I’m now into season 3 of my Championship Manager 3 series with Napoli. Where does the time fly?
After storming through Serie B in my first season, the Partenopei didn’t take long to establish themselves back in Serie A. Sadly, a woeful run-in meant that we missed out on Europe and could only finish in 10th place. Unless you’re one of the three people who’ve already read Part 6 (thanks, Twitter), I’d suggest you do that now.
Bringing continental football back to the San Paolo has to be our main goal for the 2000/2001 season. Can some quality summer reinforcements bring that dream closer to reality?
SUMMER TRANSFERS
The 2000/2001 Serie A season was about to get underway, and some of the big guns had been busy in the transfer market. Defending champions Roma had brought in two new strikers in Christophe Dugarry and… er, Chelsea reserve Mark Nicholls.
Internazionale had an even more bizarre new frontline, as Jamie Cureton came in from Bristol Rovers to challenge ex-Lazio man Alen Boksic. Staying at the San Siro, AC Milan focussed on rebuilding their leaky defence and acquired Real Madrid right-back Michel Salgado.
After Juventus’ league failures last season, Real and Barcelona had between themselves stripped them of Montero, Van Der Sar and Zidane – but the Old Lady hoped that £10million midfielder Stefan Beinlich would appease her worried fans. Meanwhile, in the ongoing adventures of Ronaldo Luiz Nazario…
After a year back in Brazil, the buck-toothed goal machine returned to Barcelona… who dumped him into the reserves and then sold him back to Serie A for a £6million profit just two months later! Fiorentina now have Ronaldo, Kluivert, Batistuta AND Predrag Mijatovic leading their attack. [Gulp]
Napoli also needed to strengthen over the summer, after a woeful end to last season saw us throw away a potential UEFA Cup place. But before I look at the players I hope will take the Partenopei into Europe, it’s time to say arrivederci to some familiar faces.
TRANSFERS OUT
| DATE | PLAYER | NEW CLUB | FEE |
| 6 June | Steinar Nilsen | Rosenborg | Bosman |
| 20 June | Francesco Turrini | Free | |
| 20 June | Emilio Zangara | Retired | |
| 30 June | Aziz Ansah | Tampa Bay | Free |
| 30 June | Ferdinando Coppola | Saronno | Free |
| 12 August | Cosimo Sarli | Benevento | Loan (Season) |
| 19 August | Giuseppe Imburgia | Turris | Loan (Season) |
| 31 August | Paolo Cannavaro | Juve Stabia | Loan (Season) |
Ageing winger Francesco Turrini was finally put out to pasture after failing to build on his outstanding 1998/1999 season, while backup centre-half Steinar Nilsen went home to Norway. Surprisingly, the Napoli board were most upset that I released Aziz Ansah. Yes, the Ghanaian teenager has unbelievable tekkerz, but he’s still glacially slow.
Sadly, we haven’t been able to recoup any transfer fees. I’m not too fussed, mind, considering our financial situation…
TRANSFERS IN
| DATE | PLAYER | LAST CLUB | FEE |
| 12 June | Sebastien Frey | Inter | £1.6m |
| 12 June | Stilian Petrov | Celtic | £3.3m |
| 12 June | Fabio Timoniere | Inter | £140k |
| 16 June | Francesco Coco | Milan | Bosman |
| 23 June | Stefano Morrone | Piacenza | £2m |
| 14 July | Boudewijn Zenden | Barcelona | Free |
After another influx of ticket money, my transfer budget stood at £26million. And to be honest, I really didn’t need to spend that much of it!
My first target was a new long-term number 1, so I’m delighted that we’ve brought in 20-year-old Sebastien Frey from Inter for just £1.6million. The new France international is one of THE iconic CM3 goalkeepers – and with his outstanding anticipation and positioning, I’m sure he’ll excel in this Napoli team.
We also signed two left-backs from the San Siro. Going straight into the first-team is the athletic 23-year-old workhorse Francesco Coco. I first tried to buy Coco from AC Milan last summer, but decided to wait another year to steal him on a Bosman.
Our other new left-back is 20-year-old Fabio Timoniere, who starts in the reserves after being pinched from Inter. He’s not the quickest defender yet, but I hope I can develop him into one.
Next, I focussed on the midfield and recruited Stefano Morrone from relegated Piacenza. As well as having great passing technique, the young left-footer has solid enough defensive attributes to help break up any potential opposition counter-attacks.
Stilian Petrov is much more of a creative force. I cannot believe that the Bulgarian attacking midfielder was only allowed to play once for Celtic last season. Stan nearly crossed Glasgow and signed for Rangers, but he wisely chose to come to Naples instead for £3.3million.
Of course, Petrov twisted his ankle just before pre-season, so it would be a while before we got to see our most expensive signing in action. Fortunately, Napoli fans had an even more exciting attacking talent to salivate over…
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Boudewijn Zenden. You might have heard of him.
Bolo had just been released by Barcelona, and I saw the flying Dutchman’s flying left-wing crosses as the perfect ammunition for our strikers. That ammunition didn’t come cheap, mind. He’s being paid £20,500 per week, which makes him our second-highest earner after Frey.
SQUAD REPORT
Here’s a closer look at this refreshed Napoli squad as we head into the new campaign. Nine of these boys were here at the start of our Serie B season two years ago, and a few more are still hanging on in the reserves.
We’ve already met Frey, who has displaced our number 1 Giuseppe Taglialatela in goal, so let’s start with the centre-backs…
Francesco Baldini and Giovanni Lopez are two of my Serie B originals, and they will continue to start together at the heart of our defence. The spirited Baldini missed most of pre-season through injury, but captain Lopez has managed to stay fit even as heads into the latter stages of his career.
Coco’s arrival will give veteran left-back Amadeo Carboni every incentive to keep up his solid form from last term. Unfortunately, Amadeo’s attributes have fallen significantly in the past 12 months (particularly his pace), so this will probably be his final season with us.
There are no such worries over 20-year-old Daniel Daino, who continues to make good progress at right-back. If he can keep clear of injuries this term, Miguel Ángel Soria may struggle to bump him out of the team.
We now have plenty of options in central midfield. The fearless holding midfielder Emiliano Bigica is perhaps the best of them, though I still admire Fabio Rossitto‘s tough-tackling and work rate. In attacking midfield, new boy Petrov could face competition from Marco Carparelli, whose pre-season form suggests he might finally be about to come good!
With Zenden now in town, Michel is no longer a guaranteed starter at left-wing, but the Spaniard still has a fair bit of magic left in him. I hope to see a lot more from right-winger Keith Gillespie, who has hardly delivered anything since his £4million signing from Blackburn last autumn.
Our main man up front is, of course, Gabriel Bordi. The Argentinian ace has made himself practically undroppable with 44 goals in his first two seasons at the San Paolo. Swedish youngster Patrik Fredholm has recently displaced the misfiring Claudio Bellucci as Bordi’s regular partner.
31-year-old target man Roberto Murgita is our biggest aerial threat, and still a fine option to throw on if we need to go direct. Meanwhile, I have promoted the pacey 18-year-old Kabba Samura to the first-team and will give him some opportunities as well.
I’ve made a few tweaks to our tactics to try and get a little more out of our wide players. In the 4-4-2, the wingers will bomb further forward to join the attack (it helps that Zenden and Gillespie both have EXCEPTIONAL stamina). If we need to protect a lead late on, I’ll push the two central midfielders further back.
The narrow 4-3-1-2 is still our main system for facing weaker opponents, whom we can overwhelm in midfield. The wider middlemen will move diagonally onto the wings – again to take advantage of their energy and crossing abilities, and hopefully create more clear-cut opportunities.
The board are delighted with my general performance and have slightly raised their expectations. They now want a “respectable finish” (top half, in other words). My aim is to crack the top six, which would get us into the UEFA Cup next season.
AUGUST 2000
Well… looks like 2-0 is the new 0-0! Not that I’m complaining about our pre-season results!
The warm-ups began with a surprisingly comfortable win over Portuguese side Braga. We then put five goals past Serie C1 Avellino – but only two of them counted.
After putting a couple more goals past last season’s UEFA Cup winners Tenerife (no, I can’t understand that either), we finished off with a three-game tour of Sweden. I was sure Fredholm and Samura would feel right at home… and though the latter did score twice, Patrik sadly went without.
The easiest win came at Nacka, whose poor amateurs really were knackered once Bobby Murgita had finished tearing them apart. AIK and Hammarby were slightly more resilient, though we still left Sweden without facing even a single shot on target!
So that’s six wins, six clean sheets, 14 goals. Napoli were raring to go for the new campaign…
SEPTEMBER 2000
Our second season back in Serie A opened up at the Friuli against Udinese. We came from behind to beat the Bianconeri on our last visit here in January. Could Bordi replicate his hat-trick heroics?
Er… that wasn’t in the script.
We had more possession, but Udinese created more chances, and Marco Negri looked to have stolen the points for them late on. Then supersub Carparelli came to the rescue, equalising even later on with his first competitive goal for Napoli!
Our first home game didn’t exactly start off too well either. After scoring all five of his penalties last season, Bordi’s first of this campaign was saved by the Verona goalkeeper, who basically tried to shut him out all by himself. Why did we bother signing Frey when we could have Alessio Scarpi instead?
‘El Tanque’ did eventually strike twice before a Zenden shot deflected in off a defender, but the final score should have been way more emphatic than 3-0. Eh, whatever.
Meanwhile, we avoided another Coppa Italia upset by blowing Serie B Lodigiani away in Round 2. Bellucci scored twice as many goals in the first leg alone as he got in the entire 1999/2000 season. Much tougher tests would await in Round 3, as we were drawn against Lazio.
Speaking of tough tests, Bologna were just too strong for us at the Renato Dall’Ara. Our nemesis Nicola Ventola opened the scoring midway through the first half, and though the Rossoblù had a defender sent off just before half-time, we still couldn’t break them down. Zé Elías then put the seal on our first defeat of the season.
After three games, we were in 7th place. Not a bad start, but those early blips on the road were a cause for concern.
OCTOBER 2000
Another worry was that we made rather heavy work of beating Serie B champions Vicenza – only turning our utter domination into a 2-1 win. Frey conceded the visitors’ only shot on target as well. What do you think I’m paying you 21 grand a week for, Sebastien?
And what do YOU think I’m paying YOU 20-and-a-half grand a week for, Bolo? Zenden was four games into his Napoli career but had given us nothing yet! He had been as painfully mediocre as Carparelli was last season!
By contrast, Carparelli had started this season like a house on fire, with four goal contributions in his first six matches. Having spent most of the previous campaign in the reserves, Marco was now thriving at last on the right wing.
So yeah, Bolo… you’ve got work to do, matey.
Yep. That will do.
After Fabio Rossitto’s early free-kick at AC Milan was cancelled out by Leonardo, we silenced the San Siro again when Zenden drove in his first Partenopei goal (from a Carparelli assist, of course). A fantastico away win meant Napoli were into the top four!
…and by the following week, we were up to 2nd! A newly-Germanified Juventus were no match for us at the San Paolo. Murgita and Zenden each put shots past their helpless new goalkeeper Bodo Illgner, whose coach Jupp Heynckes was perhaps wishing he’d stayed at Benfica instead.
The month ended with back-to-back trips to Lazio. Naturally, Zenden had to miss them both due to injury, but things would go even worse for another big summer signing.
Frey made some costly mistakes in a 2-1 defeat in the Coppa Italia, and I’m afraid he was at fault again when we returned to the Olimpico three days later for a league game. A pitiful attempt to keep out Alessandro Nesta’s header left me asking questions about whether he was the answer to our goalkeeping problems.
While Le Frey needed to remember how to save a shot, Bordi had forgotten how to take them – having not found the net since Verona. Nonetheless, we were still looking good in 5th place after our opening seven league matches.
Ronaldo was off to a good start at Fiorentina (scoring six goals in as many games), but it was unbeaten Parma who led the way early on, with champions Roma just behind. Juventus’ love of stalemates and Milan’s new fear of goalscoring meant that the sleeping giants were barely above the relegation spots.
But who cares about them? Napoli’s quest for European football is back on track!
This story will resume on Friday, as Napoli aim to build on a positive start – and consolidate their place in that all-important top six.
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