| JUNE 2000 |
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FOOTBALL/ NAPOLI, RETURN TO HEAVEN
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It had to wait for a year more, but in the end it is out of "hell". By winning away over Pistoiese, Napoli has already celebrated its return to the first division when there is still a match to play. Now the team will be able to plan again those major goals that in the past were strictly linked to the name of Diego Maradona. After all, the void left by the great Argentine champion and the attempt to rebuild the team after his leaving were the main cause of trouble for Napoli.
In fact, the gradual fall of the club was mainly due to a policy aimed at keeping the team unchanged, while results were gradually getting worse.
Moreover, the progressive breaking up of a group made up of rather old players led the team to the second division, despite the rotation of three trainers in the year of relegation.
Napoli and its club have thus learned to fight to get back on top and not to win the title. Everybody thought that the fame and the fact of having won two titles no more than ten years ago would be sufficient for the team to immediately come back to the first division.
On the contrary, things did not go as expected and thus the team had to play for another year in the second division.
Lately, Genoa, Torino and Sampdoria have already gone through this experience. Managing to keep afloat in the context of a football that increasingly looks for billionaire players, excessive demands and bombastic names at all costs is very difficult today. One finds it difficult to fully understand how it is possible to find a well-balanced management so as not to fail. Napoli found it thanks to a trainer specialized in taking teams to promotion such as Novellino, who was able to stand up the pressure of a team that craved for revenge. At the management level, in the last days of the championship came an offer by Corbelli, an entrepreneur and an expert in TV marketing, who managed to convince Napoli historic president, Ferlaino, to sell him 50% of Napoli shares.
Thanks also to the returns from television broadcast and the appeal on which Napoli can count at international level, Napoli may well get back on top in a short time.
In Italy Napoli boasts the highest number of supporters after Juventus, Milan and Inter. And abroad, too, the team can count on a number of supporters who, even though having been emigrated, are still linked to Napoli.
As participants said, the party set up near the Maschio Angioino was in no way inferior to those organized to celebrate the two titles some years ago. There was only a small regret, linked to the above-mentioned speculation in the advertising and management field: the next season in the first division Napoli will not be trained by Novellino, the trainer who took the team to promotion.
According to Corbelli, the official reason for Novellino's exclusion is due to the fact that the trainer was already in contact with Piacenza for the next season.
Yet, this appears to be one of the numerous lies of the football world, which the majority shareholder has already accepted.
On the other hand, we have greatly appreciated the fact that Novellino has always preferred not to talk about this subject, also ignoring the countless rumours in the last restless days of the championship according to which Zednek Zeman had already been appointed the new trainer of Napoli.
In the end the new trainer will be the Bohemian, but this not due to an alternative choice made by Novellino but rather for a renunciation by the Neapolitan club.
A more "prestigious" name was required that could arouse supporter's enthusiasm. Zeman, a trainer who has a preference for a witty football that is undoubtedly amusing, will certainly manage to lead Napoli to achieve major goals. What is certain is that for the moment Novellino in his own small way has been more successful than the former trainer of Lazio and Roma. Also, it should be better not to forget that, leaving aside players at the time and those playing now, in the year of relegation Napoli initially chose a trainer like Galeone, who is particularly fond of a spectacular football and is not too prone to the use of tactics. Anyway, we hope that in future the San Paolo stadium will host again the extraordinary exploits of its team. Napoli, and mainly his supporters, deserves to get back on top as soon as possible.Paolo Ghisoni
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