Aurelio De Laurentiis and that phrase about the market that should have turned on a light bulb for us: all we needed to know beforehand!
Disastro Napoli: la frase di De Laurentiis che suona come un presagio sinistro (Foto: Ansa) – serieanews.com
You know that feeling of deja vu, when something negative is repeated without anyone really learning the lesson? Well, Napoli seems trapped in one of those time loops that recur every time the January market arrives. And this time, the damage seems to be even greater.
Let’s start with the facts: the Azzurri club gave up a 75 million, indeed … 90 million, player, replacing him with a loaned redundancy from AC Milan. Meanwhile, the Rossoneri reinforced themselves with Gimenez, Joao Felix and Sottil. If this is not an unequal exchange, it is close. The problem is not only the value of the transactions, but the message that passes: while others make targeted choices to improve the team, Napoli seems to move with the same conviction as someone trying to plug a dam with a band-aid.
But whose fault is it? Did Manna, the new sporting director, really have a free hand or did he have to submit to the constraints imposed by De Laurentiis? For now, the only one who really seems to be without responsibility is a very angry Antonio Conte, who finds himself first in the standings with a team that has not been strengthened, in fact, it has even been weakened.
In July, after the defeat in Verona, it was a rant by the coach that prompted the club to speed up the market. Now, not even the draw with Roma (which came precisely because of the lack of viable alternatives on the bench) served to shake the management. Result? The market closes with a fistful and the risk of jeopardizing the Scudetto race.
There is the attack chapter but there is also the defense chapter. The Lecce coach had already rejected Rafa Marin, to whom he gave zero minutes in the league. The goal was to get rid of the Spaniard in order to focus on a reliable reinforcement, but between Danilo and Comuzzo no one arrived. In the end, Napoli was forced to keep Marin, making this market one of the most unsuccessful in recent history.
Il Conte furioso e quella frase-presagio di De Laurentiis
For Neapolitan fans, the memory runs fast to 2018, when Sarri’s Napoli dominated Serie A with a record number of points. Everyone expected at least one reinforcement to give Callejon breathing room, but in the end no one arrived.
Il Conte furioso e quella frase-presagio di De Laurentiis (foto: Ansa) – serieanews.com
Then, too, there was talk of Politano, who stayed at Sassuolo in a deal that was a real snub for the partenopei, since Sassuolo seemed to want to give up the outfielder only to back out at the last minute, a bit like Fiorentina did with Comuzzo these days. At the time the president uttered the fateful phrase, which has since remained a manifesto of the problems Napoli usually faces in January: “We are first and with a record of points, what do we need to fix?”
It is enough to take a tour on social media to perceive the discontent of the fans: under the announcement of Okafor, the most mentioned name is not that of the striker, but that of De Laurentiis and that phrase, which seems like an unfortunate mantra. Every January, Napoli is faced with the same choice and, punctually, makes the wrong decision.
The question is: Will Conte’s genius be enough to fill these gaps? Or will this insufficient market weigh like a boulder on the title race? Certainly, in the summer, the Salento coach will not sit idly by. And at that point, who knows if history will repeat itself again or if someone will finally have learned his lesson.
This article Disaster Napoli: De Laurentiis’ phrase that sounds like a sinister omen appeared in its original version first on SerieANews.
