Lauro's Napoli: two relegations, two fourth places, and the new San Paolo

Before the title wins, before Maradona, Napoli went through decades in which simply staying in Serie A counted as success. From 1936, shipowner Achille Lauro joined the club, becoming president and running it for more than twenty years, an era of results that swung wildly both on the pitch and off it.

In between, in 1959, Napoli opened their new stadium in Fuorigrotta, the San Paolo — today the Diego Armando Maradona — the ground that would become the heart of the city and now holds 54,726 seats.

The recovery on the pitch produced the club's two best results of those years: fourth place in 1952-53 and fourth place in 1957-58. The key figures were coach Pesaola and forwards Jeppson and Vinício, names tied to a side that could compete near the top of the table, far from trophies but close, for the first time, to the league's biggest clubs.

Those were the years in which Napoli began building a national standing, before Ferlaino arrived in 1969 and Maradona changed the club's history for good in 1984. Pesaola's two fourth-place finishes remain an isolated episode in that era, without titles or European finals, but proof that the shirt could already compete, decades before the trophies that would eventually come.