fenesta vascia news

By: Joe | November 21st, 2007

* Manuele Blasi should return after a month on the sidelines with a knee injury. Blasi suffered his injury in a collision with Thiago at the end of the Juventus match. Our inability to close down and limit space in our own third have led to a bad stretch and Blasi’s ball-winning skills and defensive grit should be a welcome sight this Sunday against Catania. Blasi isn’t the type of player who will blow you away at first glance but the more you see how helps to direct traffic and command the midfield, the more you understand what a great deal Marino made in bringing him in. Bentornato, Manuele.

* Frosinone’s Direttore Generale, Enrico Graziani, seems resigned to the fate that MF Francesco Lodi will leave for Napoli. His Napoli counterpart, Pier Paolo Marino was in town on September 29 to see Lodi score two goals in their 3-2 victory against Rimini. Graziani is just hoping that it’s in June and not in January and has estimated a 5 million euro tag on the 23-year old Napoletano. It won’t be up to Graziani, however, as Lodi is owned by Empoli and they may need to pull him back to their side to help in their battle against the drop. Lodi led all Serie B midfielder’s last years in total goals (Marek Hamsik was second) and has eight of their 21 goals thus far. He’s a talented free kick specialist and has a knack for distributing the ball in the attacking third. I love to see Napoletano’s feature for our club but I’m just wondering where he would fit into our current plans. Given Reja’s stubbornness to continue with a 3-5-2, I’m not sure he’d get much of a chance in center of midfield. They may be either considering Lodi for depth purposes only or to feature as a striker up front. I believe the priority should be on fast wingers who can cross the ball and defensive depth over a MF…not that Lodi doesn’t have the skill. It is certainly his time now to step up to Serie A and see if he can turn his promise into something more tangible. I’m just hoping we target other positions first.

* Hometown keeper Genarro Iezzo talked about how, as a boy, he’d come to the San Paolo to watch Maradona and says playing for Napoli is every Napoletano boys’ dream. Iezzo’s contract runs him through 2010 but the likelihood of seeing out the length of the contract for the Azzurri are looking dimmer if he doesn’t return to form.
Last year’s captain for much of the campaign, has looked less like the San Genarro of last year and more like a guy who didn’t play Serie A calcio until his 13th professional year. Marino picked up Iezzo from Cagliari after he made 22 Serie A appearances in 2004/05. He proved to be a tremendous upgrade and leader for the squad as he played in 32 matches of Napoli’s second (and hopefully final ever) Serie C1 campaign and, last year, played in a staggering 39 matches.
Iezzo is now 34 and has not shown the command of his own area and the stinginess that made him one of the best keepers in all of Italy last year. At times he’s looked uncertain of himself and has been out of position on more than a few occasions this season. Rumours of a swap (plus 7 million euro) for Livorno’s Marco Amelia continue to get press in Italy. One thing is for sure, if Iezzo’s play doesn’t improve by Christmas, Napoli is likely to grab an experienced keeper in January.