Azzurri Tidbits

By: fortunato | April 2nd, 2008

With his second half appearance against Palermo this past Sunday, Uruguayan midfielder Mariano Bogliacino has appeared in 100 games with Napoli, totaling 13 goals over his Napoli career and in my opinon, his most memorable goal came in Serie B against Juventus at the San Paolo on November 6, 2006 . Despite the fact he commenced as a Serie C1 player, I like the spark and energy that Mariano has brought to the A team this year and do feel there is a place for him, albeit as a reserve, for the 2008/2009 season. Auguri Mariano and here is a recap of the hilights from that Napoli-Juvenuts game (look closely and you’ll also see Zalayeta playing for the prison stripers)!!!

Believe it or not, Napoli has four existing players on their roster that have eclipsed the 100 game mark in azzurri colours: Ex-captain Francesco Montervino (130), Roberto Carlos Sosa (112), Emanuele Calaiò (111) and Gianluca Grava (104).

The leader of the PDL Silvio Berlusconi has virtually guaranteed that Napoli and Milan will play in the Champions League together one day. Berlusconi went on record to say that the work done by Aurelio de Laurentiis has been commendable and proper and also goes on to credit de Laurentiis’ movie entrepreneurial talents. It’s nice to hear the kind words of the great Silvio but Berlusconi’s words don’t mean anything to me and I hope he hasn’t gone about cursing our team with his words. As you can see I am not a fan of his and believe these words are more campaigning for southern votes than anything else.

Fifteen days removed from surgery to repair the crucial ligament in his left knee, striker Marcelo Zalayeta began his therapy today. Zalayeta injured his knee in the return Napoli-Roma match (the Partenopei’s last loss) and he was operated on March 17 in Rome. It’s expected that the therapy will be long and hard and at best they can expect Marcelo to be back onto the pitch training, sometime in October. With any luck, we’ll get ourselves a real legitimate world class striker to play with Lavezzi over the summer and Zalayeta will make a great reserve in 2008/2009, as he was with Juventus.

As I reported in my Napoli-Palermo wrap up, midfielder Manuele Blasi is disqualified (again) for back to back yellows. Mister Reja, please I don’t want to see Grava, at all and I would rather not see either Savini and/or Garics on the pitch at the same time. Given how terrible Savini looked against Palermo, please give me a midfield combination of Hamsik-Pazienza-Mannini-Gargano-Garics, even if some of them are somewhat out of place. I’ll take my chances.

Marek Hamsik wants to stay with Napoli and is seeking a long term contract. The Slovakian has gone on record to say that his head and his heart remain tied to Napoli. Rumor has it that the 20 year old will extend his existing contract until 2013 in the next few days. Reports have surfaced that the bianconeri from Juventus have been coveting Hamsik and his stock, as is clearly evident, has risen tremendously since Napoli signed him from Brescia during the 2007 summer transfer market. This guy can play, flat out and the scary thing is, the dude is only 20 years old. The sky is the limit for Hamsik and along with Lavezzi and Santacroce (another Brescia pickup) it is appearing that these three will form the cornerstones of our team for many years to come. Bravo a Marino and DeLaurentiis if they can lock them up and out of the reach of the rich, filthy northern teams!!!!

Speaking of signings, DeLaurentiis has stated that coach Edy Reja has always wanted one year contracts throughout his tenure with Napoli. The boss has stated that having known Edy for 4 years, he considers him “one of the family” BUT DeLaurentiis states that “..Edy has to also make the commitment that he wants to be here beyond this year. If by chance he decides he doesn’t want to stay, I will understand and we will remain friends”.
All close to the team believe, as I have since the infamous Empoli massacre at the San Paolo in January, where DeLaurentiis ripped Reja a “new one” for all to see, that Reja’s last game as Napoli manager will be the Napoli-Milan game at the San Paolo in May. Thanks for what you’ve done Edy but you’ve thoughly perplexed a lot of fans this year and it may well be time bid all of us addio.