We are only at the beginning of the season, but the match between Napoli and Inter is already worth a piece of the scudetto. The different eve of Conte and Chivu, the Neapolitan problems and what the numbers say about the firepower of the two teams
Napoli against Inter is worth a piece of the Scudetto, even if we are only at the end of October and when Mr. Mariani has sent the teams back to the Maradona locker room there will still be 30 matchdays to go at the final bell of the season. It’s worth a piece of the championship because it ties in with the epilogue of last May, amidst controversies and tensions and with a redesigned hierarchy of Italian football.
What would Inter be today if Simone Inzaghi had prevailed in the point-to-point sprint against Antonio Conte? And would the coach from Lecce still be at De Laurentiis’ court? Would he have had carte blanche on the transfer market, just to convince him to remain as a scudetto hero? Inzaghi or Chivu: who would sit on the Nerazzurri bench?
In that distant confrontation that rewarded the Neapolitans and condemned the Nerazzurri there were several sliding doors for the two clubs. Now it’s time to put everything back on the table and play the revenge. Not definitive, there will still be 90 points to be assigned in winter and spring, but not inconsistent in terms of weight also due to the different way in which Conte and Chivu arrive at the direct clash.
Chivu’s serenity and Conte’s stomach ache
What is surprising is the stomach ache that is accompanying Napoli’s autumn. It’s not just the results, the 4 defeats (all away matches) in the last 6 games played, or the performances that are lacking that are agitating the Neapolitans. Conte’s outburst after the defeat in Holland made noise and created bad thoughts throughout the environment. Who was the technician angry with when he denounced the “smoke diffusers in the faces of the Neapolitans”? And is it really a problem to insert into the mechanism the fruits of an expensive market, wanted by himself and temporally perfect because he delivered almost all the new ones at the start of the training camp?
Naples suddenly found itself on the brink and beyond of a nervous breakdown. The match against Inter is a watershed because it can be both the best way to put everything behind us and start again, and a further boulder that adds to the burdens that are already crushing the whole environment.
Cristian Chivu, on the contrary, has already emerged from his personal via crucis of September which coincided with the defeats against Udinese and Juventus. From then on only victories (7), the gap with the top of the table eliminated and the Olimpico’s blitz against Roma which conveyed the idea of a team finally reconnected with its indisputable value. As if the May jokes had been archived; definitive confirmation could arrive in Naples and at that point the prediction competition towards the scudetto would have a new dominator.
Napoli is the Serie A battleship in terms of wages and transfer market
Conte is also under pressure because the axis of Italian football has moved towards the South. And he has positioned himself right in his Naples which in just two years (scarcely) has transformed from an outsider to a male Alpha of the championship. A position that the Lecce coach rejects but which is certified by the numbers. Compared to Inter, Napoli have won the most from 2023 to today (two championships to one), have spent more on the transfer market (313 million euros compared to 100 in the last two years) and have an overall higher team cost (240 million against 195).
De Laurentiis took the Neapolitan club to another dimension. Inter are very solid, with Oaktree they have rediscovered the stability lost in the last phase of the Zhang era and have just closed a record balance sheet, but they have dedicated fewer resources to the sporting project. For example, the amount of wages has been slowly but steadily decreasing since post-Covid, unlike the Neapolitan one which, with the return to the Champions League, has grown by 30% in a few months.
A condition that should flatter Neapolitan fans, historically accustomed to looking at the economic power of the great Northern clubs with a hint of envy. The effect so far has been the opposite for the role play that pushes Conte to deny even the evidence and to highlight problems (inclusion of new ones, expansion of rotations and adaptation to the multiplication of objectives) instead of opportunities. This is the climate with which Napoli and Inter take the field at Maradona. It’s still just chestnut time but it’s already worth a piece of the championship.
