America again and struck a bargain for Argentinos Juniors keeper Nicolas Navarro. The 22-year old was purchased for €4 and he was rumored to be leaving for Europe this summer. Navarro is a big guy who seems extremely acrobatic and calm for someone so young. I guess this puts those Marco Amelia rumors to bed. When Iezzo comes back from his injury, there’ll be a log jam at the keeper spot so I think, while no one is talking about it, Matteo Gianello could be on his way out. Then Marino went back to the Brescia well (remember Marek Hamsyk was purchased from Brescia this summer for €6) and picked up a young center half stud I had been clamoring for since August. Fabiano Santacroce was purchased for €5 and he comes very highly regarded from coach Sersi Cosmi. I love Cosmi and I’d tend to think he was just pumping up his player but I’ve seen Brescia play on RAI a few times this year and the kid is good. He’s strong and lean and gets stuck in with the
best of them. He’s also featured for PierLuigi Casiraghi’s U-20 side which can’t be all that bad.

The most exciting part of these deals is that all these players are young and up and coming stars. In theory, this should mean the summer would be spent on adding veteran players to address some of the remaining holes (forward and another winger).

So all in all an eventful week. I’m tired. Back to work.