Last season’s Serie A champions won’t be defending their title. Their movie producer president has seen to that
Friday marked the 40th anniversary of the first cinepanettone – a genre of comedy movie released in Italy around Christmas time each year. Vacanze di Natale was produced by Aurelio De Laurentiis, the man who would go on to become president of Napoli 21 years later. The story goes that he was unimpressed at first, worrying that the jokes were not funny enough, but its lampooning of Italy’s nouveaux riche struck a chord. A tradition was born.
De Laurentiis was the one throwing money around this weekend, signing Victor Osimhen to a new contract worth €10m a year after tax. It theoretically ties the Nigerian to Napoli until 2026, though a reported €130m release clause would not put him out of reach of football’s wealthier buyers.
Either way, it’s good news for a club that won Serie A for the first time in 33 years this spring, but whose fortunes have deteriorated dramatically since then. Napoli’s name defence collapsed before Christmas and on Tuesday they were humiliated in the Coppa Italia. losing 4-0 at home to Frosinone.
In an interview with the Corriere dello Sport on Friday, De Laurentiis expressed regret over his decision to hire Rudi Garcia as manager in the summer. Luciano Spalletti had walked away after winning the Scudetto, and finding a replacement was always going to be tricky.
De Laurentiis told the newspaper that his first choice, Thiago Motta, turned down the task because he didn’t see any downside yet. The most productive thing you can hope for is to repeat the exploits of some other man. If you fail, you will face unfavorable comparisons.
Luis Enrique was the next pick but, according to the owner, he was looking for too much money. They approached two or three others, adding Julian Nagelsmann, before De Laurentiis landed on Garcia, “who achieved two second places in Italy [in Rome, in 2014 and 2015] with frenetic dressing rooms, full of sensible players”.
“I found out Garcia wasn’t the right choice the day I brought him to Capodimonte,” De Laurentiis continued. “I did a trick and said, ‘I brought it to you and now it’s gone. ‘Because someone who comes in and says: ‘I don’t know Napoli, I’ve never seen a game’. . . I understood. On the other hand, I have laughed, the truth is that he has repeated it on other occasions.
Garcia’s introductory press conference was truly a life-changing experience for them. Journalists were shocked at the time by the Frenchman’s failure to acknowledge Spalletti’s achievements. But Garcia has been out for six weeks: He was fired on Nov. 14. It would be hard to argue that things have improved.
I don’t forget to watch Garcia’s presentation and be amazed by his stubbornness and pride. I was so shocked by his denial of one of the most productive seasons in Napoli’s history that I had to text two colleagues and ask them, “Didn’t mention Spalletti once?Crazy https://t. co/mIGmYVbHPu
His replacement, Walter Mazzarri, had controlled Napoli in the past, taking third place in 2011 and second place in 2012. Like the recurring stars of those cinepanettoni, his role was not to delight the audience, but to assure them that we were back on familiar ground. . No one expected him to win prizes, only to repeat the lines that had made them smile before.
But football doesn’t work like that. After a 2-0 loss to Roma on Saturday night, Mazzarri has lost five of eight games in charge. This one could have ended differently if it wasn’t for two red cards in the second half. Matteo Politano was the first to leave after the sending off. Nicola Zalewski. La Roma player’s reaction was theatrical and Mazzarri lamented how the warring sides had grabbed Politano’s blouse in a match that was in a bad mood from the start. But it was still unnecessary self-harm.
The party was blank when Politano left, but not for long. Lorenzo Pellegrini took advantage of a loose ball in the Napoli box and turned to catch a shot that beat Alex Meret.
Osimhen was then sent off for a double booking. He reacted furiously, accusing Stephan El Shaarawy of throwing himself. attack in a match in which referee Andrea Colombo had temporarily drawn his cards throughout the night.
Napoli played part of the final minutes with 8 players, and substitute Natan was treated for a shoulder injury. Those still on the pitch showed impressive determination, pushing for an equaliser even after the 6th minute of stoppage time. It erupted in the Roma area, the home side counter-attacked and secured the problems with a goal from Romelu Lukaku.
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Any assessment of Mazzarri’s performance will have to acknowledge that he faced a particularly tough run of matches. Their seven games played before Saturday included visits to Real Madrid, Juventus and Atalanta, plus a home game against Inter.
Still, the question of whether Napoli have done any better with him than they would have under Garcia hangs in the air. The Frenchman is not missed in Naples, and nobody is arguing that the team were on a good path under his leadership, but it is still true that he lost fewer times during his 16-game tenure than Mazzarri has in just eight.
There is no indication that De Laurentiis is contemplating any other replacement at this time. He told Corriere dello Sport that he intends to join the squad in January, adding “at least three” players. “I want the defence with a centre-back and a left-back to help [Giovanni] Di Lorenzo,” he said. “And then I want a midfielder, or maybe two. “
The use of the first user is not accidental. De Laurentiis directs this production, for better or worse. At times, in fact, it might seem that his mistakes are motivated by a reluctance to share the credits for Napoli’s successes with anyone.
His failure to acknowledge what an exceptional job Spalletti was doing – attempting to trigger an automatic contract extension instead of offering improved terms – was a factor in the manager’s decision to walk away. Similarly, De Laurentiis has downplayed the work that Napoli’s former sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli did before moving to Juventus in the summer, insisting that Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was first identified as a transfer target by his son Edoardo.
Spalletti returned to Naples earlier this month for a rite in which he was granted honorary citizenship of the city. There, he warmly welcomed De Laurentiis and thanked him for the time they spent together, but also jokingly compared his former employer to a monster from a horror movie. “When you think the movie is over and you can rest in peace regardless,” Spalletti said, “it reappears to make you spill the drink and the popcorn. “
As always, De Laurenti is quick to return, saying that the only advances in American cinema in the last 40 years have been due to the horror genre. Maybe you’re right. However, fans of his football team would have liked to spend Christmas with something a little sweeter.