At the bottom of a post on Instagram by the former French coach there are messages from Neapolitan supporters who reevaluate his experience on the bench: “At least we were fourth. Working in those conditions wouldn’t be easy even for Guardiola.”
A procession with its head sprinkled with ashes. The desperation and disappointment of the fans Naples the way the season went is enough to reevaluate the experience of Rudi Garciaafter the disaster Mazzarri And Calzone tossed by the sea in the locker room. “But in the end you weren’t so bad…”some say. “At least with you we were fourth even if we didn’t play like last year”others add.
It’s still: “We all owe you an apology.”, “They thought I was crazy when I said that you had to stay in Naples because after all it wasn’t your fault…”. All in religious admission of guilt for having mistreated him and put him in the crosshairs far beyond his demerits. This is why the trail of messages that the Azzurri supporters have left in recent hours at the bottom of a post shared on Instagram by the former French coach does not go unnoticed.
Now he is a saint or, perhaps, the ‘least worst’ (as they say in the jargon) in a season that no one imagined could be so negative. “Working in those conditions wouldn’t be easy even for Guardiola”lets slip another user who includes the general mitigating principle, the one that is enough to absolve him in every way, pointing the finger elsewhere. “But obviously the main problem was never you, but the one who commands everything from above, who exonerated you in the public square and then set up tents in Castel Volturno to control you.”
Calzona offers mea culpa and apologizes to the Napoli fans: “I didn’t think I’d find a situation like this”
Not that he is entirely free from responsibility (“you are the one who is most to blame because you were there from the beginning”someone is quick to point out), but in a situation of project approximation, completely wrong market choices, management arrogance (to the point of debasing the work so much Spalletti how much of Giuntoli) are some of the causes that led to the collapse. Napoli had raised the white flag already in December, the tricolor cockade had unstitched itself by giving up the fight prematurely. From riches to rags: the Scudetto team has dissolved and with it the magic that accompanied the conquest of the title 33 years after Maradona has vanished.
Rudi Garcia was sacked in mid-November, after the home defeat against Empoli. A goal in the 91st minute definitively buried his adventure on the Neapolitan bench. A turbulent and difficult mandate, punctuated by the contradictions of the company’s choices, which gradually became impossible also due to the president’s incursions into the locker rooms (the one between the first and second half against the Tuscans was devastating) and the progressive delegitimization of his figure. “I was wrong to take it”, murmured De Laurentiis. But that was one of his many bad choices. Maybe not even the worst.
The coach took his leave from the team with honor while waiting for the announcement of his dismissal which arrived shortly after the defeat against Maradona and was received with a cold and bitter message. He went away with an average of 1.75 in 12 league matches and having secured passage to the Champions League round of 16. Mazzarri returned to replace him after more than ten years. The results say how it went.
