Ch-ch-ch-ch changes

By: Joe | July 1st, 2007

Despite two successive promotions from Serie C1 to Serie A, Napoli will definitely face the strange if it doesn’t get younger, faster and deeper prior to the Serie A season. Too often last season, Napoli was nearly run off the park by such luminaries as Bari and Arezzo. The squad often lost control of the midfield and relied on their back line and Genarro Iezzo to save their bacon. Can you imagine Figo, Totti, Mancini and Pierlo carving up our midfield and having to rely on Grava and Montervino, neither of whom have played a minute in Serie A, to prevent dangerous through balls and look to initiate the counter attack? Wow that won’t be pretty.

This picture is seven years old, I actually had legs back then. This past week, Napoli has made strides to revamping their midfield and shedding the squad of older players who were shaky, at best, in last years’ campaign. David Guibilato is now officially gone. The 31-year Roman center back signed a two year agreement with Vicenza after being picked up by Napoli in January 2005. Guibilato had never played a Serie A game in his career and played most of his 18 year professional career with Serie C1 or C2 sides. I firmly believe it was Guibilato getting torched that led Reja to switch from four defenders to three as he couldn’t find another reliable center back to partner with Maldonado and later Cannavaro. Andrea Cupi and his fabulous ponytail will also be leaving San Paolo as the club chose not to renew his contract.

It appears the signing of Uruguayan midfielder Walter Gargano is imminent. Reports on the transfer fee vary from 2 to 3 million €. Gargano is currently with his national side in the Copa America. Although Gargano had played quite a bit for Uruguay as of late, he only came on as a late minute substitution against Bolivia yesterday and missed the entire first match against Peru (a shocking 3-0 loss) with an injury. While a fairly short guy, Gargano has a great engine and usually sits in front of the defenders as a holding midfielder. Gargano’s FC Danubio club have won the title, played in the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana with the midfielder playing a prominent role. The club have an impressive youth academy turning out players such as Diego Forlan, Alvero Recoba, Marcelo Zalayeta and Ruben Olivera. The signing probably won’t become official until Uruguay exits the Copa America (last group match is on July 3 against Venezuela) and the player still needs to acquire a European passport. The midfield makeover may now be complete but I’d really like to see the aforementioned Montervino continue working on his bodybuilding career and give up calcio for good. The club seems very loyal to him despite the fact I can’t remember him ever making a decent play all of last year.

De Laurentis will reimburse Napoli season ticket holders for the games played behind closed doors after the Raciti tragedy in Catania. As with all things in Italy though there’s a
catch or three. People have to hustle down to San Paolo between July 2 and July 7 from 10am – 6pm with valid id, an official request pulled down from the Napoli web site in duplicate and sing a all verses of funiculì funiculà.