The End of the Lavezzi Era?

By: Neil | May 6th, 2009

It looks like Ezequiel Lavezzi is ready to move on. He’s only in his second season at Napoli, but in those two years he made a bigger impact on the city than anyone since Maradona. The move hasn’t officially gone through yet, but if he wants out – and it seems like he does – then it’s only a matter of time. Reports indicate that Lavezzi’s agent has already reached agreement with Juve for a five year deal worth 2.5m euros a season. Lavezzi currently earns 1m euros, so he will be more than doubling his salary. Plus, since Juve fans are hard to come by in Torino, he can walk the streets without getting stalked and mobbed. I was hoping that Lavezzi would stay at Napoli for the next 5-10 years, but I’m not naive enough to think that was going to happen. Even if we get a great package of cash plus players from Juve, this is still a sad end to what was shaping up as a great story.

Why the frustration, Ezequiel?

I remember when Lavezzi first arrived in the summer of 2007. After a couple of weeks of training, Reja commented that Lavezzi has skills the team hadn’t seen before. At the time I thought it was exaggerated praise for an unknown player, but it ended up being true. In just the second game of last season, Lavezzi was pivotal in the 5-0 demolition of Udinese. From that point on, his star continued to rise until he was clearly the team’s most important player. He became a folk hero, even getting a pizza named after him. As of right now, I consider him a minor legend simply because he has been Napoli’s best player since Zola in the early 1990’s. I don’t know what issues are behind his desire to leave – probably De Laurentiis’s hardball stance on money, and a lack of privacy – but these are problems every player at Napoli would experience, and if other players don’t want to leave it’s maybe because they can’t get a better contract somewhere else.

So exactly how much is Lavezzi worth? Well, he’s 24, so over the next five years he should continue growing into one of the game most dynamic offensive players. I don’t think he’ll ever reach the same class as the world’s elite players – Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, etc. – but he’s the franchise type of player who is not far from that elite group. To put it another way, if he was English or Italian he would be an automatic choice for those countries’ starting eleven. Maybe I’m overestimating him a little, but first, I’m biased, and second I’m talking about his full potential, not his current form.

I’m not going to put a price tag on Lavezzi because I probably value him higher than the market, but I think that whoever buys him will be getting a bargain. Napoli will not be able to replace him, even if we get quality players like Giovinco or other similar player from Juve’s roster. Not only do I hate the idea of Napoli selling him, but I especially don’t like the fact that he will be making another Serie A team much better. Sell him to England and Spain so his new team doesn’t have to play against Napoli.

$Please don\'t go!!$

In terms of Napoli’s long term future, if players like Lavezzi and Hamsik are sold, it seems like the current project will be dissolved, and in that case many supporting players will move along with them. Donadoni clearly wants to bring in his own players and start fresh, and there could be a minor revolution in the offseason with many new faces coming in. I imagine Don will switch to his more comfortable 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, and a new project will be started. Even though I’ll miss the old project, if in fact it’s abandoned, it may be for the best.

In other news, Zalayeta returned to training, but likely won’t be playing again this season. Apparently he called Marino and reported he is dealing with personal issues yesterday, and if this is the case, the team needs to be patient and respect the player’s problems. However, it seems like the problems stem from a lack of discipline and if that’s the case it’s better for everyone if he moves on. Finally, Fiorentina is interested in Daniele Mannini. The midfielder has a really good skill set, and if he’s not in Napoli’s future plans the club could make a nice profit on the sum paid to Brescia for his services.