Chapter 18 April 18th

April 18th was the first match day of the 32nd round of Serie A. On this day, two league matches would be played first. The first was Genoa's home game against Lazio, followed by Juventus's home game against Inter Milan in the "Italian National Derby."

All eyes were on the National Derby; the game between Juventus and Inter Milan was never short of talking points.

But Chen Hero and his teammates were clearly more concerned about the first game.

As rivals for a Champions League qualifying spot, Napoli certainly hoped Genoa would lose.

However, Genoa had been in good form recently, so it wouldn't be easy to make them lose.

While the entire Napoli team was on their way to an away game, the match between Genoa and Lazio was in full swing.

After their plane landed, they received good news from the coach.

"Genoa lost at home!"

"Oh, oh, oh, oh!"

"Great!"

"Yay!"

"Haha! We have a chance!"

Since the goal for this season was set to compete for a Champions League spot next season, everyone was full of fighting spirit and particularly enthusiastic about the upcoming games.

Genoa's loss was indeed good news for Napoli. Next, they only needed to beat Cagliari away to close the gap in points with Genoa.

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Every city in Italy is like an independent landscape, but Chen Hero had no intention of appreciating the beauty praised in travelogues. He followed the team to Cagliari in a hurry. After resting for one night, he began to fight the next afternoon, under the dazzling Sardinian and Mediterranean sun.

Cagliari was not easy to beat. Although they were still playing in the lower leagues a few years ago, their current coach, Massimiliano Allegri, is one of the most talented local coaches in Italy.

He had only just started coaching Cagliari this season, but he had already led the team to achieve excellent results.

It was quite difficult to beat them at their home ground.

But wouldn't it be less fun to challenge something that's not difficult? Chen Hero thought so.

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"Hero—goooooooooooal! He scored his twentieth goal of the season! What an incredible performance! He wasted almost the entire first half of the season, but with his super performance in the second half of the season, he has actually caught up to fourth place in the league scorer list! He has surpassed Gilardino of Fiorentina!"

In the commentator's exclamation, Chen Hero was running in the bright Sardinian sun, the sweat on his body reflecting a dazzling light.

In the thirtieth minute, he scored the first goal for the team!

"This is a long shot from outside the penalty area! He suddenly pulled to the outside of the penalty area and took a powerful long shot! Cagliari's goalkeeper Federico Marchetti made a save, but still couldn't stop the ball from flying into the goal! Chen Hero's long shots are quite threatening!"

"I wonder if Ibrahimović and the other players in the top spots of the scorer list have felt the threat. They now have one more ferocious competitor!"

"Scoring twenty goals in his first season in Serie A! This kind of forward is indeed fierce!"

"He reminds me of Shevchenko. The two have completely different styles. The only thing they have in common is... they are both very good at scoring goals!"

"If he could have maintained this kind of form in the first half of the season, I even think he could have competed with Gunnar Nordahl! This Swedish star became the top scorer in Serie A with thirty-five goals in his first season in Italy! This single-season goal record has not been broken to this day..."

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Although Cagliari quickly equalized the score with a penalty.

But Napoli, after knowing that Genoa had lost, was an unstoppable tank.

In the ninth minute of the second half, Paolo Cannavaro scored a header from a corner kick, helping the team take the lead again.

In the seventy-eighth minute of the game, Arshavin assisted Hamšík, who calmly shot in the penalty area, completely sealing the victory.

Although Cagliari scored a goal in the ninetieth minute by their number 10, Andrea Lazzari, it was of no avail.

Napoli successfully won the game away from home, narrowing the gap between them and Genoa to one point!

This one point made all Napoli people smell the fragrant aroma of the European Champions League.

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While all the Napoli people were eagerly looking at the team's ranking in the league standings, no one knew that in De Laurentiis's luxurious manor on the mountainside of Mount Vesuvius in Naples, an event that was enough to affect the future of Napoli also took place.

After a long conversation with Aurelio De Laurentiis, Pierpaolo Marino made the decision to resign.

Just as the entire Napoli team was returning to Naples with the joy of victory, the Napoli club officially announced that club president De Laurentiis had agreed to general manager Marino's resignation.

The entire Italian media was in an uproar.

Everyone was very clear about Marino's role in Napoli. When Marino came to Napoli, the club had nothing, and even the players had to bring their own training clothes. Now, Napoli has become one of the financially strongest clubs in Italy. It has to be said that this is due to his skillful management.

Looking at Napoli today, Hamšík, Lavezzi, Santacroce, Maggio, Chen Hero, and Arshavin are all players he brought to the team during his tenure. These people are basically the main force of Napoli.

It was such a person who had made great contributions to the revival of Napoli who was dismissed!

How could people not be surprised?

What exactly caused Marino to resign?

Some media speculated that it may be related to the conflict between Lavezzi and coach Mazzarri, because everyone knew that Lavezzi was brought to the team by Marino. Perhaps in the struggle between the players and the coach, De Laurentiis stood on the coach's side, and in the war between the coach and the club manager, he still chose to stand on the coach's side. So Marino and Lavezzi were tragic.

Some media also analyzed that this had nothing to do with Lavezzi. Because De Laurentiis had long been dissatisfied with Marino. He was very good at managing the club, but he was always reluctant to invest in the transfer market, always making small troubles. Chen Hero and Arshavin were brought in by Laurentiis himself, and had nothing to do with Marino. Looking at the current performance of Chen Hero and Arshavin, the players bought with a lot of money do have their outstanding points, and they can match the transfer fees and salaries paid by the club for them.

Didn't De Laurentiis just release Napoli's second five-year plan? If you want to become a top club, you can't be so stingy. But Marino was used to being the head of a poor family, and he was a little unable to make big moves in transfers... That is to say, he and Reja were dismissed for the same reason: the club wanted to continue to develop, but it was limited by the ability and vision of the management. Only by unlocking these shackles that bind the team can the team soar into the sky.

In today's world football, all the successful top teams are willing to spend money. Real Madrid and Barcelona invest tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of euros every year, for what? Isn't it just to maintain sufficient competitiveness?

Arsenal is a negative example. Due to being reluctant to invest, Wenger always carefully calculated and was reluctant to spend money, so they have not won any championships for several years.

And second-rate and quasi-first-rate teams, if they want to become top teams, they must first create a lineup that can rival the top teams, which requires spending money. Look at Chelsea back then. Before Abramovich arrived, Chelsea could definitely not be considered a top team. Although there were Vialli, Gullit, Zola and others, they could only play the role of disruptors in the Premier League. It was not until Abramovich came to Stamford Bridge with rubles that he generously invested a lot of money in transfer fees, dug up excellent managers and youth training seedlings from all over the world, cultivated them, and then hired young and promising famous coaches like Mourinho with a lot of money.

Then, when everyone talks about top teams now, they will always unconsciously include Chelsea in their ranks, even if strictly speaking, Chelsea is not a top team. But in everyone's mind, Chelsea has the strength to compete with those traditional top teams, and it is only natural to gain the same status as the top teams...

If Abramovich was a stingy person, without his investment over the years, how could Chelsea have today's status?

De Laurentiis is just repeating the path of his predecessors.

With such an analysis, it seems reasonable that the petty Marino was dismissed.

Of course, the outside world will never know the truth about Marino's dismissal, because neither of them said anything.

Marino only issued a brief statement: "In these years, I have completed all the tasks entrusted to me by the club. I am very honored to be able to work in such a great club as Napoli. Mr. De Laurentiis will always be my friend, and I also want to thank him for the support and trust he has given me over the years. We have reached a mutual agreement on the issue of leaving."

De Laurentiis also expressed his gratitude for Marino's contribution: "The club and I personally are very grateful for everything he has done for the Napoli club. I am very sad for his departure. But this is an inevitable path. I personally and the club wish him all the best!"

Regardless of the reason, Marino and Reja, the greatest contributors to the revival of Napoli, have left one after another. Many people are not optimistic about the future prospects of this club, and even feel that the future of Napoli is shrouded in a shadow.

Can Napoli, which has experienced turmoil at the top, really revive and rise as their club president said?