There has been no time for the Neapolitans to forget the euphoria of the historic Scudetto they won a year ago, as they are already experiencing the craziest season since Aurelio De Laurentiis assumed the presidency of the club two decades ago. Walter Mazzarri, who has only been in charge of the club's bench since November, was dismissed this Monday, just hours before the decisive Champions League match at home against Barcelona. The president has contacted to replace him with Francesco Calzona, at the head of the Slovak team, which has managed to qualify for the next Euro Cup, and has announced his hiring to several local media.
Calzona will be the fourth coach of the Partenopean club in just a year. Luciano Spalletti won a historic Scudetto in May of last year, the club's third, although the first two, in 1987 and 1990, were with Diego Armando Maradona. On June 19, Napoli presented Rudi Garcia as their new coach. He only sat on the bench of the current Italian champion for 16 games. On November 25, Walter Mazzarri debuted, but he did not last even three months on the bench.
Now it will be Calzona's turn, who already knows the internal dynamics at the club because he was part of Spalletti's coaching staff during his victorious time at Naples. He was also helping Maurizio Sarri, coach between 2015 and 2018, a stage in which the team's game was loved despite not translating into titles.
The challenge is important, because it will be the first time, however, that Calzona is in charge of an Italian team. The new coach, 55 years old, could arrive just before the match with the Blaugranas, with hardly any time to familiarize himself with the squad, like on Thursday, if it were too tight to prepare him.
Despite all the noise, Mazzarri conducted training normally this Monday. Calzona will sign a contract until the end of the season and will be able to continue his commitments with the Slovak national team until then. With him he could take Marek Hamsik, former captain of Naples and today the coach's collaborator in Bratislava.
The final straw for De Laurentiis was a poor 1-1 draw against Genoa this weekend. Mazzarri has amassed even worse results than Garcia had, with only 15 points in 12 Serie A games.
The French coach was fired with 21 points in 12 games, when Napoli was fourth in the Italian league, ten points behind the leader, Inter Milan. They are now in ninth position, 27 points behind the Nerazzurri.
The humiliating elimination of the Italian Cup against Frosinone also hurt in Naples, who beat the champions at home by scoring four goals at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium. In the final of the Italian Super Cup, a goal by Inter's Lautaro Martínez in added time snatched the title from the Neapolitans, who in Serie A have also failed to beat Juventus, Inter, Roma and Milan, their main rivals. An absolute failure for a club that last year was the leader of the season and made the Neapolitans dream of a new golden era of football in southern Italy.
The only good news for the Neapolitans in a schizophrenic day has been that the Nigerian striker Osimhen has returned to training and would be ready to guide the team's attack in the Champions League, two months after having played his last game for Naples.
