Football Season Guide

The past season represented for Napoli the peak since their return to the top flight of the Italian football in 2007. They reached the second standing in the table, succeeding fighting for the Scudetto for most of the campaign, and they will certainly have to regret slipping on some banana skins that cost them dear. Ironically enough, though, rather than building on that, the club was forced to some major changes. Coach Mazzarri, the author of their successes in the past seasons, decided to quit and, so, Cavani was sacrificed for an impressive amount of cash. Moreover, two more regulars, Campagnaro and De Sanctis, also decided not to re-new their contracts. Benitez, whose previous Italian experience had not been particularly positive, was hired in order to follow Mazzarri’s steps. Together with him, thanks to the money paid by PSG, arrived some new names. Higuain is surely the most expensive signing and he is expected to make the supporters forget the former top scorer of the Serie A. The attack was also strengthened by Mertens’s arrival from PSV. In a 4-2-3-1 formation, he is supposed to act together with Callejon, another former Real Madrid player, and Pandev or Insigne as Higuain’s support. Just like the recent past, a real scoring alternative to the main striker seems to be missing. President De Laurentiis will have to work on that and soon. In goals, Reina from Liverpool should be preferred to Rafael. Albiol, another former Real Madrid player, should join Cannavaro as a centre-back with Maggio and Zuniga turned to full-backs. Inler and Behrami with Dzemaili and returning Gargano as their alternatives should form the defensive wall.