Corbo indicts Napoli over 23 failed signings, 43 injuries and Allegri

A scathing editorial in Repubblica says the club ran its summer window "in reverse" and hired a coach who is "perhaps complacent". With Napoli eighth on 14 points, the questions it raises need answers.

by Gennaro SanninoMonday 2 November, 20:21 CET· 15 hours ago

Massimiliano Allegri — Foto: Original: Quirinale / Derivative work: Danyele · Attribution

Napoli are eighth with 14 points from 10 games, 14 behind leaders Lazio on 28. Now they have also had the harshest criticism of the season so far.

Writing in Repubblica, Antonio Corbo says the club "condemned itself by operating in the summer transfer window in reverse". He describes "a balance sheet devastated by 23 wrong signings in two years and a physical record of 43 injuries". He calls it a "double, glaring omission": a retreat from the window "for inexplicable reasons" and, Favasuli aside, no signing made out of "ingenuity, luck or daring".

That is a severe verdict, and it should be handled with care. The 23 and the 43 are Corbo's figures, not ours, and we cannot check them item by item. But the injury list Napoli brought back from the defeat in Turin shows a squad with a full treatment room. Lobotka is out until the end of December. Badiashile has a rectus femoris injury. Spinazzola and Favasuli were already sidelined. Di Lorenzo and Olivera are not travelling to Porto, and De Bruyne went off at half-time with a sprained ankle. When the charge is about injuries and it comes in a week like this, nobody can just shrug it off.

His harshest passage is about the summer. According to Corbo, in Napoli's centenary year "everything was talked about except football": rows with politicians, stadiums "as abstract as castles in the air", utopias. Meanwhile, the most experienced squad in Italy had reached second place "truly exhausted. Disillusioned. With a great desire to leave."

We cannot speak to the players, but the question is a fair one. While new stadiums, offers and sales were being debated, whose job was it to deal with the age of the squad?

The Allegri choice

Corbo goes beyond the transfer window. He writes that the club's failings "were serious. Decisive. Including the choice of Allegri". He calls the appointment a "conservative solution entrusted to a coach of great experience but perhaps complacent", one who did not ask for guarantees on injuries or signings.

"A conservative solution entrusted to a coach of great experience but perhaps complacent"

Allegri was announced on 3 July on a contract to 30 June 2029, with fourth place as the target. After the defeat in Turin, Napoli were 9 points short of it on Monday 2 November. That is part of the reason the fanbase, somewhere between anger and disappointment, has started asking him to answer for it.

Our view is that it is fair to ask whether "complacent" is the right word, and the editorial is deliberately on the attack. But the underlying question is the one supporters have been arguing about for weeks: who answers for the squad, and who answers for what happens on the pitch. Allegri answers for the team and its defensive problems, which he admitted himself before the game in Turin. The club answers for how that team was built and prepared.

Next comes Porto at the Dragão (Porto's stadium) on Wednesday 4 November at 21:00 CET (20:00 UK, 15:00 ET). Napoli are 22nd in the Champions League with 3 points, and Porto have won all ten of their league games. Napoli go without Di Lorenzo, Olivera and five other unavailable players. Then leaders Lazio visit the Maradona on Sunday 8 November. Those are the answers that matter more than any editorial.