Napoli

[mervyn]

My daughter watched a home game for Verona against Napoli some years ago. Verona unfurled a monster flag saying ‘May Vesuvius erupt and kill you and your families’. Napoli’s response was an equally huge flag saying ‘Juliette was a whore’. All specially prepared for that one game. Puts our own banter into perspective!

 

[Lousy Pint]

The hatred shown towards Napoli fans by the northern clubs is quite incredible.
It really isn't just a football thing.
To get a small taste of this, watch the Netflix documentary about Maradona.

Anyway, I was pleased Napoli won the Scudetto, well deserved.

An earlier poster mentioned smoking inside the stadium. I used to enjoy it, watching Inter at the Meazza (San Siro). The funny thing was, the security guards confiscated lighters (you had to throw it in a bucket) outside the stadium. So, I used to take a finished disposable lighter with me and throw that in the bucket.
I guess half the stadium did the same! 😂

 

[greeneagle]

Tyhee slim would be pleased, loved Italian football

 

[Belfast Green]

Yes, I didn't understand the bit at the end about Atlanta and Partenopei and I also wondered who judged Napoli were the best team in Europe for a while. It is not a short-term platitude I've seen before. At the end of the group stage they were 3 goals better than Liverpool and Bayern had won 6 out of 6. Just curious how you measured it.

Partenopei is a nickname of Napoli. The Atlanta thing was just to engineer a mention that I saw Napoli beat them a few weeks ago at the Maradona. I watch a lot of Italian football on BT Sport and some of the analysts there were speculating that Napoli were playing the best football in Europe; it is quite possible that prior to the winter break, they were. When they beat Liverpool and brushed aside Juventus, they were breathtaking. This is really just as a comparison with what was expected after the departure of club legends Insigne, Mertens, Koulibaly and Fabian Ruiz.

 

[Belfast Green]

Who were the last non-northern team to win Serie A? Was it Sven's Lazio?

Great to see Italian football so competitive again. Reminds me of the glory days of AC Jimbo and his bowl of gelato...

It was Capello’s Roma in 2000-1, the year following Sven’s Lazio. If you don’t count Rome as the south, sort of West Midlands 😂, then Napoli is the only southern club to have won Serie A (Cagliari won it way back) and even then “only” three times.

 

[memory man]

Partenopei is a nickname of Napoli. The Atlanta thing was just to engineer a mention that I saw Napoli beat them a few weeks ago at the Maradona. I watch a lot of Italian football on BT Sport and some of the analysts there were speculating that Napoli were playing the best football in Europe; it is quite possible that prior to the winter break, they were. When they beat Liverpool and brushed aside Juventus, they were breathtaking. This is really just as a comparison with what was expected after the departure of club legends Insigne, Mertens, Koulibaly and Fabian Ruiz.

Thank you.

 

[Andy B.]

See the Milan Derby last night? Decent game and one whole end of stadium banc nord or something like that hundreds of red flares.

 

[Joe Totale]

It was Capello’s Roma in 2000-1, the year following Sven’s Lazio. If you don’t count Rome as the south, sort of West Midlands 😂, then Napoli is the only southern club to have won Serie A (Cagliari won it way back) and even then “only” three times.

Does Sardinia really count as the south? When I've been there it has a very laid-back feel which is definitely not the case when you're in the south like in Naples!

Historically it has a lot of shared history with Corsica and the Genovese.

 

[Belfast Green]

Does Sardinia really count as the south? When I've been there it has a very laid-back feel which is definitely not the case when you're in the south like in Naples!

Historically it has a lot of shared history with Corsica and the Genovese.

You are right Joe, so I put it as an aside, even though geographically it it south of Rome!

 

[Mark Smith]

I am always happy for the leagues to be shared around a bit, so genuinely pleased for Napoli (and, with no skin in the game, disappointed for Arsenal). Similarly, across the leagues, anyone but Bayern, PSG, Ajax, Barca/Real…

OTOH I‘d prefer to forget Maradona in this context, he was a disgrace to his God-given skills.

 

[Belfast Green]

Huge joy looks to be turning very sad for Napoli even before the Serie A season ends. It looks fairly certain that manager Luciano Spaletti will leave, having asked for and failed to secure, a significant wage rise to put him alongside the higher paid managers like Pioli, Mourinho, Inzaghi… I believe that him staying was a pre-requisite for the top players staying (if there was any chance). It is felt now that Osimhen and Kim will leave, Kvaratskhelia probably, di Lorenzo and others possibly. Notable is that no team member is a Neapolitan.
Spaletti leaving would set off a managerial domino effect, with Fiorentina’s Italiano and Brighton’s de Zerbi being mentioned.
Napoli owner De Larentiis may need to leave town for a while.
#ForzaNapoliSempre 😁