And you thought you could win a game. As with Roma, in injury time Napoli scored the equaliser. Luckily: with the victory the carousel of illusions and dream qualifications would have started again. And yet even when he plays a decent game, at least in the second half, there are no three points for Napoli. It’s the sign of this season, unfortunate mediocrity. Match and week of melancholy, of films, of bittersweet memories and anniversaries. The very elegant “gagà della Loggetta”, alias Fabio Cannavaro, promises us defeat. He takes a point which for him is gold and for us it is lead.
The first half
In the sixties it was said: «sterile dominance». In short, Napoli had their first chance in the 44th minute, after they risked conceding a goal from an opponent who rightly put a whole lot of buses in their half of the pitch. And against this block Napoli loses its ambitions, in a soporific first time, helpless, where there is someone, a random name Anguissa, who seems like a stranger who was passing by. The agility of a monument. Osimhen rages in the void, Politano is an intermittent light. Only Lobotka plays and will be the best on the pitch. Obviously Udinese takes advantage of their counterattacks and on two occasions almost reaches checkers. The old fan messages from home: “I’m sleeping.”
The recovery
The second half starts to resemble the first but changes in the 51st, when a triangle of Lorenzo, Politano, Osimhen produces the goal. Handsome. It looks like Napoli. The match opens and becomes a battle that brings Udinese to the edge of a draw several times, but also Napoli to a double which the offside cancels out, but it is worth mentioning a spectacular descent by Lobotka, man of the pitch. Success’s goal then closes it. Dead season, swampy situation.
Free words
The presidential exit on the naivety of those who believed in a second championship was painful. After a few minutes, social media had already reminded us of the Napoleonic declarations, made exactly twelve months ago. If this is the level of clarity of the top management, the concern can only grow. Although the media at the forefront of the square do everything they can to create a positive atmosphere, as happened with the fanfare surrounding the film’s takings, the evidence tells us that not only have the management methods not changed since last year: there is no possibility that those who have gone so dramatically off track can then recover their lost lucidity. Whoever writes these lines in recent years has long defended Aurelio De Laurentiis from the accusation of “pimpism”, driven by stadium plebeianism. We would continue to do so if the need arose. But these are things that no one really says anymore, because it is clear that the point is another: there is a need for business management based on professionalism, correcting the character defects that have emerged in such a macroscopic way. Will we go in this direction? Frankly, but who believes that? Certain collapses, certain excesses are not questions of tactical vision or very human enthusiasm: they are signs of professional decline. All this in a situation in Italian football that does not suggest anything good. In an interview released this week, the former president of the Football League, Paolo Dal Pino, a manager of international level, explained very clearly that our movement is not only seriously behind in the search for new sources of revenue, but risks being deprived of economic value by major international competitions. Those who are not at the top are destined to decline. And where is Napoli currently? He’s eighth. He has conceded goals in eleven games and has 51 points with three to go. If this is not decline…
