Things are heating up in my Championship Manager 3 challenge with Napoli, where I have been attempting to transform the Partenopei from Serie B chumps to Serie A champs.
In the last chapter, Napoli enjoyed a strong start to the 2001/2002 season. That was thanks in no small part to Filippo Inzaghi, who has been in fine scoring form since his summer arrival from Juventus.
Now… can Napoli keep their scudetto challenge on track? And could another Italian superstar be on his way (back) to the San Paolo?
NOVEMBER 2001
Napoli had been expected to challenge for honours this season – and after two months, things were going well. We were 4th in Serie A (and still unbeaten) and making strong progress in both the UEFA Cup and the Coppa Italia. We’d conceded only two goals in a dozen matches – and our only defeat had come in what was essentially a dead rubber in Cyprus.
Okay, so we weren’t exactly banging in the goals – not domestically, anyway – but the board were pleased enough. Would they still be satisfied at the end of the year, or would it all fall apart before Christmas?
Well… they sure as hell were delighted after we left the Olimpico with three more league points! Lazio were on top in the first half, but a few tweaks to the 4-4-2 allowed us to take control with goals from Gabriel Bordi (no surprise) and left-back Aitor Larrazábal (a bit more so).
We also kept our sixth league clean sheet in a row, and best of all – Sebastien Frey was the man of the match! Yeah! Sebastien Frey!
Naturally, we followed up that impressive win over Sven Goran Eriksson with a miserable 0-0 against Malmö FF in the UEFA Cup. And it really was miserable – only four shots in the entire game. But as we’d already battered them 4-0 in Sweden, we still enjoyed a safe passage to a Round 3 tie against…
For feck’s sake.
Yes, incredibly, we would face Internazionale in TWO cup competitions this season! We were already 1-0 up from the first leg of our Coppa Italia Round 3 tie (thanks to Kabba Samura), but could we finish the Nerazzurri off at the San Siro and book a Quarter Final place?
I’ve never been so pleased to see a 0-0 scoreline in a match where we missed so many shots on goal!
We had become absolute masters at grinding out exactly the right results we needed. Our reward was a third Quarter Final in four seasons – and a Coppa reunion with AC Milan, who knocked us out at the Semis last term.
Meanwhile in the league, Filippo Inzaghi took on his younger Simone as we welcomed newly-promoted Venezia to the San Paolo. It took us 80 minutes to break through, but we eventually won the game with a goal from… Samura.
The George Graham tribute act continued with another solitary Samura strike against Cagliari. Having moved up into 2nd place in the previous weekend, we were now level on points with early leaders Torino, who had suffered just their second league defeat of the season.
At Piacenza, it looked like Inzaghi’s strike would complete a hat-trick of 1-0s and send us top of the table… but a 90th-minute equaliser meant we were still playing second fiddle to Claudio Bellucci’s new mates. That strike from Luigi Forlini was only the THIRD we had conceded in 18 matches this season.
After that huge kick to the guts, we got another upon our return to the San Siro. Internazionale were still seething from their Coppa exit, but Josemi’s 70th-minute strike ensured that they would prevail in the first leg of our UEFA Cup Round 3 tie.
If we were going to pip Javier Clemente’s side to another Quarter Final, we would have to beat them again at the San Paolo – and probably by more than one goal.
DECEMBER 2001
If there were signs that the 4-4-2 had gone stale, then a change of tactic freshened us right up against Parma! I switched to the 3-4-1-2 to try and exploit the huge space in their midfield diamond – and it worked a treat, as attacking midfielder Stilian Petrov wreaked havoc and helped Bordi score a hat-trick!
In further good news, Torino could only manage a 0-0 draw away to their local rivals Juventus. Napoli were top of Serie A for the first time this season – and by two points!
Interestingly, Alberto Zaccheroni was using the same midfield diamond at AC Milan, so I stuck with the 3-4-1-2 for the first leg of our Coppa Quarter Final. Would magic strike twice?
“Yer a tactical wizard, Christopher.”
I told myself at the start of this season that I was going to decide on one tactic and stick with it. Yet switching systems to counter our opponents had already delivered us quite a bit of joy this season. How long could we keep it up for?
It almost fell apart in our very next game at Fiorentina. We were 2-0 down after barely half an hour (merci again, Sebastien) and 3-1 down with 17 minutes to go. But we kept pressing on after Michel pulled another goal back… and then, in the 91st minute, Daniel Daino headed in his first ever Napoli goal to somehow save our unbeaten league record!
By the way, take a look at Pierre Laigle‘s tackle statistics – he attempted 32 tackles and won 16! That just show how much work we had to do against Ronaldo and co just to stop them from running riot.
And talking of leaving it late…
Boudewijn Zenden, let me kiss you!
Seven minutes before we were heading out of the UEFA Cup, Bolo stunned Internazionale with a magnificent corner that was headed home by Gaetano De Rosa to force extra-time. And then, just as it looked like we were heading for penalties, the flying Dutchman served up another assist to give Marco Carparelli the match winner!
Unfortunately, we lost Petrov for three weeks with a knee problem, and Bordi for a month with a calf injury. But I didn’t care, because Napoli were into the UEFA Cup Quarter Finals! And awaiting us in the last eight…
You have got to be kidding me. And I’ll give you three guesses as to which team we’ll be playing in the league five days after the first leg!
Even as the injuries mounted up, we piled on even more Milanese misery with a 4-0 demolition of nine-man AC Milan! Right-winger Roberto Goretti made his first appearance of the season and rewarded me with TWO goals, while Patrik Fredholm scored in Serie A for the first time since January 2000… and then immediately got injured.
Then we went to Torino and blew the bloody doors off their title charge. The goals had dried up for our old mate Bellucci – but not for Samura, who looked a ready-made replacement for the injured Bordi.
I can’t believe this. 14 games into the Serie A season, and we’re four points clear at the top – and STILL undefeated! While the other big guns have struggled to string consistent results together, we’ve just kept plugging along and doing exactly what we need to.
Could 2002 be the year that Napoli win their third scudetto? Could it be my first ever unbeaten season on Championship Manager?
JANUARY 2002
A Happy New Year to you too, Alberto. I hear you wanted all my defenders for Christmas.
By the way, it’s hilarious that AC Milan want to pay us £6.25million from Francesco Coco – the left-back that we stole off them on a free transfer 18 months ago! That’s the same Coco who’s popped off a 7.07 average rating in 15 games this season! Of course I’m not selling him!
One defender I was happy to sell, however, was Francesco Baldini. He was barely getting into the team now – and he hadn’t played in the league at all this season – so I let him join Lazio for £2.4million. Especially because I’d already agreed to sign an even stronger centre-back…
Fabio Cannavaro started out with Napoli a decade ago – and just like De Rosa, he has found his way home.
Yeah, Parma took leave of their senses and put Italy’s best central defender up for sale for just £3million! We could easily afford his £21,000-per-week wage demands as well – and with a healthy signing-on fee, we were able to steal him from right under Manchester United’s red noses!
Of course, this means we now have both Cannavari in the Partenopei ranks. Sadly, Fabio’s kid brother Paolo Cannavaro has not quite developed into the solid defender I hoped he would become, and he’s now stagnating in our reserves. Shame.
Fabio’s first game back at the San Paolo… didn’t go well. We had one of those games where the Genoa goalkeeper played like Dino Zoff and our forwards hit the woodwork about seven times. This was a great opportunity to pull further clear, and we had squandered it.
I was much happier to take a draw away at Roma. Luigi Di Biagio had put our unbeaten record in jeopardy just before half-time, but Samura returned from the break. Meanwhile, it turned out Milan weren’t the only team who wanted their left-back back…
We signed Larrazábal for £3.3million in the summer. Sure, he hasn’t quite been able to keep Coco out of the starting line-up, but dang am I giving him back to Athletic Bilbao six months later for a £500,000 loss!
We officially reached the halfway point of the season at home to Salernitana, who had won just once since their promotion. How many chances did we squander in this one, do you reckon?
Not many. 24 shots, 19 on target, SEVEN goals. Utter devastation.
Naturally, we mustered just a single goal against Bari a week later, but it was enough to extend our Serie A lead to five points.
We also had another Coppa Italia Semi Final to look ahead to. Samura was about to go to the African Cup of Nations with Sierra Leone, but not before he finished off AC Milan at the San Siro – and sent us through to face holders Fiorentina in the last four. Roma would meet Bologna in the other Semi.
FEBRUARY 2002
If I told you that our next match was at Udinese, you could probably guess that the result was yet another 0-0 draw. While we were starting to stumble, Lazio were on a relentless winning streak and now just three points behind us. Thankfully, we held our nerve against Bologna as Inzaghi’s double kept our cushion intact.
But now we faced another tricky run of fixtures, starting back at the San Siro. This was our sixth and final meeting with Internazionale this season… and it was our third 0-0 draw. And then we blanked Juventus again. Now that’s entertainment.
Those three stalemates took us up to an incredible 10 league draws this season! More importantly, we’d won the other 12, were STILL undefeated – and STILL had a healthy lead on the Roman giants below us!
To be honest, I am not sure how we have kept riding our luck for so long, but it seems like we have some impenetrable forcefield in our six-yard box. Even if our strikers aren’t always firing on a consistent basis, we can still rely on an incredibly resilient defensive unit that makes Baresi and Maldini look like Luzhny and Stepanovs!
But what about the Coppa Italia? As you can see from the results screenshot, Fiorentina unfortunately beat us 2-0 at the Artemio Franchi, even after losing Ronaldo to a knee injury (not the first he’s had in his career – ho, ho). That meant we had to win big at home, otherwise we would fall short at the Semi Final stage – again.
So… did we have one more Coppa miracle in us?
Nope. Nil-bloody-nil.
You can’t say we didn’t try. We had 11 shots, and 7 were on target – but for some reason, neither Inzaghi nor Bordi could finish them off. Even Goretti’s well had run dry. So much frustration.
Fiorentina are now into yet another Coppa Italia Final, where they will defend their title against Roma. As for us, our dreams of a treble this season have now been whittled down to a potential Serie A and UEFA Cup double.
But now I’m getting nervous – and it seems many of my players are as well. We’ve now gone four matches without scoring, Bordi hasn’t hit the target since his injury, and Daino’s form has dropped off since all the vultures from Milan and Rome started circling around him. Seriously, why won’t those pests just go away and leave Daniel alone?!
After 22 league matches without a defeat, the cracks have started to show. I have a horrible feeling this entire Neapolitan season is going to crumble in the final three months.
Napoli might have missed out on one major trophy, but can they bounce back and finish the season in style? Can they complete an entire Serie A season without losing a single game? Or will the Partenopei fall apart in the run-in?
You will not want to miss Part 12 – coming next Monday on Fuller FM!
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