by Friday marked 40 years since the first cinepanetto – a genre of comedy film that is released in Italy every year around Christmas time. Natale Holidays was produced by Aurelio De Laurentiis, the man who would become president of Napoli 21 years later. The story goes that he was initially unimpressed, fearing the jokes weren’t funny enough, but his lampooning of Italy’s nouveau riche struck a chord. A tradition was born.
Related: Victor Osimhen signs a new contract with Napoli until 2026 and then sees red in the defeat of Roma
De Laurentiis was the one who spent the money this weekend, signing Victor Osimhen to a new contract worth €10 million a year after tax. In theory, he ties the Nigerian to Napoli until 2026, although a release clause of 130 million euros would not leave him out of the reach of football’s richest buyers.
In any case, it was good news for a club that won Serie A for the first time in 33 years this spring, but whose fortunes have taken a sharp decline since then. Napoli’s title defense collapsed before Christmas and on Tuesday they were humiliated in the Coppa Italia, losing 4-0 at home to Frosinone.
In an interview with Corriere dello Sport on Friday, De Laurentiis regretted his decision to hire Rudi García as coach in the summer. Luciano Spalletti had left after winning the Scudetto and finding a replacement was always going to be difficult.
De Laurentiis told the newspaper that his first choice, Thiago Motta, turned down the job because he only saw disadvantages. The best he could hope for was to repeat another man’s achievements. If he failed, he would face unfavorable comparisons.
Luis Enrique was the next option but, according to the owner, he wanted too much money. They closed in on two or three others, including Julian Nagelsmann, before De Laurentiis landed on Garcia, “who had two second places in Italy.” [at Roma, in 2014 and 2015] with turbulent locker rooms, full of high-level players.”
“I realized that Garcia was not the right choice the day I presented him in Capodimonte,” De Laurentiis continued. “I should have made a splash and said: ‘I introduced him to you but now he’s leaving.’ Because someone who comes and says: ‘I don’t know Napoli, I’ve never seen a game… I should have understood. Instead, I laughed. The fact is that he repeated it on other occasions.”
Garcia’s introductory press conference was indeed a jarring experience. Journalists were then surprised by the fact that the Frenchman did not recognize Spalletti’s achievements. But García has already been out for six weeks: he was fired on November 14. It would be difficult to argue that things have improved since then.
I remember watching Garcia’s inauguration and being amazed by his stubbornness and arrogance. I was so surprised by his denial of one of the best seasons in Napoli’s history that I had to text two colleagues and ask: “Did he really not mention Spalletti even once?”
Crazy https://t.co/mIGmYVbHPu—Patrick Kendrick (@patrickendrick) December 22, 2023
His replacement, Walter Mazzarri, had coached Napoli before, leading them to third place in 2011 and second place in 2012. Like the recurring stars of those cinepanettoni, his role was not to excite the audience but to assure them that we were back on familiar ground. No one expected him to win any prizes, just to repeat the lines that had made them smile before.
Only football doesn’t work like that. After a 2-0 defeat to Roma on Saturday night, Mazzarri has lost five of eight games in charge. This one could have ended differently if not for a couple of red cards in the second half. Matteo Politano was the first to go after kicking Nicola Zalewski. The Roma player’s reaction was theatrical, and Mazzarri lamented how rivals had been grabbing Politano’s shirt during a match that was in a bad mood from the start. But this was still unnecessary self-harm.
The game was scoreless when Politano left, but not for much longer. Lorenzo Pellegrini made the most of a ball floating inside the Napoli area and turned to finish beyond Alex Meret.
Osimhen was then sent off for a double warning. He reacted furiously and accused Stephan El Shaarawy of diving. It was not clear from replays how much contact there was, but Osimhen was playing with fire, applying pressure from behind to disrupt a Roma counterattack in a match in which referee Andrea Colombo was quick to draw his cards all night.
Napoli played some of the final minutes with eight players, and substitute Natan received treatment for a shoulder injury. Those still on the pitch showed impressive resolve, pushing for an equalizer even in the sixth minute of stoppage time. But when a late attack failed inside the Roma area, the hosts counterattacked and secured the points with a goal from Romelu Lukaku.
Any assessment of Mazzarri’s work should acknowledge that he has faced a particularly tough run of games. His seven games in charge before Saturday included visits to Real Madrid, Juventus and Atalanta, as well as a home game against Inter.
Still, the question of whether Napoli have done better with him than they would have with García remains up in the air. The Frenchman is not missed in Naples, and no one disputes that the team was on a good path under his leadership, but it remains true that he lost fewer times during his 16 games than Mazzarri did in just eight.
There is no indication that De Laurentiis is considering another move at the moment. He told Corriere dello Sport that he intends to strengthen the squad in January, adding “at least three” new players. “I need to reinforce the defense with a center back and a left back to support [Giovanni] Say Lorenzo,” he said. “And then I need to get a midfielder, or maybe two.”
The use of the first person was not accidental. De Laurentiis directs this production, through thick and thin. In fact, it can sometimes seem that his mistakes stem from a reluctance to share credit for Napoli’s successes with anyone else.
His inability to recognize the exceptional job Spalletti was doing (trying to trigger an automatic contract extension instead of offering improved terms) was a factor in the manager’s decision to leave. Similarly, De Laurentiis has played down the work that former Napoli sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli did before moving to Juventus in the summer, insisting that Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was first identified as a transfer target by the son of him Edoardo.
Spalletti returned to Naples earlier this month for a ceremony in which he was granted honorary citizenship of the city. There he warmly greeted De Laurentiis and thanked her for their time together, but also jokingly compared his former employer to a horror movie monster. “Just when you think the movie is over and you can finally be left alone,” Spalletti said, “he shows up again to make you spill your drink and your popcorn.”
As usual, De Laurentiis was quick to respond, stating that the only advances in American cinema in the last 40 years have been due to the horror genre. Maybe you’re right. Still, fans of his football team would have preferred to start Christmas with something a little sweeter.
