The news of the coach’s dismissal this time came from last season’s defending Serie A champions, Napoli. After the defeat at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium against Empoli with a score of 0-1 on Sunday (12/11), President Aurelio De Laurentiis immediately held a meeting with the club board to fire the coach.
It was decided that as of Tuesday, 14/11, Rudi Garcia had been fired and was no longer in charge of the team’s training sessions. Then who is the replacement?
Quoted from Fabrizio Romano’s Instagram, it was widely reported that De Laurentiis was in communication with Igor Tudor, a former Juventus player. Tudor is currently unemployed after completing his tenure at the end of last season at French club Marseille. However, it turned out that it was not he who was appointed to replace Garcia, but the name Walter Mazzarri.
It was reported that Igor Tudor did not manage Napoli because he asked for a minimum two-year contract period, while De Laurentiis only wanted to tie the coach until the end of this season, and Mazzari agreed.
De Laurentiis, who is also a film producer, was certainly not reckless in his decision to contract Walter Mazzarri for the remainder of this season only. Walter Mazzarri’s background is that he coached the proud team of the city of Naples from 2009 to 2013. So, more or less, he already knows Il Partenopei well. However, the biggest reason Laurentiis appointed him was to provide stability to the team, while waiting for Antonio Conte’s hiatus.
Antonio Conte, it is no longer a secret, is the main target as Napoli coach at the start of this season to replace Luciano Spalletti. However, he announced that he was taking a hiatus in the world of football for this year, so that he could be better prepared to return to training again.
It is very likely that he is experiencing a down period after his failure at Tottenham Hotspur, and also the death of his two friends, Gianluca Vialli and Gian Pier Ventrone. Vialli, an Italian legend, is a former colleague of Conte when he managed the Azzurri national team, while Ventrone is Conte’s assistant coach who he invited wherever he coached.
The instructions for the team that Conte wants to coach also point to Napoli, because he will only return to coach a team that is challenging for the title and has a history of winning.
Returning to Rudi Garcia, this dismissal certainly adds to the bad list of his coaching history this year. Before coaching Napoli, this man from Nemours, France only served as coach of Al Nassr for a year, before reportedly leaving due to incompatibility with Cristiano Ronaldo.
His most brilliant coaching career was becoming Ligue1 champion with Lille in the 2010/2011 season. At that time he managed a team containing Adil Rami, Yohan Cabaye, Gervinho and Wonder Kid Eden Hazard. Furthermore, the teams he coached were mostly big teams that were struggling, including AS Roma, Marseille and Lyon.
At the start of this season, Garcia’s achievements were actually not that bad. He led Napoli to be in 4th place in Serie A with 21 points from 12 matches. In the Champions League, Napoli’s hopes of qualifying for the knockout phase are still open by being in second place in Group C behind Real Madrid. But that wasn’t enough for the fans and De Laurentiis, especially as Napoli didn’t look superior in some of the “easy” matches.
The 2-2 draw against Milan last month was the first indicator. The collapse of Alex Meret’s goal with Giroud’s brace in the first half indicated the weakness of Napoli’s defense. Even though it was equalized in the second half, this match showed how inconsistent Garcia’s Napoli were.
Next was a draw in the Champions League against Union Berlin. The German team, which is experiencing 12 consecutive defeats in various competitions, also managed to hold Napoli to a draw at the Diego Maradona Stadium. In contrast to the match versus Milan, this time Napoli were only good in the first half and immediately dropped in the second half.
The last one was the match against Empoli last week. Mastering almost 90 minutes of the match, with 18 shots and 66% ball possession, Napoli actually lost at home through Empoli’s counterattack. As if as a sign, before Empoli’s goal occurred, Kvaratskhelia’s kick hit the opponent’s goalpost hard, which was a farewell sound for Rudi Garcia.
If assessed objectively, Napoli’s failure to continue last season’s performance is not solely Garcia’s fault. Their squad is no better than last season. Apart from Kvaradona, Osimhen and captain Di Lorenzo, the rest of the Napoli squad is actually B grade.
So it’s worth waiting to see how Walter Mazzarri carries this squad through the rest of this season.
Arrivederci Rudi Garcia, Benvenuto Walter Mazzarri!!
