Why Certain Players Don’t End Up At Napoli

By: Neil | May 19th, 2009

Sorry for the delay between blogs, but it was a holiday weekend in Canada and for the last 48 hours I’ve had better things to do than write about calcio. But now I have quite a lot to write about, including a brief report of Napoli’s 2-1 loss to Torino on Sunday. And I’ll start with that.

Here is the reaction from Donadoni. I agree with him that Napoli didn’t deserve to lose. The difference on the day was that Torino exectued offensively once more than Napoli. If you can blame Napoli for one thing, it’s that after going down 2-1 the team played with a “here we go again, more bad luck” mentality. In trying to get the equalizer, Napoli tried to attack the perimeter delicately. The Torino backline and Matteo Sereni comfortably dealt with all the long balls played into the box, most of them not very accurate and hit hopefully and desperately. At this point in the season I can kind of understand the players’ frustration. For the first 71 minutes – until Rosina’s go ahead goal – the team played well, in fact better than Torino. Unfortunately the team was penalized by two great pieces of offensive skill, one from Bianchi and the free kick from Rosina. You could argue that Cannavaro should have been defending Bianchi more closely, but at the same time I didn’t expect Bianchi to curl a left footed shot against the bottom of the post and in. If Bianchi’s shot had gone wide, nobody would have been blaming Canna for slack defending. It’s only because the ball went in the back of the net that everyone looks for a scapegoat. Well, I’d rather give credit to Bianchi for a perfect shot than criticize Canna. Yes, it was one of Cannavaro’s worst games this season, even if you exclude the Bianchi goal. But most games he’s been at the heart of Napoli’s defence, working tirelessly and often without very much help. Now is not the time to criticize Napoli’s captain, and it really disgusts me that the fans turned on him because he wasn’t having his best day.

What else about the game? Napoli got off to a great start and deserved the 1-0 lead. But like the previous week against Lecce, they didn’t go for the kill and it came back to haunt them. Donadoni said (not in the goal.com report) that the team should have done better dealing with the lead. I think part of protecting a lead is not sitting back, and going out and taking risks to make it a bigger lead. Napoli has won only two games this season by more than one goal – a pair of 3-0 wins at home to Reggina and Lecce – and being content with one goal leads is why Napoli is sitting in 13th and not higher.

Here are the highlights, with commentary by the celebrated Raffaele Auriemma:

And here are le pagelle. The numbers are all over the place, which means it was the kind of game that different people viewed in different ways. Again, from the way I saw the game Napoli played better than Torino but only lost because Torino had better execution on the offensive end. For those who saw the game, share your own views in the comments section. Now onto other things.

The Difference Between Lecce and Torino

Barring a miracle, Lecce is going to be relegated and Torino will likely survive. Since Napoli played those two teams in recent weeks, I noticed an important difference between the two teams. Lecce fought bravely, showed a great deal of character, but were short on quality and had to settle for a draw. Torino didn’t play very well, didn’t spend the whole game fighting with passion, but they demonstrated quality and won the game. Things like character, bravery, and perseverance are great things to have but they can’t win games by themselves. A team needs that small edge in quality; Torino has it and Lecce doesn’t. That’s why the southerners will be in Serie B next year. There’s nothing I like more than watching a hard working underdog team defy the odds and beat out teams with more quality, but these are exceptions and more often it’s the team with quality that wins out.

The Verdict on Donadoni Thus Far

It’s amazing how many people want Don out after just four months, or didn’t even want him in the first place. In my opinion this is terrible short term thinking. Yes, I’m a little disappointed at Napoli’s record since Don took over. Most true Napoli fans probably are. But I don’t think winning games is his immediate concern. It sounds strange, because results are what matter, but when Don came in the season was basically already lost and a number of key starters – Iezzo, Maggio, Gargano – were ruled out for the rest of the season. It’s unfair to judge a manager when he can’t even field his best starting eleven even once. I think one of Don’s main goals was working bench players in. This was something Reja faild at, and Napoli’s slide started when injuries and susepensions started piling up. Donadoni is trying to give everyone confidence again, and as a consequence some of the results haven’t been as good as expected. I’m looking forward to next season when Don will get a fresh start with a new look Napoli.

Why Certain Players Don’t End Up At Napoli

Maybe in your line of business, when you want something done, you just go out and do it. The world of calcio is a little different. Sometimes it’s very difficult to get certain players at certain teams. There are many negotiations – between buying club and selling club, between buying club and player, between player and agent, between player and potential manager – and if one of these negotiations breaks down it can block the move. And when deals don’t get done, the reasons behind it are often not made public. So to be honest, I have no idea why certain players don’t end up at Napoli. I’ll use Bochetti as an example. When he was with Frosinone, Napoli and other clubs were tracking him. Obviously Napoli failed to get him, but why? Maybe he wanted to play for Gasperini rather than Reja (I certainly would.) I have no idea why Napoli didn’t get Bochetti, and with most players fans will never know the real reasons why certain deals are done and others are not. Maybe Bochetti wanted to play in Genoa because there’s less pressure there. Very few Napoletano would actually go public and say they don’t want to play for Napoli. It’s just not politically correct. In fact, many of them do the opposite and give general, ambiguous statements about wanting to play for Napoli one day. Well, you can’t read too much into these. The players who really want to play for Napoli are the ones who are finding ways to get there. If a player doesn’t want to leave his current team to come to Napoli, it might not be because the club doesn’t want him.

But sometimes it is. Fabio Cannavaro is a perfect example of why moves sometimes don’t go through. Our President will simply not pay loads of money for an experienced defender. De Laurentiis is the one that writes the paychecks, and he gets to decide how the project is run. Maybe all the fans, players, and managers want Cannavaro back at Napoli rather than Juve. But DeLa is the final authority, and he will always get his way. I’m not sure of this, but I believe Marino has to get every transfer and contract approved by DeLa before it goes through. So sometimes, when a player doesn’t arrive, it’s simply because we have a stubborn President.

My overall point is that it’s not realistic to expect certain transactions. Many of them are invented by the media and are never a real possibility. Look at what Donadoni has to say about Antonio Cassano coming to Napoli. Everything Don says is true. You just can’t expect players at your club because you want them and the media is writing stories about it. And that’s why many arrivals at Napoli are complete surprises.

On The Firing of Ranieri

I don’t follow Juve too closely, but here are some general observations from a Serie A fan. One, I didn’t expect Juve to win either Serie A or the Champions League this year. If you look at Juve’s players, they’re simply not as good as players on Inter, or Chelsea, or other European clubs. Players like Poulsen, Sissoko, Grygera, and Salihamidzic are very good, but they don’t exactly give me visions of Juve conquering Europe. Most of the roster can be divided into two main groups: veterans like Del Piero, Nedved, Camoranesi, Trezeguet, and Zebina who are still valuable but past their prime, and young players like Chiellini, De Ceglie, Ariaudo, Marchisio, Giovinco who are valuable but not yet in their prime. In today’s brutally competitive game, you need a large core of players in their prime to win. Look at Spain’s Euro 2008 team: most of those players were playing the best football of their careers, regardless of age. That’s what you need to win, and Juve simply don’t have those players.

The only thing Ranieri had a chance at winning this year was the Coppa, and I was surprised by their exit to Lazio. If there were uncertainties about Ranieri’s position – and apparently there were – he should have been fired immediately after the Coppa loss – I mean less than 24 hours after – or been given the backing to finish up the season. The club turned Ranieri into a lame duck manager – first by giving him expectations that almost nobody could achieve, and secondly by not protecting him when they ran into a bit of trouble. If I was a Juve fan, I would want a new board of directors, one that would start bringing in world champion players, not just very good ones like Legrottaglie, Marchionni, and Mellberg. But I’m not a Juve fan, and maybe I’ve missed the boat about their team.

That’s all for today, but I believe I got everything off my chest that has been building up over the last week.