O Vesuvio news

By: Joe | August 28th, 2008

It’s almost the end of the calciomercato season and things are still very much in flux for the Azzurri. With the transfer market set to close on Monday, Napoli Direttore Generale, Pier Paolo Marino has little time left to tie up some loose ends.

Tomasz Jodlowiec finally signed for 1.3 million euros ending what was a month-long saga. It was never quite clear what the hold up was, outside of his Polish club not wanting him to leave but desperate for the money regardless. Marino signed the Polish central defender, often favorably compared to Fabio Cannavaro, and he’s currently at Castelvolturno (where Napoli train) for a physical. I doubt he’ll ever captain a World Cup winning side but that’s high praise. In any case, the squad needed some depth on the backline and Jodlowiec should provide cover for the starting defenders expected to be Santacroce-Cannavaro-Contini. Jodlowiec won’t play in today’s EUFA Cup match and
I’d expect Coach Edy Reja to try and break in the 23-year old slowly. Jodlowiec doesn’t know the language and the central defender has spent his “entire” three year career in Poland. The 190cm (6′3″) defender has experience playing in the EUFA Cup last year with his Polish team. Hopefully, this is another young diamond uncovered by Marino. He doesn’t make many mistakes so I trust him implicitly here.

Mirko Savini: Savini has been with Napoli since De Laurentis’ second year in charge of the Azzurri. The 29-year old left winger has been displaced by Napoli youth product Luigi Vitale and Marino has been looking to sell him off since the preseason. Sky journalist Gianluca Di Marzio indicates that while much of the talk of Savini’s destination is focused on Catania, Di Marzio believes Savini’s destination lies north. Negotiations with newly-promoted Chievo Verona are said to be almost complete. Savini is interested in Chievo as he’s likely to play more for the gialloblu than the Sicilian Catania side.

Roberto De Zerbi: The purchase of German Denis and the resurgence of Inacio Pia means De Zerbi is another player who’ll likely get the Dalla Bona treatment and find more time in the stands then even on the bench. Catania has floated the idea of swapping Giuseppe Colucci for De Zerbi. Colucci has recovered from a horrible injury two years ago and made 25 appearances for Walter Zenga’s club last year. Colucci broke into Italian football as a 16-year old playing for Serie B side Foggia but hasn’t really delivered on his early promise. Unless Giuseppe has updates to the compromising pictures of coach Edy Reja with farm animals that Gianluca Grava seems to have extended his career with, I don’t see Colucci getting any playing time and the deal is much more likely to benefit Catania.

Maurizio Domizzi: Really not sure what else to say about the Roman red ass. Marino put a 6 million euro tag on his head and although teams are interested, no one seems to have come close to the asking price. It appears Napoli has no intention of selling him off for less than their asking price and Domizzi is now caught in between. At this point, he’s no longer training with the squad because of slight injuryand he’s pretty much backed himself into a corner. Domizzi keeps citing “personal reasons” for his desire to leave Napoli and you’d think
at a certain point he’d realize he’s in the prime of his career and can’t afford to lose his spot. But things are getting bad for Domizzi as he’s now displaced from the starting XI, had next to no playing time (none in the EUFA Cup and little in friendlies) and unless De Laurentis and Marino stop playing chicken, he’s going to find himself on the bench or in the stands fighting for scrap playing time. The standing rumour around Domizzi’s “personal reasons” have to do with an alleged affair his wife had/is having/wants to have with keeper Genarro Iezzo. All in all, I’d say Napoli is getting rid of the wrong player if that’s the case. I don’t see Iezzo recapturing the form he had a few years ago and, despite some bad stretches last year, Domizzi can provide a threat down the left flank with his crosses and booming free kicks.

In a few hours, Napoli will host Albanian side FC Vllanznia in the return leg of the their second qualifying round match for the UEFA Cup. Napoli holds a 3-0 lead and will have to surrender three goals at the San Paolo, without scoring one of their own, to take the match into extra time or lose by three goals in order to not advance. The first leg of round 1 is September 18 and the second leg is October 2. If Napoli can manage to get past today and the round 1, they’ll enter into the UEFA Cup group stages and will be guaranteed at least two more European nights at the San Paolo…if the house is a-rockin’ don’t bother knockin’.

FORZA NAPOLI!