Is resurgent Napoli the real deal?

For football fans of a certain vintage, Napoli was the height of cool. With Diego Maradona’s otherworldly talent inspiring an underdog team, the club twice conquered the Serie A, in 1987 and 1990. The football was brave and passionate, the atmosphere at home games was electric. 

The bond between club and fans was pure — Yaya Toure, who experienced it as an opponent decades after Napoli’s most successful era, described it as a “visceral love, like one between a mother and a son”. So strong is the bond that it has survived a period of considerable struggle and stress. But finally the supporters have a reason to dream again.

For, Napoli is vying for its first league title in the Italian top division since the days when Maradona proudly wore the southern club’s colours. After the 2-0 win over Empoli on Tuesday — its 10th in succession — Napoli is assured of top spot on the Serie A table ahead of the long break for the World Cup. It has 38 points from 14 games, with 12 wins and two draws. 

Pulling away

It has pulled eight points away from the chasing pack by beating three key challengers in AC Milan, Roma and Atalanta — with a game against Udinese remaining before the World Cup. It won’t face Inter Milan and Juventus until January.

Napoli’s ascent has come with a swaggering brand of football under head coach Luciano Spalletti. Every time the side has been tested this season, it has responded admirably: from trouncing Liverpool and Ajax — 4-1 and 6-1, respectively — in the Champions League, to beating defending Serie A champion Milan at San Siro and edging Roma at the Stadio Olimpico. 

Even when an all-competition winning streak for Spalletti’s side ended at 13 matches with a loss at Liverpool, it didn’t hurt its position or reputation: it still won the group. What’s more, the team performed well at Anfield, only losing to two late goals and tight offside decisions, with Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah labelling Napoli “one of the best teams in the world.”

It’s almost comical now looking back to mid-July when Spalletti told protesting fans to “shut up” as he presented the team at the opening of preseason training in the Italian Dolomites Range. 

Although Napoli had had a strong 2021-22 season — it led Serie A after the first nine rounds before eventually finishing third, just seven points behind Milan — the supporters were incensed with the summer that followed. 

The departures of Napoli’s record scorer Dries Mertens, homegrown captain Lorenzo Insigne and defensive stalwart Kalidou Koulibaly triggered fear and anger; fans believed that the club was squandering an opportunity to close the gap to their rivals, the traditional Italian giants.

In May, Spalletti’s car had been stolen — with ultras putting up a banner saying it would be returned only if he left Napoli. But those events seem like ancient history now following the side’s eye-catching start to the 2022-23 season, which has left the fans in raptures.

Feet on the ground

But Spalletti isn’t getting carried away.  “Titles are not won [in November],” the coach said. “You win titles in May or June or August — whenever the season ends. We’ve got to keep our feet on the ground without carrying ourselves as phenomenons. We’re going to keep eating our sandwiches on the train and we’ve got to keep ourselves as lucid as an old record player.”

The reasons for Napoli’s sudden transformation from perennial challenger to unbeatable juggernaut include smart market moves, Spalletti’s ability to take charge with the club legends gone and a modern style of constant attacking that is still rare in defensive-minded Italy.

Fans were left scratching their heads when Napoli brought in the previously unknown 21-year-old Georgia winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to replace Insigne on the left wing and South Korea centre-back Kim Min-jae for Koulibaly. But they have become two of the league’s top players. 

Kvaratskhelia, a dribbling wizard nicknamed ‘Kvaradona’ in a tribute to the club icon, already has more than 20 goal contributions across all competitions. 

Kim has demonstrated just as much physicality as Koulibaly. Against Roma, he almost single-handedly kept striker Tammy Abraham from getting a decent look at the goal.

Add in the arrivals of 22-year-old Italy forward Giacomo Raspadori and Giovanni Simeone, who have both scored regularly, and Mertens is no longer missed at centre-forward — not even when Victor Osimhen, a physical specimen of a striker, was out for two months with an injury. Osimhen has since returned and found his goal-scoring touch.

The absence of veterans like Mertens, Insigne and Koulibaly has enabled Spalletti to avoid the type of tricky situation he got into during his second spell at Roma in 2016-17, when the feisty Tuscan manager had to ease club legend Francesco Totti into retirement — making him the target of fans’ resentment. The man-management is less of a challenge now.

Always the innovator

Spalletti’s tactical nous has always been a strength. One of football’s innovators — his use of Totti in the false-nine role at Roma sparked many imitators — the 63-year-old has been described as one of the most “influential, innovative, counter-cultural coaches” in world football.

Spalletti’s progressive ideas and aggressive style have captured the imagination of football lovers. It has also won him the admiration of one of the game’s great minds: the successful and influential former AC Milan manager, Arrigo Sacchi.

“This Napoli are spectacular and a team one step away from legend,” Sacchi told Il Mattino. “They are in the wake of the greats of the past, [Rinus] Michels’ Ajax, [Pep] Guardiola’s Barcelona and my unbeatable Milan. I never get tired of watching them play. How could I? There is style, there is pride, there is a spirit of belonging, there is beauty, and there is a coach who has put ideas at the centre of everything.

“It’s a lesson for everyone: ideas are worth more than money. What [owner Aurelio] De Laurentiis did this summer is extraordinary: he took semi-unknowns and put them in a project where there was a vision, which many clubs lack. And the rest was done by the genius of Luciano.”

Spalletti, who first showed promise at Udinese nearly two decades ago when he led the provincial club to a fourth-place finish and a spot in the Champions League, has won two Italian Cups with Roma and raised Russian league trophies with Zenit Saint-Petersburg.

But the one big thing missing in Spalletti’s career is an Italian league title — which now seems within reach. But he will be aware of the challenges ahead. The mid-season World Cup is a wild-card — nobody can estimate the disruption it will cause — and Napoli is just over a third of the way into its domestic season. But the early signals are very positive. If a third Scudetto does find its way into the club’s hands next year, you can be certain Naples will party like it’s 1990.