O Gran Pascia news

By: Joe | November 16th, 2007

Direttore Generale Pier Paolo Marino deserves a tremendous amount of credit. He came to Napoli after working briefly for neighboring Avellino. Marino was part of 1986/87 scudetto winning side before leaving to take over Pescara and make way for Luciano Moggi. Yes, that Moggi. <insert throw up in mouth effect here>

Marino really cut his teeth, however, at Udinese. In 1990 Marino took over the Fruilani after they had just been relegated to Serie B. They bounced between Serie A and B until hitting their stride in the mid-90’s behind Marino’s guidance. Despite working with limited funds, Udinese finished 8th or better seven times in Marino’s 13 years at the helm (highwater mark was the 97/98 campaign where they finished 3rd). They also won the Intertoto cup in 2001. Listen, if you’re not Juve, Milan, Inter or Roma you relish every damn trophy. No exceptions.

Key to Marino’s success was his ability to acquire young talent. International youngsters signed by Udinese under Marino’s watch include:
* Abel Balbo, Roberto Sensini & Roberto Sosa (Argentina)
* Per Krøldrup, Martin Jørgensen & Thomas Heldveg (Denmark)
* He also acquired Oliver Bierhoff and Marek Jankulovski.
Italian youngsters signed under Marino include:
* Valerio Bertotto who had over 300 appearences, Morgan De Sanctis, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Giampiero Pinzi & Luigi Turci
His recruiting prowess also extended to coaches as Marino hired Luciano Spalletti and Alberto Zaccheroni.

Aurelio De Laurentis pried Marino away in 2004 to ressurect Napoli from the ashes. Two successive promotions from Serie C1 (we should’ve already been in Serie A if it weren’t for that damn playoff loss against Avellino in our first year) to the top flight are all the proof the tifosi partenopei need to back Marino. But, and you so knew a “but” was coming, when Napoli’s shortcomings are obvious to all and he comes out with a gem like he did today, it just makes my blood boil.

In a statement likely made simply to dampen expectations, Marino today said “squads aren’t built in January” and the ever-popular “if someone would’ve told me at the beginning of the season we’d have 15 points by now, I’d have taken it.” We are fans, we aren’t obliged to be reasonably happy or content. We’re fickle and we’re impatient. So let it be written…so let it be done.

First off, no one is advocating a full scale turnover in January. It won’t happen and we all know it’s counterproductive. But the needs of the club are obvious: get another striker (or find out what you have in Calaio), cut loose Ruben Maldonado, Fabio Gatti and Marco Capparella, pick up at least one more defender and figure out what you’re doing with Mirko Savini/Gyorgy Garics and Gianluca Grava cuz that steaming pile of garbage on the wings aren’t cutting it. If the squad is left in its current state and some improvements aren’t made, then we’re in for a season long relegation battle. I mean did you see Maldonado out there against Palermo? Holy crap, that was bad.

Secondly, whatever your expectations were at the start of the season, no one cares about them now. If you have a chance to build and get better, you take it. There’s no dignity in coming up just short and then justifying the near success (read: failure) by saying we didn’t expect to be here in the beginning of the season. Also, one of this side’s most influential deal came very late in the transfer window when we picked up Marcelo Zalayeta and Manuele Blasi from Juventus. They didn’t have much time to blend in with the squad before our first game. So don’t give me any lip, Mister.