Chapter 6 The Champions League

Naples, ranked sixth in the league, defeated AC Milan, ranked fifth. The most direct result was that Naples became fifth in the league, while AC Milan fell to sixth.

Naples essentially consolidated its qualification for next season's UEFA Cup by stepping over AC Milan's corpse.

Moreover, the Naples fans discovered that they were only four points behind Genoa, who were in fourth place in the league.

This wasn't an insurmountable gap; it was four points that could bring them endless hope!

Two games! Just two games, and they might be able to surpass Genoa and step into fourth place, which symbolized the European Champions League!

This reality drove the Naples fans wild.

"Why can't we go to the Champions League next season?" many fans asked rhetorically.

Similarly, the local Naples media was also asking Mazzarri this question.

And this question was also something that the Naples head coach, Mazzarri, was seriously considering.

The Champions League was obviously more attractive than the UEFA Cup.

If it was a simple comparison, everyone would of course choose to go to the Champions League rather than the UEFA Cup. Generally speaking, there was nothing to consider, no need to hesitate.

But what Mazzarri was thinking about was—was Naples ready to go to the Champions League?

This season, the team ultimately secured qualification for the UEFA Cup through the Intertoto Cup, but the team's performance in the UEFA Cup was clear for all to see—a complete mess.

It gave the impression that Naples was completely unprepared to go out and wander around the European stage. They were utterly defeated. Having not been to the European stage for many years, they didn't expect that in the years they had been mired in mediocrity, the level of the European stage had undergone earth-shattering changes. It was no longer what it was when they won the UEFA Cup back then.

Originally, according to Mazzarri's plan, they would play another season in the UEFA Cup, using the UEFA Cup to train the team, let them feel the atmosphere of European competition, and have a personal experience of the level of European competition.

He didn't ask the team to achieve any good results in the UEFA Cup next season, but at the very least, they had to be able to enter the knockout stage of the competition. Then, in the domestic league, they should try their best to enter the top four and obtain qualification for the European Champions League.

In this way, the team that had been tempered by the UEFA Cup could avoid becoming a fish to be slaughtered and an object for teams in the same group to score points and improve their goal difference in the Champions League.

It was at this moment that he received a call from the owner, De Laurentiis.

Since meeting this owner when he signed the contract, Mazzarri hadn't contacted the club owner for a long time. This movie tycoon was always very busy, and he was more used to contacting the team's general manager, Marino, to report on his work.

"I've been reading the newspapers recently, do you have any thoughts, Walter?" The owner got straight to the point, without any pleasantries. The first sentence when the call connected was this.

"Uh... my original plan was the UEFA Cup..." Mazzarri revealed his innermost thoughts to the owner.

After listening to Mazzarri's plan, De Laurentiis said, "But the team now has a chance to qualify for the Champions League."

"That's something that we'll only know after the end of the season, Mr. Laurentiis."

Mazzarri thought to himself that this owner really didn't understand football. How could he think that they could qualify for the Champions League just because they were close in the standings?

As a result, De Laurentiis's words almost made Mazzarri break out in a cold sweat.

"Well, I don't know much about football, Walter. But I think that whatever you do, there are always things in common—for example, when I want to make a movie that grosses fifty million, I always make a plan for everyone to gross one hundred million. That way, even if we ultimately fail, we can still get a better result than fifty million. And if we accidentally... succeed, then... hahaha, you know what I mean?"

Mazzarri wasn't a fool. He knew very well what his boss meant.

"Yes, I understand, Mr. Laurentiis." He was still a little scared. De Laurentiis's first sentence didn't seem like much, but he always felt that this capricious boss knew that he was showing disdain for him in his heart...

"Very good, then let me hear your thoughts on Champions League qualification?"

So Mazzarri told him his concerns about the Champions League.

"How about this, if the team can qualify for next season's Champions League, what players do you want to buy? Give me a list, and I'll try my best to satisfy you and get our team ready. What do you think?" De Laurentiis asked.

Mazzarri opened his mouth wide. He didn't expect that he would get such a promise in the end.

Naples was notoriously stingy when it came to finances, as could be seen from their "salary cap" rules. Apart from Chen Hero and Arshavin, the highest salary level in the entire team was only 1.4 million euros, and many people only had hundreds of thousands of euros. Lavezzi, a star player in the team, was flatly rejected by the boss when he wanted a pay raise, let alone anyone else.

But today, the boss was behaving so generously that he was very surprised.

"What do you think, Walter?" De Laurentiis asked again.

"Ah... ah, this... this, I think... I don't have any problems anymore, Mr. Laurentiis!"

Mazzarri felt that if the boss was really willing to satisfy his demands in the transfer market, then even if it was the Champions League, which was full of high-income teams, Naples and himself might not be without the strength to try it out...

"Very good, then now you can lead the team to fight for Champions League qualification with all your heart, right?"

"Yes, the team's current goal is the Champions League!"

After Mazzarri hung up the phone with the boss, his first thought wasn't about leading the team to fight for the Champions League, but... he was already thinking about which players he was going to target this summer.

He took over midway through this season, and he didn't know enough about the team's situation. Limited by the team's existing personnel, he couldn't fully exert his abilities. But next season would be different. He could participate in the team's construction from the summer. He could give a list of players according to his tactical ideas, and then discuss it with Marino, so that he could make full use of the money given by the boss and bring these people to the Stadio San Paolo.

For example, he didn't intend to continue using the high-risk 3-4-3 formation. He planned to use a more stable 4-3-3 formation, which would guarantee the defense, so he needed full-backs. Lavezzi definitely had to be sold. This guy was not conducive to team unity, so he also needed a striker...

※※※

When Mazzarri ran excitedly to Marino to talk about his vision for next season, Marino's reaction made him feel a little disappointed.

"What you said is very good, Walter, but have you considered the team's salary issues? Our team's ability to make continuous profits relies on strict control of the team's salaries. Under such circumstances, it's very difficult to attract those players to join."

"But the boss just told me that he would increase investment..." Mazzarri felt that the general manager's concerns were unnecessary.

"Walter, Walter..." Marino shook his head. "Don't you know that our boss is famous for being 'capricious'? He's always changing his mind. Maybe you'll get a call from him tomorrow morning, telling you that he drank too much yesterday and asking you to forget what he told you yesterday..."

Mazzarri frowned and left Marino's office. He always felt that his boss shouldn't be such an unreliable person, right? Even if he was capricious, he shouldn't treat such a major policy of the team so lightly.

But Marino had been working with De Laurentiis for longer than him, so maybe his boss was really like that?

Never mind, I won't think about it for now.

Mazzarri felt that he was, after all, a head coach, and the team's management wasn't his job.

He decided that no matter what the boss was thinking, it was always right for him to try his best to lead the team to the Champions League. After all, this was his record.

※※※

"Alright, guys. Now we have to revise our goals." When the new day's training began, Mazzarri called the players to gather around him. He had something to say.

"I know that the local media has been talking about this recently, so everyone should know what this is about. What I want to tell you now is—from now on, what we're pursuing is no longer UEFA Cup qualification, but the European Champions League!"

Someone whistled in the team, and some people exclaimed. More people widened their eyes, unable to believe what they were hearing.

"Yes, don't be too surprised. Since we're so close to fourth place in the league now, why can't we try to work hard for it?"

Chen Hero smiled very happily.

Personal goals and team goals coincided.

"So from now on, you have to put in more effort in training than before! Let's go to the Champions League next season and have a look!"

※※※

The higher goal than the UEFA Cup didn't make the Naples players flinch, but instead inspired their fighting spirit.

In the thirtieth round of the league, Naples narrowly defeated Sampdoria 3-2 away from home. This was a very difficult game to play. Naples ultimately won, and it must be said that it was the goal of going to the Champions League that inspired the Naples players.

However, because Genoa also won, they narrowly defeated Reggina 1-0 away from home.

In the thirty-first round, Naples defeated Atalanta 1-0 at home, while Genoa defeated Juventus 3-2. Until the eighty-fourth minute, Genoa was leading Juventus 2-1 at home. In the eighty-fourth minute, Iaquinta helped Juventus equalize the score.

This was a good opportunity for Naples to close the gap in points with Genoa.

Who would have thought that just four minutes later, Genoa would rely on Raffaele Palladino's goal to kill Juventus.

Naples was still in fifth place.

Chen Hero may have been too excited in the game against AC Milan. In the next two games, he didn't score a single goal.

The last time he hadn't scored in more than two consecutive rounds was before the game against Roma. They lost to Torino 0-1 in the seventeenth round of the league, drew with Catania 0-0 in the eighteenth round, and lost to Chievo 1-2 in the nineteenth round. In these three games, Chen Hero didn't score a single goal.

But he seemed to have just accumulated the goals from these three games and erupted in the fourth game, and then he staged an amazing four goals in the game against Roma.