What Napoli really needs is fresh blood, with the likes of Elmas, Fabian (if he stays), Osimhen. A Napoli team finally unshackled from the bad memories of the “ones that almost did” could finally make history
At the end of Sunday’s game, which Napoli – the home side – lost to AC Milan courtesy of a cheeky left-foot flick from Olivier Giroud, cameras briefly turned to Lorenzo Insigne, the 31-year old Napoli skipper that will be moving to Toronto FC at the end of the season.
Insigne’s look was one of a defeated, deflated and demotivated player. His eyes were low, his face expressionless as he slowly walked back to the locker room.
Napoli had just squandered another opportunity to make history, something its supporters are way too familiar with. In the past 10 years, since Napoli has become a serious title contender, a series of last-minute mistakes in decisive games deprived the club of a deserved happy ending.
It happened in 2015, Rafa Benitez’s second year with the team, when a penalty mistake by Gonzalo Higuain in a final fixture match against direct rival Lazio kept Napoli out of a precious Champions League spot. It happened again in 2016, when Napoli, which led the league at that point, lost a crucial game against Juventus to an 85th minute goal by Simone Zaza. And then there was the (in)famous 2018 Fiorentina game, which according to Napoli’s former coach Maurizio Sarri, was lost before being even played – namely the night before, as the team watched Juventus beat Inter Milan with a last-second goal by Higuain, who had in the meantime moved to greener pastures. Even last year, a fairly anonymous one for the team, Napoli drew his last game against Verona, when a win would have given it a comfortable Champions League spot.
It is fair to say that throughout these years, Napoli kept at it, being one of the most reliable top-rated team in the league as others – including traditionally strong sides such as Juventus, Inter and AC Milan – came and went. But in sports, the refrain goes, you’re remembered for your titles. It is true that Napoli managed to win three Coppa Italias and an Italian Supercup – not a bad harvest for a team with a scarcely populated trophy room – but winning the Scudetto has so far proven elusive.
Football analysts have come up with several reasons for the shortcomings – some placing the blame on the players, some others on the coach or the club itself, a few others pointing at the city’s “environment,” with the vast majority of Neapolitans peddling various conspiracy theories about hostile referees and the “palazzo” – the ominous Italian vernacular indicating an obscure plot by the country’s ever vituperated football association to make Napoli lose no matter what. These conspiracy theories – the argument goes – may have indirectly sagged the team, as they tend to give players alibis.
As it often happens, the explanation lies in a combination of all of the above. The core players – Insigne, Koulibaly, Mertens – who have been playing together since 2013 and are known to be the leaders in the locker room, have shown time and again to be unable to make the final step – that leap that transforms a great team into one that makes history. Coaches have made crucial mistakes at crucial times, either by fostering a losing mentality – some, like Maurizio Sarri, helped creating the above-mentioned “encirclement” paranoia, finding fertile ground among supporters – or by failing to come up with solutions when decisive games became complicated, such as Spalletti yesterday. The club has always refused to buy experienced players for fear of financial losses, with De Laurentiis’ conservative approach to the transfer market often derided by the team’s fans.
Maybe – just maybe – the way forward for Napoli would be to stage a revolution. Not a messy, inconclusive one, such as the many that happened in the city’s history, often supported by foreign powers and ending in a bloodless power transfer. What Napoli really needs is fresh blood, with the likes of Elmas, Fabian (if he stays), Osimhen and maybe Anguissa and Rrahmani put in charge of the team’s locker room.
Meanwhile, President De Laurentiis should perhaps consider ridding the team of the players that have tried and failed for the past ten years – with Insigne heading to Canada in June, it would be savvy to let Mertens go, and sell Koulibaly, even at a discount. It is an open question, however, whether he is willing to do so, as he has shown time and again to be rather conservative in supporting transfer moves. Some point to his legendary thriftiness as the reason for failing to sell Koulibaly in 2018, amidst a substantial offer from Man City. The offer, it appeared, did not fully satisfy him. This is also – make no mistake – a reason why the Napoli President has been so successful in both keeping the team in Serie A’s elite and in maintaining a sound balance sheet: it has been historically hard to buy Napoli’s players, and the few that got sold were paid heftily, often above market value (Lavezzi’s 32 million move to PSG but also Higuain’s 90 million move to Juventus come to mind). But it is also a limit to the team’s growth potential. In a way, De Laurentiis runs a startup – Napoli’s structure is extraordinary nimble and has proven rather efficient so far – with risk-averse approach that is more typical of a large corporation.
At this point, however – aside from the need to clinch a Champions League spot, with all its perks, this season – taking a risk seems to be the only way forward for Napoli. And who knows, perhaps in a diminished Serie A, as most teams are struggling with debt and as the league lacks a comprehensive strategy to increase revenues going forward, a Napoli team finally unshackled from the bad memories of the “ones that almost did” could finally make history, and give the fans a joy they have long been awaiting.