Football Season Guide

The Maurizio Sarri era came to an end over the summer, after leading Napoli very close to the Scudetto at least twice. The coach and President De Laurentiis came at odds and so the former ended up signing for Chelsea. Once the news came that such a love story had ended, the fans started worrying but the President wisely replaced his former coach with Carlo Ancelotti. No choice could have been better than that of the former Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Milan and Paris Saint Germain gaffer. He has proven capable of winning trophies in at least 5 different leagues: at Napoli they hope he will continue winning. Together with Sarri, Napoli lost Jose Reina, their goalkeeper, and his back-up, Rafael. For such reason, they immediately signed the promising Alex Meret and the experienced Orestis Karnezis, both from Udinese. However, the former is currently dealing with an injury and the latter has not been too convincing during the preseason and so they are considering adding another shot-stopper. Besides that, Jorginho reached his former coach at Chelsea. This way, Hamsik should be given a more pivotal role, as playmaker in the middle of the park, with Diawara still starting from the bench. The newly-arrived Fabian Ruiz, from Real Betis, should provide depth to the squad in the midfield. However, in the past campaign, Napoli scored less goals than the previous season, as Dries Mertens and Lorenzo Insigne were less prolific. Therefore, the management concentrated all their efforts in increasing their firepower. Roberto Inglese, returning from a loan at Chievo Verona, Simone Verdi, who was impressive at Bologna, and Amin Younes, from Ajax, should all provide valid alternatives for the forward three, with Arkadiusz Milik at last free from injuries. At the back, Nikola Maksimovic and Sebastiano Luperto are back from the end of their loans and they should be no more than fringe players while right-back Christian Maggio’s departure should be solved by the arrival of Kévin Malcuit from Lille.