Starace dismisses talk of a split in the Napoli dressing room
The club's long-serving kit man called for unity after the 1-1 draw with Lazio and urged fans not to over-dramatise the point. The facts of recent weeks point the other way.
Starace, Napoli's long-serving kit man, rejected talk of a rift in the squad outside the Maradona after the 1-1 draw with Lazio. "The atmosphere is always excellent. The mess is made by those who want to make a mess," he said. "We all have to stick together, otherwise it falls apart. In football as in life, you have to react together, like a family."
He was also kinder about the result than we are. "In the end we drew and took home a good result against a very good side," he said of the game against the league leaders. "The season is still long, it takes time. There are a lot of games to play before Christmas. Then all the injured players will come back and we'll see what happens."
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The mood and the facts
Starace sees the dressing room from the inside, and he deserves a hearing. But recent events tell a different story. Many players disliked the training retreat at Pozzuoli. Lucca and De Bruyne argued in Porto. Lang tried to skip the salute to the Curve (the hardcore ends behind the goals) and answered the whistles by cupping his ear. That hardly sounds like an excellent atmosphere.
Nor is a point a good result for a side tenth on 15 points after 11 games, 14 behind Lazio. It is the lowest total of the De Laurentiis era, matched only in 2007/08. Against Torino at the Maradona on Saturday 21 November at 20:45 CET, words will not be enough. Napoli need to win.
Source: AreaNapoli
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