"Cheering and worship? Only when we're dead!"

This was the banner that appeared outside the Volturno training base of Napoli the next day, a response from Napoli fans to Chen Hero's previous remarks.

But now the media had lost interest in hyping up the war between Chen Hero and the fans. Because there was something more worthy of their attention—Reja, who had coached Napoli for more than four years, had been dismissed. Who would take his place?

The media offered many candidates: former Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini, Walter Mazzarri, who led Sampdoria to the top six last season, as well as current Udinese coach Marino, Catania coach Zenga, and Delio Rossi, who was on the verge of being sacked at Lazio. And of course, we couldn't forget Delneri, who had a secret meeting with the Napoli club leadership at Vicenza airport last season…

All sorts of names appeared in the media, sparking speculation.

This time, De Laurentiis showed his decisive side.

A team cannot be without a coach for a day. Since he had fired the former coach, he had to find a new one as soon as possible, otherwise the team's performance would definitely plummet.

December 7th was the day of the fifteenth round of the league, when Napoli would welcome Siena at home. At the very least, the coaching position had to be settled before this game.

As a result, two days after firing Reja, Napoli officially announced that they had reached an agreement with Sampdoria, and after paying the penalty, they got coach Walter Mazzarri from Sampdoria.

Without giving the media too much time to speculate, Mazzarri parachuted into Napoli.

Mazzarri's arrival calmed down some of the fans who had been protesting Reja's dismissal. Because Mazzarri was also a coach with considerable strength. His taking over Reja's position was not bad, and the Napoli fans felt it was acceptable.

They wouldn't agree if just any Tom, Dick, or Harry was brought in.

When Mazzarri coached Reggina in the 06-07 season, he happened to catch up with Reggina being penalized eleven points due to the "Telephone Gate" scandal. As a weak team, being penalized eleven points before the league even started immediately made the relegation situation worse. But even in this situation, Mazzarri led the team to successfully avoid relegation in the end. In the last round, they even defeated the powerful AC Milan 2:0 at home, successfully avoiding relegation.

After the end of this season, he signed a coaching contract with Sampdoria. In the 07-08 season, Sampdoria, under his leadership, had a low start but finished strong. In the twenty-ninth round of the league, they even made it into the top four, and were very likely to qualify for the Champions League. But unfortunately, in the last few rounds of the league, the strong teams performed well, and Sampdoria had to participate in the UEFA Cup. But this was still the best result of Mazzarri's coaching career, especially the results in the second half of the league, where he achieved good results against strong teams.

Reja, on the other hand, led the team in facing the northern powerhouses this season, except for a 2:1 victory over Juventus at home, all the rest were losses. In the eighth round of the league, they lost 0:1 to Lazio; in the tenth round of the league, they lost 0:1 to AC Milan; in the fourteenth round of the league, they lost 1:2 to Inter Milan.

Judging only from the performance against strong teams, Mazzarri was indeed better than Reja...

According to media reports, Mazzarri signed a two-year contract with Napoli with an annual salary of 1.5 million euros, which was not low among Italian coaches. It can be seen that De Laurentiis really didn't mind spending money for the revival of Napoli.

※※※

Walter Mazzarri sat in his office at the Volturno training base. This was the office Reja had used, and you could still see some traces of the Reja era. Club staff were busy moving things, taking away the things from Reja's era, and bringing in the things he needed.

Mazzarri sat in the office, not paying attention to the busy staff. He was reviewing the files of the Napoli first-team players. Each player had a thick stack, and these files were piled up next to him like small mountains.

At this time, the club's press officer, Baldari, walked in.

"Walter, there are some reporters outside, they want to interview you," Baldari said to Mazzarri.

Mazzarri looked up from his desk, took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose: "But I don't have time right now." He pointed to the large stack of things on the table. "If things don't work out, I may have to take them home to read."

Baldari glanced at the mountain of documents and files, and clicked his tongue. "Okay, then, you're busy, I'll go and refuse them for you..."

"Reschedule with them," Mazzarri said. It wouldn't be good to refuse them directly. Maintaining a good relationship with the media was the key to him gaining a foothold in this team. He and this team, which was said to be full of internal strife, had to get the support of the media, and voices that leaned towards him had to be heard. The media had been too chaotic during this period, and all sorts of voices had popped up recklessly. He even felt that the conflicts between Reja and the players, and the conflicts within the players, were the result of malicious hype by the media. What was originally not a big deal had become a big deal after being sensationalized by the media.

There were two things that had to be done well at the beginning of his tenure. One was to understand all kinds of information about the players and manage the locker room well. The other was to build a good relationship with the media and gain their support.

Baldari nodded: "Okay, I'll do as you say, Walter."

After Baldari left, Mazzarri continued to bury himself in studying the players' files.

In fact, he was familiar with most of the Napoli players. After all, they had played against each other last season, and he had studied them.

So he focused on the files of a few people, especially the controversial player Chen Hero, who had just joined the team this season and had conflicts with the fans and the media, and then there were rumors of conflicts with the Argentine players within the club.

He looked at them very carefully. This included not only the player's basic information, but also the reasons for the conflict between the player and the fans, the grievances with the media, and the discord with Lavezzi and others—these things were all reported in the media, and it was easy to find them, it just depended on whether you had the heart to do so.

And… he found that just doing this was not enough, he needed to know more. So he asked Luigi Febbrari, a busy staff member and also a member of the team's coaching staff: "Luigi, do you have Chen Hero's match videos? I want all of them."

"All of them?" Febbrari was stunned for a moment and asked.

"Yes, all the match videos since he joined the team."

"Then I'll go find them for you." Febbrari ran out.

After a while, he came back with the videotapes in his arms. Chen Hero had played in thirteen league games, almost every game. He played twice in the Intertoto Cup, and six times in the UEFA Cup, starting from the qualifying round. Napoli had a bye in the first four rounds of the Italian Cup, until the round of 16 when they had a match, but they lost to Salernitana and were eliminated. Chen Hero did not play.

A total of twenty-one videotapes, filling his arms.

"They're all here, Walter."

Mazzarri nodded in satisfaction, indicating that he could put them aside and continue with his work.

He wasn't going to watch these videotapes now, but he planned to take them home to watch. He still had to continue reading the written materials first.

The team's next league match against Siena was imminent. That was his first home game in Napoli, and it would be good if he could familiarize himself with all the players before that. So he planned to use Reja's tactics and personnel configuration, observe them for a few games, and then make his own decisions and adjustments.

※※※

Chen Hero met his new coach in training. A middle-aged man wearing glasses who looked very refined.

Before the training started, he gathered everyone together in a circle and gave a self-introduction, or rather… an inaugural speech.

"I am very happy to join this great team. From today onwards, we will be working together for at least two years—of course, maybe less. If our results are not good, I may be fired in the next round of the league."

His words amused some people. Who would say that about themselves?

When the laughter subsided slightly, he continued: "But I don't want to be so unlucky, so I will work hard to lead everyone to victory. This way I keep my job, and you can get winning bonuses."

There was another burst of laughter. The Napoli players, who were in trouble, rarely had the opportunity to show smiles on their faces like this. The team's situation had not been good during this period. They had lost consecutive games, the coach had been fired, and there were many internal conflicts within the team…

Chen Hero also laughed along. He suddenly felt that the coach in front of him, who looked quite refined, was different from Reja. Reja was particularly strict during training, basically unsmiling. The most he heard was his rapid whistle and loud scolding. "You should do this! How can you do that! Get out, get out!" At sixty-plus years old, he was still like an energetic young man.

Although it was only their first meeting, he felt that he and everyone were already getting along very well.

Under such a new coach, what could he expect?

The fans who had been protesting Reja's dismissal outside the training ground had disappeared, and the banners had been removed. After the new coach was confirmed, these fans were gone.

It seemed that the Napoli team could gain temporary peace.

But Chen Hero knew in his heart that this was all because the fans still had illusions and goodwill towards the new coach. If the team's results were not good… then those chaotic scenes would be replayed again.

Italian teams really had more trouble than Russian teams…

※※※

ps, sorry, there will only be two guaranteed chapters today and tomorrow, because I have to save the manuscript for the banner promotion on the sixth so that everyone can have a great time reading it all at once.

Today's temporary dormancy is so that everyone can have a better time reading it all at once, I hope everyone understands.