Welcome to a brand new story on Fuller FM! This week marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Championship Manager 3, and I’ve been thinking for some time about how best to mark the occasion.
My first thought was to recreate my first ever CM save – with Shrewsbury Town, down in Division 3. Maybe I will revisit them on CM3 one day, but I’m still feeling sore about how my FM19 Shrews story ended.
Another idea was to load the Brazilian leagues, start the game in December 1998, and then take over a struggling team in a top European league midway through the season. Unfortunately, this can lead to some very strange scenarios, such as Liverpool or Chelsea fighting relegation, or Piacenza challenging for the Serie A title.
Instead, I have decided to take on a fallen giant in Serie B – at a time when Italian football was coming to the end of its 1990s heyday. Yes, folks, it’s time for some GOLLLLLLLLLAZOOOO!
INTRODUCTION
On 4 May 2023, SSC Napoli returned to the pinnacle of Italian football. Victor Osimhen’s 52nd-minute equaliser at Udinese was enough to ensure that the Partenopei would secure the Serie A scudetto with five matches to spare. Cue wild celebrations in the southern Italian city, which had long been overshadowed by the northern giants in Milan, Rome and Turin.
Napoli had won their last league championship in 1990 – officially the greatest year in history [citation needed]. That team was spearheaded by the irrepressible Diego Maradona, who had already inspired them to their maiden title in 1987, before following that up two years later with a UEFA Cup.
Maradona tested positive for cocaine later in 1990 and was given a 15-month ban, ending his time at the San Paolo. Without their talisman, Napoli went into a steady decline that would lead to relegation from Serie A in 1998, a brief return to the top flight, and then the ultimate nadir of bankruptcy in 2004. Even after reforming in Serie C1, it would be nearly two decades before they tasted league glory again.
But let’s back up a bit… and return to 1998.
Napoli endured a wretched 1997/1998 Serie A campaign in which they had twice as many head coaches (four) as they had league victories (both at home). They had also signed Manchester United flop William Prunier to try and fix a leaky defence, which had done little to protect the increasingly helpless goalkeeper Giuseppe Taglialatela [above]. They finished dead-last, with 14 points from 34 matches.
And so the Partenopei were down in Serie B for the first time since the 1960s. Stripped of the few stars they had left, they would only finish 9th in the 1998/1999 season – and though they were promoted the following year, the Neapolitan joy was short-lived.
If only the men in azure could turn back time like Aqua… but never mind, because I can! For this CM3 series, I will try to change the course of Napoli’s history for the better.
I will give myself a maximum of SIX seasons (so until that fateful summer of 2004) to lead these Little Donkeys from Serie B and back to the top of Serie A. If I can win a Coppa Italia or even a European trophy along the way, all the better.
SQUAD & TACTICS
So, this is the Napoli squadra I have inherited. While we have a good mix of youth and experience that should help us to sustain a promotion challenge, I do sense a few areas that need strengthening.
First up is our portiere Giuseppe Taglialatela. He’s a strong leader with fantastic agility, and he will hope he doesn’t have to pick the ball out of his net too often this season.
He will need a lot more protection from our central difensori, such as Norway’s Steinar Nilsen – one of only two internationals in our squad. Alongside him will be Lazio stopper Giovanni Lopez, who’s a serious candidate for the captaincy.
We also have a couple of talented young full-backs – Emanuele Pesaresi on the left, and 18-year-old Daniel Daino on the right. They’re both energetic players and strong tacklers, but their positioning and crossing are weak points. They are clearly more defensive-minded widemen than we might expect to see in the 2020s.
Our other senior international is Fabio Rossitto – a rugged anchor man who played once for the Azzurri in 1996. The rest of our centrocampisti leave a bit to be desired, though I do like Luca Altomare‘s passing range. I will definitely look in the transfer market for some stronger defensive midfielders to protect our backline a bit better.
17-year-old Aziz Ansah is coming in with unbelievable tekkerz that would impress his namesake Andy, and the Ghanaian left-winger has really good crossing ability in particular. Unfortunately, Aziz also has the pace and athleticism of Luciano Pavarotti. That’s a different kind of unbelievable.
We do possess some quicker options on the right wing. 32-year-old Francesco Turrini has a great work ethic and is in his third season at the San Paolo. That said, I will probably favour the more explosive and skilful Massimiliano Esposito.
Finally, the attaccanti. Claudio Bellucci was Napoli’s top Serie A scorer last season with 10 goals, and his technique and finishing ability should make him more potent in Serie B. Stefan Schwoch (probably the most German-sounding Italian ever) will likely start as Bellucci’s partner up front, though I have high hopes for the rapid Argentine youngster Gabriel Bordi.
With regards to tactics, I’m going to keep it simple and start with a 4-4-2 – with our wide players pushing forward whenever we have the ball. While we do have enough strong central defenders to pull off a good ol’ Italian 3-5-2, the same cannot be said of our midfield depth.
As one of the strongest and most energetic teams in Serie B, I will encourage my team to play a high pressing game. Oh yes, and Bellucci takes all our set-pieces. He’s not amazing at dead balls, but he’s the best we’ve got.
Lastly, I will not be changing any ‘With Ball/Without Ball’ instructions in my tactics. I’ve played Championship Manager for 25 years without using WIB/WOB, so I don’t really care enough to learn how it works now.
In terms of the backroom staff, I’ll be assisted by Walter Mazzarri – an enthusiastic and tactically astute coach with no man-management skills whatsoever. Thankfully, press conferences do not exist on CM3, which means he won’t have the opportunity to storm out of any of them!
And yes… I HAD to bring Diego Maradona back to Napoli. ‘El Diez’ retired from football in 1997, but was still available as a player on the original CM3 database. That wasn’t an option on my fully-patched game, though this version of Maradona is still a pretty handy coach.
AUGUST 1998
Even before I had got to my first friendly, three senior players had gone down injured in training. Altomare and backup striker Roberto Murgita were both out for a month with groin strains, and right-back Daino had damaged his shoulder. Let’s just hope Maradona’s fitness training is as good as he says!
But there was no time for me to waste. I could only fit in a couple of friendlies – both against lower-league opposition – before the competitive stuff began in the Coppa Italia.
Our two friendlies brought mixed results. A disastrous experiment with counter-attacking football saw us go 2-0 down to Serie C1 side Juve Stabia at half-time, though we retrieved a draw in the second half. Things went somewhat better at non-league Casertana, where Bellucci won the game with two first-half goals.
Of course, Bellucci then strained his neck, so he couldn’t start the first leg of our Coppa tie against Monza – not that we needed him. Turrini fired us into an early lead before Bordi’s debut double gave us a 3-0 advantage as we headed back home, where captain Lopez finished the job off. Monza had crashed out at the first chicane.
That might be as good as it gets for Napoli in the Coppa this season. The mighty Parma await us in Round 2…
SEPTEMBER 1998
Though I had won my first two cup games as Napoli manager, I was still struggling to recruit new players. When even Middlesbrough’s no-nonsense midfielder Andy Townsend refuses to drive his ‘Tactics Truck’ to Naples, you know we’ve got problems.
We had about £2.4million in the bank, which perhaps wasn’t enough to recruit anyone who would significantly improve the squad. We needed to raise more funds by selling one or two backup players who were still earning big Serie A money – perhaps Murgita or right wing-back Oscar Magoni, who were both on £15,000 per week.
Anyway, September marked the start of the Serie B campaign – and we opened up at Lucchese, who were almost relegated last season. Should be a simple three points, right?
Well… we won, but it wasn’t easy. It took us 77 minutes to break the deadlock, but Bellucci eventually unlocked the Lucchese defence with a fantastic corner that was headed in by his new strike partner Bordi. I guess Batistuta might not be the last Argentine striker named Gabriel to take Italian football by storm!
With another win in the bag, let’s now bring on Parma in the Coppa Italia!
Incredible! Just incredible!
Despite their vast attacking talents, Parma could not beat Taglialatela in the Napoli goal for 270 minutes – not even after Ansah was sent off in the second half of the second leg for pushing Dino Baggio. Then came a tense penalty shoot-out, where Taglialatela saved from Lilian Thuram before Diego Fuser blazed over his effort. That gave Bordi the chance to complete the giant-killing, which he took with ease!
While Parma’s centre-back Fabio Cannavaro was distraught at the final whistle, his 17-year-old brother Paolo Cannavaro was all smiles after making his senior debut for Napoli. Awaiting Paolo and the Partenopei in the last 16 would be another top-flight side – Empoli.
By the way, Ansah’s red card for violent conduct saw him banned for our next EIGHT Coppa matches. That means he won’t play in that competition again this season, even if we get to the Final. Silly boy.
Meanwhile, Bordi’s excellent form continued with a hat-trick as we destroyed Ternana 5-0 at home. Turrini might be over a decade older than ‘El Tanque’, but he proved there was life in the old dog with two assists from right-wing. He was already up to four for the campaign!
Unfortunately, the perfect start met a tragic end in Verona, as Nilsen was sent off for a professional foul in a 1-0 defeat at Chievo. Not even Bellucci and Bordi – our answer to Romeo and Juliet – could find any love in the hosts’ penalty area.
Bellucci returned to scoring form when he and Rossitto saw off Cosenza at the San Paolo, lifting us into 2nd place. This meant a winning debut for my first new signing at Napoli…
De Paula Gerson is a well-rounded Brazilian midfield general who joins us from £425,000 from the Turkish club Istanbulspor. Better-known as Gérson Caçapa, the 31-year-old is already a familiar face to Italian football fans after spending several years at Bari.
OCTOBER 1998
Heading into October, the only team above us in the Serie B table was Brescia, who had won their first four matches without conceding a single goal. By the time we got back home from the Rigamonti…
…Brescia still hadn’t conceded a goal, but their 100% record was in tatters. A drab 0-0 draw was proof once again that our defence can withstand anything our opponents throw at it. Of course, it also helps that William Prunier buggered off back to France over the summer.
We followed that up with two more home victories. Though midfielder Cristiano Scapolo‘s 3rd-minute opener against Lecce was quickly cancelled out by the first goal we’d conceded at the San Paolo this season, Bordi banged in another brace to put us in control. That’s EIGHT goals in 10 matches for the fresh-faced Argentine now!
We weren’t quite so clinical against Cremonese, where we had 20 shots at goal and scored only one of them – a 44th-minute Bellucci volley. Fortunately, ‘La Cremo’ showed why they were still looking for a first win of the season, as they hardly got anywhere near our area.
Bellucci scored once again as we took a priceless 1-0 away win at Empoli in the Coppa. The Azzurri had hit our post late in the first half, but that was close as they would come to beating Taglialatela, who put in another man-of-the-match goalkeeping performance! As long as we don’t screw up the second leg at home, we should be on track for the Quarter Finals!
And so we finish the first two months of the season sitting pretty in 3rd place – one point clear of 5th-placed Atalanta. Though we are the joint-top scorers with 12 goals (9 of which came from either Bordi or Bellucci), our defensive record is equally impressive – with only early pacesetters Brescia proving to be more stubborn.
Turrini’s strong early-season form has continued, as he now has five assists in the league and another three in the Coppa. His average rating of 7.27 is the second-highest in the Napoli team so far, with only Bordi faring better on a mind-boggling 7.82!
This has been a very promising start to my time in Naples. After last season’s relegation, this Napoli team looks hungry, energetic and determined to return to Serie A. Things could not be going much better…
Just… er… don’t talk about our reserve team’s results.
So far, so good! I hope you’ve enjoyed this opening chapter of my new CM3 series and are looking forward to reading more.
My plan is to release a new chapter of this story every Friday over the coming weeks. If you want to be notified when a new blog post goes live, then please hit the ‘Follow’ button below – and/or follow me on Twitter, Threads or BlueSky.
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