Napoli's slow start echoes two Allegri revivals

Ninth place, 7 points from five matchdays: Napoli's worst start in ten years. The league table does not lie. But the numbers also supply the counter-argument being made by those who do not want Allegri judged just yet.

The first precedent is Milan, 2011-12. After five matchdays that Milan side had 5 points, two fewer than Napoli's current 7. They finished the season on 80 points, second, four points behind champions Juventus.

The second is more recent and even closer to home. At Juventus in 2021-22, Allegri again had 5 points after five games. That season ended with fourth place and 70 points, following what is described as a major late-season surge.

The context is not the same

The comparison holds on the numbers, less on everything else. Those Milan and Juventus squads were built in the summer to compete at the top. This Napoli side closed the transfer window with a net spend of roughly minus €47.5m, without the reinforcements the dressing room's senior players had promised Allegri. The two revivals being talked about are real in the numbers, but they came from different teams in different seasons to the one being lived at Castel Volturno (the training ground), amid tense training sessions in recent weeks and a midfield that went quiet at Fiorentina.

President De Laurentiis, for his part, already ruled out any change of coach on Thursday 17 September. The club has chosen patience, and the two precedents doing the rounds support that choice from a distance — without any guarantee they repeat.

Before chasing comparisons with Milan and Turin, Napoli need to show something on the pitch that ten-year-old numbers cannot guarantee on their own. The first test comes on Saturday 10 October, at the Maradona against Frosinone. That is where it starts to become clear whether this recovery is real, or just a story for the bar.