Naples, a masterpiece but sustainable. In the name of Spalletti

There was only Napoli, from start to finish. He won the most beautiful team, the strongest, the one that scored the most, the one that defended better. No one had ever conquered the Scudetto with such apparent simplicity, no one ever gave the idea of ​​being able to compete to snatch it from them. The championship has never been a dialogue, but a long, spectacular monologue. Napoli didn’t have to go through any Nuttata, it was always noon. The Scudetto comes out of the Juve-Inter-Milan triangle after 22 years. He returns to the South after 33. The Lazio and Rome championships economically brought the two shareholders and therefore the two clubs to their knees. The triumph of Napoli was instead built on the solid principle of sustainability. Out Insigne, Mertens, Koulibaly, Ruiz, Ospina. Inside Kvaratskhelia, Raspadori, Simeone, Kim, Ndombele.

Miraculously now everyone is shouting to the point that Giuntoli has become the prophet of the market, but no sporting director has ever given a game to a team. The name of Aurelio De Laurentiis is engraved on the shield, who believed in it when no one believed in it, without fear of a square that contested it beyond all reasonableness, forgetting what Naples was after the bankruptcy. Then there are those who have transformed an unknown factor into a masterpiece: Luciano Spalletti. The coach has arrived at his magical year after searing seasons with Roma and Inter. In Naples in the first season he fought for the Scudetto. On the second attempt he won it. Usually the team that touches him is confirmed, the changes are few, targeted. If anything, it is added where weaknesses have emerged. Napoli, on the other hand, was revolutionized. He has changed so profoundly, without any technical improvement being evident in the substitutions, that no one under the August sun asked Spalletti to win the championship. On the other hand, what do you want to ask a coach who has been deprived of Koulibaly, the totem of the defense, Mertens known as Ciro, the striker who has scored the most goals with that shirt and even Insigne, Neapolitan pride? Instead, precisely because this time they asked for little, Spalletti gave everything.

Lightness was undoubtedly a fundamental element of his perfect championship. Spalletti has skills that have propelled him onto the benches of large, and therefore difficult, clubs, but he created his masterpieces with Empoli and Udinese, ideal provinces for best expressing his obsession with work, Spalletti’s inseparable companion, and where, above all the pressure is minimal. In post-revolution Naples he was able to calmly put together the pieces of his irresistible mechanism. Starting with Osimhen, a formidable, elusive, unpredictable center forward. To continue with Kvaratskhelia, a player with considerable means, whom Spalletti has refined until he becomes a protagonist of European level. And on with Lobotka, Anguissa, Kim, Politano and Meret, who not even for a second was affected by last year’s criticisms. There isn’t a player who hasn’t improved. The symbol is Di Lorenzo, who by working has become the irreplaceable captain of this record-breaking team. None of them are Neapolitan. Gino Palumbo, the unforgettable Director of the Gazzetta who was a master of journalism, on the day of the first championship, in ’87, said that no one is a foreigner in Naples. Even today it is like this. This success too is the successful mix of a group perfectly placed in a difficult and unique environment. The main ingredients: creativity and application.

Spalletti, for example, has best interpreted the madness of a season with the World Cup planted in the middle, between November and December. The physical declines, which have also occurred, have arrived at the championship now conquered. Juve, Inter and Milan, on the other hand, couldn’t have done worse. If it had never happened that none of the big three from the North, at this point of the season, was still able to win the championship, it means that the mistakes were many and widespread, among managers and technicians. Certainly in the account it must be considered that Inzaghi and Pioli had the ability to get on the Champions train reaching the glory of the final in Istanbul: for one of the two there will certainly be. A result that doesn’t justify such a disappointing championship, but at least explains it. Juve not even that. In two seasons, Allegri finished very far from the Scudetto despite having at his disposal a team with notable individuals and heavy costs. Instead a few points, little show. It is true that for Allegri whoever wants to have fun can go to the circus, but his theorem holds up until he wins, then it won’t hold up anymore. There is still an important part of the season, just wait for Juve, Inter, Milan until June. Judgment month. In the meantime, Napoli, which is celebrating up there, is very far away.