Zero to the bodies, which speak. Which induce some spectators to leave the stadium after just 15 minutes, because love yes, but bullshit no, you can’t accept it. There was an explicit message in the bodies of the blues, in the empty eyes of those who have lost their purpose. And if you lose your purpose, you end up wandering in an infinite limbo of gray walls and dull hearts. If it is true that ‘There is only one happiness in life: loving and being loved’, this team failed because it did not reciprocate the love received. “Hunt them all Aurelio” is Maradona’s scream in the terrible final.
One in front of the microphone and all the others silent. The head of Communications, Nicola Lombardo, who should make decisions on Communications, explains to us how no one wants to talk (easy as that) and that De Laurentiis has accepted the choice. A journey into the blue metaverse, into the inconsistencies of a dystocic series that would truly compete with Black Mirror. “We are so apathetic that we could go crazy. There is a limit to our ability to be amazed.” And to be indignant.
Two baptisms of goals, more obvious than a wool sweater on sale in August. There are people who had mortgaged several apartments to bet on his first league goal Ndoye, another beneficiary of the SSC Napoli non-profit organization, which after having resurrected attackers from the cast of The Walking Dead, also brings the first joy to the Bologna winger. The more daring, then, had also bet on the first joy in 30 appearances of Posh: winning level, Superenalotto ticket played in Via Toledo. “He who doesn’t have courage doesn’t like beautiful women”.
Three changes in the 81st minute in a Napoli with people walking like pilgrims looking for themselves on the road to Santiago. Yet, despite the less than mystical visions, Calzone does nothing. He waits 61 minutes for the first change, just one. As if he was fine with that. As if he wanted to prove something to someone, or probably take some sort of revenge on those who abandoned him, at some point in the season. This precariousness of his, with the part-time role, proved to be approximate, as if at a certain point he too had been rejected by the team as a foreign body. When? During the break, before the match against Atalanta, when Ciccio returned to take on the role of Slovakia coach. Poisonous forks, like snake tongues.
Four names, who knows maybe others hidden, and a growing conviction: an extreme choice will be needed after an extreme season. We will need a coach who doesn’t look at anyone, who will have to eliminate tolerance towards a group that has many, too many faults to atone for. It is inevitable, in a similar context, to think that Antonio Conte could be the solution, if not the only one, to the woes of a team that crumbled like an asteroid that came into contact with the Earth’s atmosphere. Only ‘Mazz” and no ‘Panell’ for those who have not respected this square.
Five meters above the ‘scazzo’. In his very personal reinterpretation of Moccia’s books, Anguissa writes a novel in which he plays a 28-year-old man experiencing an existential and motivational crisis. He walks around the field, as if the matter doesn’t concern him. He lives in a body that seems disconnected from the task he should perform, like those teenagers in Three Meters Above the Sky who drag themselves through the days waiting to find their direction in life. Frank as Step, restless and damned in all the incredible contradictions of an unseemly season.
Six-six-six, not surprisingly the devil’s number. At Maradona in 18 matches Napoli won only 6 times, same number of draws and same embarrassing defeats. At home the Italian champions have a goal difference of -3, the same as Frosinone at Stirpe. Merciless numbers, which should have shaken the souls of the ‘dissatisfied’, and then the only topic that generates bad mood in footballers is almost always the same: vile money. A cowardice, evidently contagious.
Seven hundred and twenty minutes in the Champions League, without missing a single minute, 35 appearances out of 36 in the league (missing one match due to disqualification) without ever being replaced. This therapeutic obstinacy on Giovanni Di Lorenzo it is inexplicable, probably ruthless, undoubtedly illogical for what the camp’s sentence was. The captain, eternal honor to him, was the protagonist of a series of unforgivable errors, yet he was never questioned. Not that he should lose his starting role, but resting every now and then wouldn’t hurt him. Even for a segment of the race. But no, and instead Never. Poor Giovanni was worn out and would have needed to catch his breath on some occasions. “Mazzocchi is a train” said ADL, but it was used with the regional frequency for the Palma-San Gennaro station.
Eight like the eighth place that Napoli doesn’t seem able to defend. Fiorentina, who have two games in hand and one point less, can set the tone and will be their next opponent in Friday’s match. It no longer makes sense to talk about trains, about Europe, about beaches that are the last, about motivations that never really existed, about attributes that have never been revealed, about pride that has been disgraced many times. There really is nothing left, except rubble, of this group of guys who were able to wear out even the most optimistic. On the streets, in bars, in WhatsApp chats, there is only one imperative: “Vott à fernì”
Nine months, it was September and that tweet from ADL confirmed that he hadn’t understood much. “We have started again from Bologna” the owner exulted proudly, after the 0-0 draw with Thiago Motta’s team. That Thiago Motta who arrived at Maradona to raise the ‘Champions in his face’, after the summer contact and the infamous phrase ‘The sporting director? I’m the sporting director.’ In the press conference the Brazilian coach says that ‘From the first to the last in the club they were fundamental in reaching the finish line’, a nice dig at the ADL centralizer who believed he had found the formula of eternal youth for his team.
Ten to Lobotka’s sincere tears, the only one to find himself in the middle, not only yesterday but for the entire season. The image of Stan is iconic, with his hands on his face torn by disappointment, exhausted and debased by what happened and he never imagined could happen. Let him start again from those tears, from that sorrow, from that desire to try, at least try, to stop the ruinous fall. The choices on the transfer market will be very simple, take everyone individually and ask: “Do you want to stay at Napoli? Do you really want to stay at Napoli.” ‘Maybe’ or ‘I don’t know’ will not be acceptable. Anyone who has even the slightest doubt, the slightest hesitation, must be sent away. The sand in the hourglass of tolerance has already run out of steam for some time.
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