Napoli…scudetto victors…stadio Diego Armando Maradona…sfogliatella.
The Neapolitan football club has never been so close to its roots with free-flowing football and flocks of tourists gathering to sample local cuisine and photos with murals.
However, this season that light-blue jersey has found itself in quite Darker Oceans.
To say that the wheels have come off of this proud and angelic football club would be far too harsh a statement at this time in the season but results and performances haven’t been as expected. Throw into the mix a particularly good and successful manager in Luciano Spalletti being wooed and coerced into managing the Azzurri at the beginning of the summer, we started to see a club in desperation.
You cant stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf.
The Hierarchy needed to act quickly and the appointment of Rudi Garcia followed.
Aurelio De Laurentiis & Rudi Garcia
Lets face it, nobody particularly quipped at this appointment, some would say that it was a masterstroke as previous successful spells for Garcia at Roma and more plainly Lille guiding them to the Ligue 1 title in 2011 would suggest.
But things in Napoli are never quite as straight forward as they should be when it comes to Scudetto’s and Silverware.
Garcia took over a side that had not only won the prestigious Scudetto but had also managed to successfully transition in quite remarkable fashion under the tutelage of Spalletti.
Allowing names of the ilk of Insigne; Meretens; Koulibaly leave the football club initially appeared to be the comparative nature of hara-kiri, the self inflicted wound being covered up outstandingly by the likes of Osihmen; Kim; Kvaratskhelia.
The light-blue jersey and sounds of distant street parties stretching for miles upon end never seemed to sound so sweeter. The murals of Diego became even more than memories of past victories, they became a new shrine to the future success of I Ciucciarelli.
Darker Oceans have arrived.
A distinct and controversial image of of Osimhen leaving the pitch in Bologna having been substituted with a cute and adept two-fingered salute towards his manger sums up the the Garcia Tenue.
Osimhen & Garcia clash in Bologna
In comparison to last seasons Scudetto winning, free-flowing, thrill-seeking squad we have seen performances literally fall-off La Pedamentina Stairs. With loses to a struggling Lazio, a stuttering draw with the abysmal Union Berlin in the Champions League the writing was on the wall when Kovalenko scored an injury-time winner for Empoli at the aptly named Maradona Stadium.
After approximately 4 months and 16 games Rudi leaves behind a squad of players desperate to find the form of that beautiful Scudetto winning season. In reality they are left with their star striker looking for the district line to West London and their Number 77 young protegee wondering where it all went wrong.
Cue Walter Mazzarri. Hold My Beer.
Kvaratskhelia 77
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