Quagliarella Officially Signs

By: Neil | June 1st, 2009

Napoli fans had their wish come true on Monday as Castellamare di Stabia native Fabio Quagliarella signed a five year deal with the Vesuviani. Two factors proved very decisive in the move. First, Quagliarella’s long time dream to play for the team he has supported since childhood. Second, a chance to reunite with the manager that gave him his first Italy cap and brought him to Euro 2008. Teams like Inter and Juve who were after Quagliagol simply could not offer either of those two attractions.

The signing is important for a few reasons. From a personnel standpoint, Napoli are acquiring an Italy international (11 games, 3 goals) who is proven scorer in Serie A. When you consider that a midfielder, Marek Hamsik, has been Napoli’s leading scorer for the past two seasons, the need for a striker is obvious. Zalayeta and Denis have shown talent at times, but neither has been able to consistently score important goals. Quagliarella is the kind of player you can pencil into a starting spot every game without worrying about him blowing hot and cold. From a strategic perspective, Napoli is showing they are serious about starting a new project under Donadoni. As mentioned above, Quagliarella enjoys a good relationship with Don which started when Don was manager of the Azzurri. I don’t think Quagliarella would have signed if Reja was still manager. It’s a case of Don’s track record and reputation being much better than Reja’s. Other players will hopefully sign on board – Marino has said there will be 3-4 significant new players brought in – and the squad can start to rely less on a few key individuals.

One of those new players will likely be Luca Cigarini. Napoli have already bought half his rights from Atalanta for E 4 million plus the remaining half of Gyorgy Garics. According to goal.com, Parma are willing to sell the other half of Cigarini for around E 5.5 million. Cigarini and Quagliagol will have cost Napoli a combined E 25.5 million, and that’s excluding the value of half of Garics and half of Domizzi.

I’m not sure where all of this money is coming from because there’s no guarantee that Lavezzi will be sold. The Argentine striker has already left for vacation in his homeland, but before leaving he wrote a letter to Napoli fans explaining his point of view. Since Lavezzi isn’t happy at Napoli and feels alienated by Marino, the best thing is for him to go. I hope that Marino is holding out for the best possible deal from Liverpool rather than selling Lavezzi for less than what he’s worth simply to get him out the door. If Napoli gets the same amount of money the club spent on Quagliarella and Cigarini, plus maybe Dossena, it would be a great deal. Sure, Lavezzi could go on to become a superstar, but exchanging an unmotivated player for three quality ones – a striker, midfielder, and defender – is good business.

In other transfer news Napoli continues to be linked with Palermo keeper Marco Amelia. Like Quagliarella, Amelia has a great relationship with Donadoni from their time together at Livorno and then the Azzurri. Wether Amelia wants to leave Palermo or not is another question. It would take something unexpected for Amelia to make the switch from Palermo to Napoli, however I didn’t think Quagliarella would arrive and here he is. Another transfer rumour is Chievo captain Sergio Pellissier. The Val d’Aosta native has been with Chievo a long time, and in the past he has expressed satisfaction with his role at the Lombardia club. However, the 30 year old received his first Italy call up recently and if he’s looking for a new challenge to advance his Italy status he could seek a move elsewhere.

In other news, Fabiano Santacroce was left off both Marcello Lippi’s experimental side for the Northern Ireland friendly and Pierluigi Casiraghi’s U-21 roster for the European U-21 championships. His omission has to be because of discipline. On the field Santacroce has improved after a couple of red cards early in the season. However off the field there are still question marks over his attitudes. This past season he had a run in with the law over drinking and driving, and there are constant rumours about conflict with teammates in training. I have a feeling Lippi will take the Cassano approach and decide his poor discipline outweighs his positive qualities, so we may not see Santacroce play for the Azzurri unless there’s a new manager. The U-21 omission is a little more puzzling – Casiraghi has included him in past squads – but maybe he’s changed his selection policy in recent months. In any case, Santacroce is no longer eligible for U-21 so in the future we’ll see him either in a full Azzurri jersey or not at all.

Last, and certainly least, is a recap of Napoli’s 3-0 victory over Chievo. The two most interesting things about the game were protests by Napoli fans after a season of somewhat disappointing results, and Francesco Montervino’s first Serie A goal. Since the game was little more than a friendly I won’t write anything more than the proverbial, “it’s nice to end the season with a win.”

Highlights with Auriemma commentary:

And that’s it for the 2008-09 season for SSC Napoli. My next post is going to be an end of season recap, which will be more of a big picture evaluation rather than a summary of the past ten months. Plus there will be the usual mercato reports and other relevant news. I would like to keep posting regularly over the summer, but with no games I may not be as motivated. To be honest I don’t mind the break because for the live games I have to wake up at 9:00 Sunday mornings, often on a short night’s sleep. So the blogs may not be as frequent, but I’m hoping they’ll still be full of the same crap I’ve been feeding you for the last while.