I’m glad that you’ve joined me for the latest installment of my new Championship Manager 3 series. I’m now well into my first season at Napoli, who are flying high in Serie B after averaging nearly two goals per game!
It is now March 1999. CM3 is about to hit store shelves, and the Partenopei look like they are about to celebrate promotion back to Serie A at the first time of asking. Can they finish the job… or will this season reach a nail-biting, perhaps even a heartbreaking conclusion?
MARCH 1999
Here’s a quick reminder of where Napoli were in Serie B as we headed into the final third of the season. We held a narrow lead at the top after overtaking Brescia in our last match, but I wasn’t too bothered about winning the title. All we needed to do was stay in the top four – and as things stood, we had a 7-point cushion on 5th-placed Verona.
With 14 games remaining, there was still plenty of time for things to go horribly wrong. We had to stay composed without getting too complacent, and promotion would surely be ours.
In other words, Giovanni Lopez – DON’T give away a stupid penalty after 15 minutes against Lecce!
Fortunately, the unstoppable Gabriel Bordi was on hand to score an equaliser, and then a second following a catastrophic own goal from right-back Daniel Daino. We then pinched a late winner through long-serving midfielder Luca Altomare, who has played on and off for Napoli since 1989.
That was too close for comfort, lads. After tweaking our defenders’ marking instructions (the centre-backs now mark man-to-man rather than zonally), I hoped for fewer mistakes in our next two games.
There we go! Two easy wins, two clean sheets. Neither Cremonese nor Cesena stood a chance against our relentless strikeforce, as we powered to a four-point lead over 2nd-placed Brescia. Sounds like everything went to plan, right?
Our goalkeeper Giuseppe Taglialatela got injured 11 minutes into the Cesena game… and then his backup Luca Mondini ALSO went down hurt midway through the second half. Norwegian centre-back Steinar Nilsen had to go in goal for the last 22 minutes, though we might as well have thrown in a sack of potatoes, so poor were Cesena going forward.
But I suppose our goalies will be fine in the long run. Maybe they’ve just bruised their fingers and will be fit to face Monza in two weeks…
Madre di Dio. They BOTH tore their groin muscles. They’re BOTH out for the rest of the season.
The only other goalkeeper in our squad was 20-year-old reserve Ferdinando Coppola. Looking at those attributes, I would rather trust Francis Ford Coppola with the gloves than throw this kid in.
Instead, I delved into the free transfer market and signed a man twice his age – Emilio Zangara. A lower-league journeyman who officially retired in 1997. Yep, he really was the best I could find.
APRIL 1999
Unbelievable. Nilsen’s ripped his groin in half as well! All three Napoli players who went in goal against Cesena will miss the rest of the season with the same long-term injury!
If our players’ groins are so fragile, maybe I should just ask them to abstain from sex until we wrap up promotion? That sounds like a reasonable request, right?
Despite having a 40-year-old nobody in goal, we were still far too strong for lowly Monza, beating them to nil for the FOURTH time this season. Not even Silvio Berlusconi could save the Biancorossi from relegation at this rate.
Bordi then gave me a special birthday present, scoring his 20th league goal of the season in a 2-1 home win over Ravenna that should’ve have been much bigger. Our opponents never actually got a shot of target; their goal was ANOTHER Napoli own goal!
Our next match was at 6th-placed Reggiana, who had inflicted our only home defeat of the Serie B season so far back in November. The Granata seemed to be our bogey team, as they battled to another 1-0 win, courtesy of a late first-half penalty. As if that wasn’t enough…
…you could now add Francesco Baldini to our list of defensive injuries. Out for a month with… you guessed it. A groin strain.
At the other end of the pitch a week later, our strikers tried to set a new record for most shots without scoring. 16 attempts on goal, and not a single one found the Genoa net. How costly could that 0-0 draw be in the final reckoning?
The good news was that Brescia were faltering even harder, and we now led the league by five points. The not-so-good news was that we were still only seven clear of 5th place, which meant there was still plenty of work left to secure promotion.
My goodness, this is getting stressful all of a sudden! I need something to lighten the mood…
MAY & JUNE 1999
So here we are. The final seven games of the season. Could we get this done quickly and painlessly… or were we about to see another classic Fuller FM collapse?
This isn’t a great sign, to be honest. Verona gave us the good ol’ super-keeper treatment, with Graziano Battistini being named ‘man of the match’ after saving our first seven shots on target.
But number 8 was a different matter. In the final minute, a lucky 13th league assist from the evergreen winger Francesco Turrini set up a 21st goal for who else? Gabriel Bordi.
We had be very careful not to break Bordi, since we’d now lost the other half of our dream strike partnership. After 10 goals and 10 assists in 32 league games, Claudio Bellucci had probably played his last of the season.
Roberto Murgita went up front with Bordi when we hosted 9th-placed Treviso. We still won, though – and Bordi was still voted ‘man of the match’, even if he didn’t score. Midfielder Fabio Rossitto and Turrini got our goals, though I was more concerned about Treviso’s goal in between.
Zangara aimlessly wandered out of his penalty area like it was his retirement home, giving the Biancocelesti striker a chance to equalise. The man called Belmonte, he say yes.
Anyway, we were now nine points ahead of 5th-placed Verona, and only needed seven more points from our final five games to wrap up promotion. After Zangara’s senior moment against Treviso, I decided to put him on the bench and give young Coppola a chance in goal when we visited Reggina.
Coppola wasn’t totally clueless, thank God… but he was hardly Taglialatela either. Despite once again dominating the stats (15 shots on target, 63% possession), we once again wondered why the final score wasn’t more than 2-1. And just to prove that Championship Manager has a sense of humour, Reggi scored for Reggina.
It might not have been pretty, but we were at least keeping our heads – and our rivals were losing theirs.
Almost there, fellas. One more win would be enough for promotion; two more for the title.
If we were to book our ticket back to Serie A at the first attempt, we would need to see off Atalanta, who still had title aspirations of their own. La Dea had beaten us 2-0 in Bergamo, so I expected a fierce contest at the San Paolo. Instead, they sat back, made life as difficult as possible for our attackers, and ground out the most tedious of 0-0s.
We would get another chance to wrap things up a week later at Pescara. With other results going our way, we now only needed one more point for promotion. Take all three points, and we would take the Serie B title as well!
Just one small problem. Bordi had picked up a knock, and so instead of him and Bellucci up front, we had Murgita and Giacomo Banchelli. It was like replacing Morecambe & Wise with… er, Joe Pasquale and Stewart Lee?
At least we got the first job done. Banchelli scored his first Napoli goal to end our exile in Serie B, but Pasquale Luiso’s equaliser for Pescara meant the title would have to wait for another week.
Oh yes, and that’s Altomare picking up our FOURTH torn groin muscle! I swear the last three months have just been one long marathon of Hans Moleman’s “Man Getting Hit By Football”!
Still, the pain was worth it when all was said and done. We were officially crowned Serie B champions in our final home game, drawing 1-1 with Torino to get our medals and our victory parade.
Bordi then finished the season in style, as a hat-trick against Andria took his final tally up to 24 league goals (which meant he shared the Serie B golden boot with Torino’s Ilia Ivic). Bellucci even recovered from his injury just in time to add one more goal and complete a truly triumphant season for Napoli!
Promoted as champions at the first time of asking! Does it get much better than that?
For the sake of completion, the four teams relegated to Serie C1 were Andria, Monza, Cremonese and Cosenza… but we didn’t care about them anymore. Together with Brescia, Atalanta and Torino, we were on the road back to Serie A, replacing the relegated quartet of Bari, Vicenza, Perugia and Salernitana.
It might interest you to know that Fabio Capello led Roma to one of their best ever seasons. They conceded just 12 goals in 34 Serie A matches and didn’t suffer a single defeat…
…but they still couldn’t wrest the scudetto away from Juventus!
SEASON REVIEW
My first objective in this series was to lead the Partenopei back to Serie A, which had been achieved with relative ease. Even with CM constantly throwing injuries and super-keepers in our way, we still had the most potent and resilient team in our league, suffering just four defeats.
It’s a far cry from the actual 1998/1999 season, when the Partenopei suffered too many draws and struggled to find the net, limping home in 9th. If only they’d taken the English approach and gone 4-4-2, eh?
But seriously, even though I was named Serie B’s Manager of the Year, I didn’t feel I deserved that much credit. I had inherited some incredible talents who were simply too good for the second tier. With that in mind, let’s celebrate our four best performers this season:
It probably won’t surprise you that Bordi and Bellucci bossed the league’s Player of the Year awards. Bellucci’s average rating of 7.88 would be amazing by anyone’s standards, but Bordi made that look ordinary by going up to 8.05! I simply cannot believe this is the same Gabriel Bordi who in real-life was sent home by Napoli after just two games!
Bordi and Bellucci scored 41 goals between them in all competitions this season. They’re both skilful and pacey finishers in their mid-20s, and I really believe that their best years are still to come. Don’t be too shocked if they carry over their impressive form into Serie A!
At the other end of the age scale, Turrini also impressed me with a league-high 14 assists from the right wing. Though Francesco still looks fit as a fiddle for 33, it remains to be seen if he can keep going for another season. The future definitely looks brighter for our left-winger Michel, who bagged 12 goal contributions in his first 22 games.
Lastly, I want to mention an unsung hero in our defence. Baldini is a fearless beast of a centre-back who has struggled with injuries at times this season, but has always been very reliable when fit. Though he’s now coveted by Sampdoria, I’m confident we can keep hold of him for the long run.
Our goal for next season is survival – pure and simple. I’ve got around £6million in the transfer budget, which I hope will be enough to bring in the greater squad depth (particularly in defence and midfield) that we need to survive in Serie A. If this first season seemed pretty easy, the second will be when the hard work starts in earnest.
PLAYER STATISTICS
| NAME | APPS | CON | ASTS | YC [RC] | MOM | AVE |
| Ferdinando Coppola | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.80 |
| Luca Mondini | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.00 |
| Giuseppe Taglialatela | 34 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6.94 |
| Emilio Zangara | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.50 |
| NAME | APPS | GOALS | ASTS | YC [RC] | MOM | AVE |
| Luca Altomare | 29 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6.62 |
| Aziz Ansah | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 [1] | 0 | 6.13 |
| Francesco Baldini | 33 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 7.03 |
| Giacomo Banchelli | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6.57 |
| Claudio Bellucci | 39 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 8 | 7.67 |
| Antonio Bocchetti | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Gabriel Bordi | 43 | 27 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 7.95 |
| Paolo Cannavaro | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Daniel Daino | 33 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6.82 |
| Antonio De Stefano | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Massimiliano Esposito | 30 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 6.70 |
| De Paula Gerson | 31 | 3 | 6 | 5 [1] | 1 | 6.74 |
| Roberto Goretti | 19 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6.42 |
| Giovanni Lopez | 41 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 7.00 |
| Oscar Magoni | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.00 |
| Davide Mezzanotti | 24 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6.63 |
| Michel | 23 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 7.30 |
| Roberto Murgita | 18 | 7 | 1 | 0 [1] | 2 | 6.83 |
| Steinar Nilsen | 17 | 0 | 1 | 4 [1] | 0 | 6.47 |
| Massimo Perna | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 |
| Emanuele Pesaresi | 37 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 6.59 |
| Fabio Rossitto | 37 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 1 | 6.86 |
| Alessandro Sbrizzo | 18 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6.06 |
| Cristiano Scapolo | 22 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5.82 |
| Raffaele Sergio | 19 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6.47 |
| Stefan Schwoch | 10 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6.70 |
| Francesco Turrini | 39 | 6 | 17 | 0 | 2 | 7.05 |
Well…. how about that for my first season in Naples?
I’ll be back next Friday to kick off the 1999/2000 season, as the Partenopei celebrate their return to Serie A. Can some fresh faces help us to survive in the top flight?
Fuller FM 
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