Talk about being thrust into the deep end because the moment I got signed on as Napoli boss I had a match against Arsenal to deal with the VERY NEXT DAY. And given the lack of coaching staff to boot as well I had to make do. But after a mega win against our rivals in Roma which was anti climactic because their squad had some big injuries and their backups were horror which led to them losing their manager after that. And after that I was only focusing on getting results to keep moving us up the league.
Given I decided to adopt the same system as what Conte used to win the title here because I am genuinely trying to replicate the same kind of system he winds up using and I keep shifting between having 2 strikers and 2 attacking midfielders. And I got to say I LOVE IT too much 😅. But we set a good run up actually including an important win against Chelsea where we were written off:
The chance creating magnets have come straight from Olympiacos with love 😉. And it also helps when you have a version of Onuachu in Lorenzo Lucca along with Big Rom Lukaku as well and the creative force that is Kevin de Bruyne.
After that our run was strong and I wasn’t focusing on winning big. I just needed points because given I took on this job which was 4.5 stars in reputation I had to win over the players and that is the only way.
What frustrated me was that Juventus sacked their manager(Could have tried for that job but it would have been even harder) and the table was looking unbelievably mental going into January
The reason why Bari is colored differently is because I realised that Bari is one of the affiliate clubs of Napoli.
The Milan clubs faltering from their perch and having the likes of Fiorentina and Hellas Verona of all people up there(Fiorentina do have David de Gea who is retiring at the end of this season sadly 😢) and out of nowhere we have a shot at the Scudetto again because our next three fixtures are Sassuolo who are near the relegation zone and just hired a brand new manager and the cup fixture where I will most definitely rotate and then it’s Fiorentina. So win all those games and we are in the lead by a point.
We started at 13th when I came in for context 😅.
And the cash was there to spend once I worked past the deadwood. I hired a full host of intermediaries and with some extra cash from the board because of our uptick in performance we brought in a good host of people:
The first guy was for backup in the DM positions because I genuinely didn’t have anybody and with Zambo Anguissa going to AFCON I needed someone with Lobotka’s contract definitely expiring(Definitely a let go after his ability has waned too much). Next was Samardzic who is a capable midfielder or attacking midfielder and Pafundi who is an up and coming talent who can handle the next step at Napoli. Then it was some backups for the CB position and yes we brought Kerkez after he was unregistered for some reason by Liverpool. So I brought him in after my backup left to the Premier League.
We do have a bit of a dilemma with Miguel G who has been phenomenal but Gaya on a free next season from Valencia was hard to turn down. And given his interest by Liverpool I am a bit torn on that. Maybe it’s a problem for the summer we’ll handle it then.
Another thing I am feeling a lot of emotion for is that Trabzonspor is part of Napoli’s fixture list in the Champions League so after Rangers I will be headed back to their stadium for the match. So that is going to be interesting as well as another level of intrigue.