Football Season Guide

After their incredible triumph in the previous campaign, nobody would have expected Napoli to face such a disastrous past season. In fact, the Italian defending champions dropped to the 10th place in the table and missed out on the European competitions. Truth be said, the start to their season was far from telling, as in early October they found themselves on the third place. Just 1 month later coach Rudi Garcia was sacked and Walter Mazzarri took over. With him, things went even worse and he was logically let go come mid-February. It was eventually Francesco Calzona’s turn to steady the ship but he failed too: they actually closed the campaign with 1 win out of the last 11 fixtures. After such an embarrassing season, President De Laurentiis decided to hand the reins of the team to a superstar, Antonio Conte, coming from a year off after a mixed experience at Tottenham. In the past season, Napoli leaked like a sieve as Kim’s departure the year before had not been properly solved: young talents Buongiorno, from Torino, and Rafa Marin, from Real Madrid, are set to become protagonists in a much renewed back 3. Then, starting midfielder Zielinski decided not to renew his deal with the club and left for Inter: he was not replaced yet, although Folorunsho, returning from a great season at Hellas Verona, could earn himself some playing time off the bench. Back-up goalie Gollini was also let go and young Caprile, who did wonders at Empoli, returned from loan but, nevertheless, the management are still looking for an experienced goalkeeper. Left-back Spinazzola, who arrived from Roma, is a player highly-appreciated by the new coach and he is set to become a starter on the flank but it is a bit of a gamble as he tends to be too injury-prone. Last but not least, Key striker Osimhen is set to quit Napoli sometime soon and he will be greatly missed: the bad news is that they have not found a valid replacement yet.