Trouble afoot in Napoli

By: Joe | January 22nd, 2008

Tensions are high and nerves are frayed at Napoli. Coach Edy Reja almost quit as he’s been on the receiving end of successive toungue lashings from President Aurelio De Laurentis. The latest one, however, was a bit more directed and it took place in the locker room in front of Reja’s players.

After Napoli’s 2-2 home draw to Lazio De Laurentis went in the dressing room to rip Reja, and presumably anyone else not named Marek or Ezequiel, a new orifice. Reja, who apparently still had a bitter taste in his mouth over the venom De Laurentis spat at anyone within 10 feet after the Coppa Italia exit earlier last week, met De Laurentis nose-to-nose and the two starting screaming at one another. In the heat of the moment, Reja threatened to quit and walked out of the dressing room. Direttore Generale Pier Paolo Marino was able to talk Reja off the ledge later that evening and now all parties are saying things are fine and everyone is focused on the task at hand…
for Reja that means fielding the same squad of non-descript Serie B/C veterans like Gianluca Grava, Mirko Savini abd Francesco Montervino while ignoring Serie A veterans like Roberto De Zerbi and Samuele Dalla Bona. For De Laurentis the task at hand is to continue to spew an artery when the squad fails to live up to the tifosi’s expectations, because let’s face it, the man just can’t help it and that’s why he’s loved. For Marino it means continuing to b.s. everyone by telling us the squad we have is good enough and no one wants to deal in January and teams are built in June and while we’re at it let’s not pick up any wingers at all because look how far we’ve come without them. We’ll finish 12th! Yay?
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* Sunday’s game in southern Sardinia against Cagliari will be played in front of an empty visitors section. I couldn’t really tell if this was a response to an event that occurred or is being taken because of some type of safety measure.
* Reja is disqualified for the match and fined €5,000 for an offensive gesture made to the assistant referee in the dying moments of the Lazio match (at least he has a pulse if not a brain). Napoli was fined €10,000 for the behavior of fans who threw two plastic bottles on the pitch. I’m all for cleaning up the game, really. I think the issue of fan violence needs to be dealt with a strict hand and the punishments should be severe and swift. Seems to me that throwing plastic bottles on the pitch, waving banners telling Verona scum to go back to their hole and good old fashioned “Juve Merda!” banners don’t really qualify.
* Just to recap our winter calciomercato deals: Sent FW Cristian Bucchi out on loan to Bologna (was on loan to Siena), Sent FW Gaetano Grieco (who hasn’t played with the club since 05/06) on loan to Serie C Monza, sold MF Fabio Gatti to Modena and sent MF Nicolas Amodio on loan to Mantova (was on loan to Treviso). Oh yeah, there’s rumor a certain useless “never played in Serie A until Reja threw me in there against Milan because he felt he should reward me instead of trying to actually put in someone with talent to try and win” Marco Capparella to either Bari or Ravenna. Wow, that is just staggering. No wonder De Laurentis blew his top. I haven’t seen so little action since I was a 13-year old punk trying to pick up 8th graders at …well, really I was trying to pick them up anywhere and everywhere. ”Hey, your lips are really shiny! Have you heard the new Journey album?” The things we do for love.
* The wingers, all of whom play on the left side, Marino has allegedly been pursuing are Francesco Modesto from Reggina (25), Federico Balzaretti from Fiorentina (26) and Giovanni Pasquale from Livorno (26). Of these choices, Balzaretti would seem to make the most sense but La Viola are talking smack about wanting Maurizio Domizzi in return so that’s a deal breaker right there.
* While Siena and Cagliari are still in the league, our chances of getting relegated are pretty slim. But if anyone thinks we’ll finish anywhere near a EUFA Cup spot with this current roster and coach, I’d like to ask you to either roll the fattiest doobie you can and pass it all around Napoli so everyone can share in your mind-numbing fantasies or just put the thing down and get back to reality. All those drugs can’t be good for you anyway.