Welcome back to my Championship Manager 3 story, where I will be aiming to take Napoli back to the top of Italian football.
After securing promotion in 1998/1999, the previous chapter saw us kick off the 1999/2000 season in Serie A. Results haven’t been too bad, but our supporters are perhaps getting frustrated with our pragmatic tactics. And to be honest, so am I.
Will things get any better over the next few months? Read on…
NOVEMBER 1999
It had been an odd start to Napoli’s first season back in Serie A. Though we were mid-table after seven matches, Neapolitan football fans hadn’t seen much entertainment – just six goals, three at either end.
The Partenopei had also not tasted victory since winning 1-0 at Atalanta on the opening day. We still hadn’t won at the San Paolo – and our next visitors would be our toughest opponents yet.
Juventus had won the last three Serie A scudetti, and had also reached three of the last four Champions League finals. Though Carlo Ancelotti’s side had made a stuttering start to this campaign, they still had some huge names to be feared: Davids, Del Piero, Inzaghi, Zambrotta, Zidane…
…but when you have Gabriel Bordi up front, there’s nothing to worry about!
‘El Tanque’ gave us a 22nd-minute lead from the penalty spot after centre-back Francesco Baldini was savaged by a bulldog, and he then thundered home a second goal from Keith Gillespie‘s first Napoli assist. At the other end, goalkeeper Giuseppe Taglialatela played out of the skin to keep the Old Lady quiet – and complete our first home win of the season!
Obviously, we followed that excellent result with a disappointing performance at Brescia. Swedish super-sub Patrik Fredholm had to come off the bench late on to salvage a draw – our SIXTH stalemate in nine league games!
Fredholm was the only player other than Bordi to have scored for us so far this season. If we were to stay clear of relegation, we would need to wrap our Argentine star up in cotton wool and keep him fit…
Too late. Damn it.
Our first game senza Bordi was at home to Fiorentina, whose own Argentine ace Gabriel Batistuta gave them the lead after 18 minutes. Baldini hit back just before half-time, but Predrag Mijatovic broke our hearts with a late winner for the Viola.
We then left Parma empty-handed after a shocking second-half collapse saw us go from 0-0 to 0-3. I think Taglialatela left his gloves in the dressing room at half-time.
That left us down in 13th place – just three points above the drop zone. Bordi couldn’t come back soon enough.
DECEMBER 1999
Our top scorer remained on the treatment table as we headed into December. We still weren’t scoring or creating enough for my liking – especially at the San Paolo – so I decided to try out a new tactic for our next two home games.
With our wingers showing as much flight and elegance as an emu, I decided to switch to a wingerless 4-3-1-2. The misfiring Claudio Bellucci would drop into an attacking midfield role behind the front two. If he couldn’t take his chances, I hoped he would at least create them for Fredholm and big Roberto Murgita instead.
The new tactic showed some promise on its debut, as we dominated winless Empoli at home. We had 73% possession and won 2-0, with Fredholm’s opener being followed up by a first senior goal for ex-Southampton youngster Cosimo Sarli. He’s better than Ali Dia already!
Patrik gave us the Swedish feeling again when his hat-trick savaged Cagliari. Murgita netted a further two goals as we triumphed 5-0 and soared back into the top half! Who needs Bordi, anyway?
Hmm, this 4-3-1-2 seemed to work very well at home. I wondered if it would deliver similar results on the road when we travelled to Genoa to take on fellow mid-tablers Sampdoria – managed by future Partenopei legend Luciano Spalletti.
Yep. This was a disaster.
Our old lederhosen-wearing friend Stefan Schwoch was chanting “Tor!” after just two minutes. By the 35th, he’d scored twice as many tors against Napoli as he had scored for us.
We did at least win the second half after frantically switching back to 4-4-2 (and subbing out the awful Taglialatela). Even so, this was not my finest hour at all.
With 14 matches played, we were now in 10th place – with a five-point cushion on the drop zone. We were only five points off the top five, though, which just goes to show how congested Serie A had become with all those draws.
Improbably, Fredholm had now shot up to 3rd in the Capocannoniere race with 7 goals. The top two scorers came from the top two – Christian Vieri getting 9 goals for Inter, while Roma’s Fabio Junior was just ahead on 10.
The transfer window was now open again, but I was looking to sell surplus players before bringing in any more new blood. The first one out was backup centre-back Alessandro Sbrizzo, who was now sunning it in Tenerife after a £375,000 sale.
In other news, underperforming champions Juventus sacked Ancelotti and brought in Benfica’s Jupp Heynckes to take his place. I also noticed that my beloved Arsenal had signed a certain teenage striker from Everton… oh no… oh no…
JANUARY 2000
And with that, the 1990s were over, and we’d arrived at 2000 AD. We didn’t have to worry about tyrannical judges or giant man-eating ants in this universe, but we instead faced some even mightier foes early in the new year.
First up, we were at home to front-runners Internazionale, who were clearly not missing Ronaldo’s goals, given Vieri’s recent form. The scene was set for a thrilling, dramatic end-to-end contest at the San Paolo.
Alright… things actually got a bit more exciting in the second half. There were a few yellow cards, and Inter actually tried to attack us. No goals, mind you.
There were no goals at Lazio either, despite both teams having a fair amount of chances. So, that makes it… [checks results] SIX 0-0 draws for us this season. That’s entertainment!
Though Bordi had now returned to full fitness, he had yet to recover his best goalscoring form. Perhaps it was time for some more fresh blood in attack?
Look… I’m not going to sign every CM3 wonderkid I’ve heard of, but I couldn’t resist buying Kabba Samura when one of my scouts found him in Sweden. £275,000 for an explosive, prolific and hard-working striker who has the potential to be a world-beater? Don’t mind if I do!
Samura was a long-term signing – but in the short-term, I decided to give another chance to Giacomo Banchelli. He had spent the first half of this season in our reserves, but his impressive form there had convinced me that he might not be entirely worthless after all.
We were back to scoring and winning ways in our very next match. Torino (and their English Football Hall of Famer Sun Jihai) were no match for Bordi, who scored two penalties in a 4-0 rout – with Fredholm and captain Giovanni Lopez also on target.
Atalanta provided more of a challenge. Banchelli proved his worth with an excellent 9th-minute assist for Fredholm, who got the only goal of the game and lifted us back into the top half.
I wasn’t feeling very ‘poggers’ when Paolo Poggi gave Udinese a half-time lead in our next match. Their midfield triangle was carving through our 4-4-2 with ease, so I switched back to the 4-3-1-2 for the second half… and Bordi duly scored a hat-trick to turn the game around! Welcome back, my friend.
And so we were up to 7th – our highest position since Matchday 2. Having pulled 11 points clear of relegation, now we were starting to believe we could push on further – and maybe even challenge for European qualification!
FEBRUARY 2000
And after a miraculous result like this, why CAN’T we dream?
I was fearing the worst when our nemesis Nicola Ventola gave Bologna a 1-0 lead at the San Paolo. But then Bordi continued his impressive form with an early second-half equaliser before Keith Gillespie – yes, KEITH GILLESPIE – made it 2-1 with seven minutes to go! Bologna thought they’d grabbed an even later leveller, but the offside flag saved us.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though, as right-back Daniel Daino twisted his ankle and was out for a month. Left-back Amadeo Carboni was already out with the same injury, while Lopez was handed a ban, which meant we were without THREE regular defenders for our trip to Piacenza.
Sweet Monica! BELLUCCI SCORED! That’s his first goal of the season!
We were now enjoying our best run of the season, with five consecutive wins taking us into the top five! Only Roma, Parma, Inter and Fiorentina remained ahead of us as we prepared to host relegation-threatened Venezia – and their bumbling goalkeeper Massimo Taibi.
This version of Taibi was more like the one I had at Leverkusen on CM99/00, rather than the one who played for Manchester United. We still won pretty comfortably, mind you – with left-back Emanuele Pesaresi scoring his first Napoli goal before Bordi bagged his 39th.
Marco Carparelli did not play in that game. Instead, the notoriously mediocre winger was playing for our reserves, where he got sent off for violent conduct and banned for seven matches. I’ve signed a few duds at Napoli already, but he surely must be the biggest flop so far.
Unfortunately, the winning streak would end at AC Milan. With Miguel Angel Soría joining Daino on the sidelines through injury, I had to play midfielder Roberto Goretti at right-back, and he was horribly exposed as the Rossoneri moved 2-0 ahead. Bordi pulled a goal late on, but it wasn’t enough.
Despite that first defeat of the new year, we remained in the top six, and on course to qualify for the UEFA Cup. The question was… how long would it be before our season inevitably fell apart?
MARCH 2000
A difficult run of fixtures continued at home to Fabio Capello’s Roma, who were now four points clear at the top. I went for a counter-attacking approach, which paid off when wingers Michel and Francesco Turrini scored their first goals of the season to give us an improbable 2-0 lead! We were in dreamland…
…and then we crashed back to Earth. Roma captain Francesco Totti scored one goal on the hour, then created another for Vincenzo Montella almost immediately. Two precious points had been snatched from us.
Then came a trip to the Delle Alpi, where Juventus had several chances to leapfrog us into the top six. Thankfully, they couldn’t take them, and we silenced the Old Lady again for another goalless draw.
To finish this chapter on a brighter note, we made light work of Brescia, going 2-0 up within the first 13 minutes. Midfield hardman Fabio Rossitto then picked up a couple of quick bookings, but our remaining 10 men kept the Rondinelle at bay to consolidate our top-six place.
My goal for this season was simply to stay clear of relegation. With eight matches to go, we are already 21 points clear of 15th-placed Venezia – meaning we need just four more to mathematically confirm our survival. That should be a doddle.
So now we can turn all our focus towards staying in that top six, and bringing UEFA Cup football back to the San Paolo next season? There’s still an outside chance that we could crack the top two and qualify for the Champions League… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet!
What do you reckon, folks? Can Napoli qualify for the UEFA Cup in our first season back in Serie A?
And what about Bordi? The Argentine ace currently has the league’s highest average rating, but can he keep up his scoring form and win the Capocannoniere?
Please come back next Friday, when the 1999/2000 season will reach its conclusion!
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