The Project is Starting to Unravel

By: Neil | February 17th, 2009

Napoli’s players are forbidden to speak to the media this week. This sanction was imposed no doubt to show everyone just how powerful the management is, and just how worthless and unimportant the players are. Until now President Aurelio De Laurentiis has done a great job of guiding Napoli’s renaissance with a lot of smart decisions, but this latest measure of discipline will not improve things. At this point the players just need a smarter coach, but if De Laurentiis wants to stick with Reja and chooses to punish the players for their poor performances, it will threaten the viability of the current project.

Initially I really liked the firm discipline that the management used, but now it’s both excessive and destructive. It’s one of those things that risks becoming a never ending cycle. Because managment has official authority there’s nobody in the society to criticize them and their approaches. Therefore the management always overlooks their own mistakes and constantly asks more from the players. If the players start to speak out, then it’s just a big test of management’s authority and needs to be quickly snuffed out.

It’s reached the point where the players are unhappy because of too much discipline and management believes the players need even more discipline. It goes well beyond Reja’s tactics and goes straight to Marino and De La. The contract disputes are one thing, but forcing the players back into training camp and ordering them not to speak to the media is humiliating. In my last post I quoted an interview where Contini said going back to training camp mode was the players’ decision, but now I’m not so sure. There seems to be a giant power struggle which no one is winning because the team is falling further down the standings.

The solution is that management has to relinquish some of the power to the players. Right now De Laurentiis and Marino have turned into dictators, making all the important decisions but refusing to criticize themselves and always looking elsewhere for excuses. The remainder of the season will be crucial for the entire project. It’s one thing if Napoli doesn’t qualify for Europe, but if the management insists on playing power games then the players are going to want to play elsewhere and there will be major changes in the summer.

I really hope this project continues. With a new coach and a couple of new players – a striker and a defender – we can reach the Champions League in the near future. But if De La wants to continue with this boot camp mentality, then it could ruin the whole project.

Here is a link to the article about the media blackout

And I have one more rant about the San Paolo crowd jeering Cannavaro when he was substituted against Bologna. All this guy has done is put his heart and soul into the Napoli defence the last three years. He has an off week against Palermo and Bologna and suddenly the fans turn on him? Napoli is never going to win anything if the fans turn on some of our best and hardest working players. I think Canna has been over used this year and the guy needs some rest. Even when he hasn’t been at his sharpest he plays for the jersey game in game out and there’s a lot of pressure on him to hold both the defence and the team together. When he’s jeered under those conditions he should just give up and ask to play somewhere else, but instead he re-commits himself to the team for the rest of his career As a Napoli fan I would never want to turn on players like that. I just don’t get it. When these kinds of things happen it makes Napoli supporters look bad. It’s a mob mentality and it’s got to stop.

Finally, Fiorentina is interested in Santacroce, and Juventus is interested in Christian Maggio.

If Napoli management can’t get things sorted out, both those players (and others) are going to ask to leave in the summer and the shit will hit the fan.