Chapter 1 Teammates Return

After a holiday apart, the teammates gradually returned to the team, and Chen Yingxiong saw his friends Arshavin and Hamsik.

When everyone got together, they naturally asked about how the holidays had been spent. Some went to the Maldives, some to Mallorca, some to the United States, and some returned to their hometowns.

"Yingxiong, what about you?"

Chen Yingxiong smiled without saying a word.

"Damn it, stop pretending to be profound, and tell us quickly!" Hamsik said.

"I went to Milan..."

"Tch--" Many people made noises of disdain from their noses.

"What's so rare about Milan... This isn't your first time going, is it?" Many local Italian players looked at Chen Yingxiong with sympathetic eyes. "We go there at least twice every season, and there's really nothing interesting about that place!"

"It seems that Yingxiong doesn't know enough about Italy... This Christmas holiday, you're not going to that isolated mountain gully again, are you? Just stay here, and I'll take you to some fun places!"

A group of people chattered, showing off their holiday lives, and sneered at Chen Yingxiong's trip to Milan for vacation. Some even warmly invited him to go on vacation together next time, promising to show him a good time.

Chen Yingxiong just smiled without saying a word. He wouldn't let this group of vulgar people know about his little secret with Ivanka!

Coach Mazzarri appeared in front of the players, and everyone gradually quieted down, waiting for their coach to give a speech for their first day of training.

"I'm really happy to see you all again, guys. Obviously, after a holiday, many of you have gained a lot of weight, so the first part of this training, according to the old rules, is still physical training. You must restore your physical condition to what it was during the season, and be prepared to welcome the high-intensity training that follows. This season, we will fight for the Champions League group stage qualification, so our preparations must be earlier and harder than usual. I hope you are all mentally prepared... This is definitely not a relaxing and enjoyable pre-season training camp. I'm ready to work you all to death!"

Mazzarri smiled at everyone.

※※※

Mazzarri was in a good mood because club president De Laurentiis had indeed kept his promise and began to launch attacks in all directions, starting the process of bringing in new players.

While the players were busy trying to figure out how to spend their vacations, the club's upper management was undergoing a change. After Marino left, the club's manager position had remained vacant. After the end of the season, there was finally a replacement.

De Laurentiis brought a new manager to the team—Riccardo Bigon. This new manager had a close connection with Napoli; he was the son of Alberto Bigon, the coach who led Napoli to their second Serie A title. He could be considered to have Napoli blood...

De Laurentiis's move to choose him to replace Marino, who had been doing a good job, didn't cause too much resentment. Instead, people felt that he was sincerely building a brand new Napoli, and not just messing around because he had money.

The first thing the new manager did when he took office was to hold a meeting with De Laurentiis and coach Mazzarri. At the meeting, Mazzarri told the club's president and manager about his new season preparation plan, and De Laurentiis reiterated his support for the team, especially in terms of funding.

Bigon also understood the power structure of the team and its future blueprint through this meeting.

Next, he had to follow the list given by Mazzarri, carrying the funds provided by De Laurentiis, and search the world for players who could quickly strengthen Napoli.

First, he needed a defensive midfielder.

Gargano, as Lavezzi's good friend and a loyal admirer of Maradona, was very dissatisfied with the team's decision to abandon Lavezzi. This summer, he had been making trouble to transfer since the end of the league. Mazzarri's strategy was that if he could find a suitable replacement, he would sell him off. If not, he would appease him and keep him to continue to serve him.

Mazzarri had set his sights on Hamburg's Dutch defensive midfielder, Nigel de Jong. Originally, Mazzarri wouldn't have been able to snatch this tough Dutch midfielder. Because at the beginning of this year, Hamburg had already signed an agreement with Manchester City, agreeing to sell De Jong to the new Premier League aristocrats for a transfer fee of 18 million euros.

Who would have thought that after De Jong went to Manchester City, he was rejected at the medical examination stage—he failed the medical examination because of hidden injury risks and was returned by Manchester City!

This was a great shame for De Jong. He even thought that Manchester City was simply playing with him.

Who would have thought that just after returning to Hamburg, he suffered a serious injury in a game at the end of January, for which he missed almost half of the remaining Bundesliga season.

This made it feasible for Mazzarri to buy him. Players who have suffered serious injuries generally cause concern for teams that were originally interested in him, especially defensive midfielders who rely heavily on physical fitness. Moreover, because of this serious injury, Hamburg could no longer ask for a high price from those buyers.

So Bigon took the money north to Germany. After some negotiations, he finally brought such a tough player to the team for a price of 10 million euros.

His arrival will greatly enhance the team's interception ability in the midfield. In this way, Gargano's position became awkward.

His departure was inevitable.

Soon after De Jong arrived, Napoli announced that Gargano had transferred to Villarreal in La Liga for 8 million euros.

Now, the only person left in the team who didn't get along with Chen Yingxiong was backup goalkeeper Navarro, but obviously, having lost his allies, he had no say in the team's locker room. He was insignificant.

These actions all proved that Mazzarri wanted to build a new team lineup around Chen Yingxiong, with him as the core.

Since the team was built around Chen Yingxiong, how could they lack wingers?

Mazzarri, who was familiar with Serie A, naturally wanted to find suitable candidates from the Serie A league. In fact, he already had a target. This time, he had his eye on Udinese's Alexis Sanchez. This Chilean international, who played for Udinese, was still very young, but was already a dazzling new star on the Serie A field.

Don't look at how young he is, his value is not small.

Udinese has never concealed their intention of buying young players at low prices, cultivating them slightly, and then selling them at high prices, so they priced Sanchez at 20 million euros. Whichever club can afford this price can immediately take away Udinese's winger.

It's just that this price is a bit high for the still young Sanchez, scaring off giants such as Manchester United...

On Sanchez's transfer issue, Mazzarri might be able to take a good look at whether his boss, De Laurentiis, is really willing to spend money.

So he specifically requested Sanchez, such a breakthrough winger, who is an excellent winger prospect.

Currently, the only person in the team who can be called a winger is Arshavin. Although Hamsik has been playing there for a long time, his main job is still organization and connection.

De Laurentiis gave Mazzarri a satisfactory answer.

Without saying a word, he took out 20 million euros to buy Sanchez!

Udinese had no way to refuse such an offer. Although Sanchez had already been bought by Udinese in the summer of 2006, he only played for Udinese for one season before transferring to another team. But from this transfer, Udinese had already made ten times the money—they only spent 2 million euros to buy Sanchez back then, and now they are selling him for 20 million.

Udinese made a good deal, many media outlets exclaimed after learning about the transfer situation.

As for Napoli... whether 20 million is worth spending is still debatable. After all, although Sanchez has amazing talent, he is too young and his body is too weak. It is difficult for such a player to achieve great development in European football. This can be said to be a risky investment.

But Aurelio De Laurentiis doesn't care.

Although they bought Sanchez, Mazzarri's efforts did not stop there.

The forward position still needs to be strengthened. At the very least, he still needs an outstanding forward. The future Napoli plans to use a 4-3-3 formation, so there will always be three starting forwards, but what about their substitutes? There is only one Zalayeta... This is obviously abnormal.

This time, Mazzarri turned his attention to the team he had coached before...

※※※

Antonio Cassano is not happy with his life at Sampdoria.

The reason is simple. Mazzarri, the coach who valued him so much before and cared for him like a father, left for Napoli.

This made him feel very lonely. In the 07-08 season, he was loaned from Real Madrid to Sampdoria. That season was also Mazzarri's first season taking office at Sampdoria. Cassano was the one he strongly advocated bringing in on loan, and after a season, he made the boss spend money to buy out Cassano's ownership.

Under Mazzarri's training, Cassano, who had already become half a dead man at Real Madrid, regained his vitality. In the first season, he had ten goals and seven assists. Although there were still things like attacking referees that made Mazzarri feel a headache from time to time, Mazzarri's handling of such things was different from the previous coaches Cassano had encountered—he did not simply and rudely send Cassano to the bench, and imposed penalties such as fines or bans. Instead, he sat down with him to talk, guiding him, comforting him, and supporting him like a father, so that he could realize his mistakes.

How long had it been since Cassano had felt like this?

A long, long time ago, in Rome, Capello gave him that kind of feeling. He even called Capello his father. Roma captain Totti was like his older brother, someone he could rely on.

But later these relationships broke down. Before leaving Rome, he had already fallen out with Totti. After going to Real Madrid, his honeymoon with Capello only lasted for a very short time.

It is really hard to imagine that there would be someone who would accept him unconditionally, tolerate his bad temper and problems, and constantly tell him: "Antonio, you can return to the peak! Believe me, I never lie! You are the best star on this planet, you are just taking a nap now, and when you wake up, everyone will be surprised for you, so work hard, Antonio! Don't stop, you can do it!"

Mazzarri did it, these words were what he said to Cassano.

Under his encouragement and training, Cassano really regained his second spring. He came to Sampdoria with a pay cut, but unexpectedly it became his choice to revive his career.

He even thought that his outstanding performance at Sampdoria earned him a spot in the national team to participate in the 08 European Cup squad.

But all of this turned into past memories with the departure of his kind father and mentor Mazzarri from Sampdoria.

After Mazzarri left, Cassano felt a very deep sense of loneliness. He suddenly felt that there was no coach in this Sampdoria who could understand him. Although the new coach Gianluca Atzori continued to entrust Cassano with important tasks, he suddenly lost his way and lost all his form...

Now, rumors about him are rampant.

Many people are speculating that he may leave Sampdoria, but he may just sink into oblivion.

"Look, I told you. You can't place any hope on that Bari boy. All his glory is just a short-lived firework, and more of it is silence in the darkness." This commentator said quite poetically, but the meaning was very mean. That is, he asserted that Cassano would never be able to return to the peak again, and that this talented player would eventually sink completely because of his flawed personality.

Even Cassano himself felt disheartened, and even started secretly considering hanging up his boots...

But at this moment, he received a call from his mentor Mazzarri.

"Antonio, would you like to come to Napoli?"