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Walter Mazzarri has been appointed manager of Napoli after the Serie A champions sacked Rudi Garcia.
It marks Mazzarri’s return to the club after ten years, having previously managed them for four years, during which he won the Coppa Italia in 2012.
Napoli are fourth in the table, ten points behind Inter Milan, and president Aurelio De Laurentiis pulled the trigger after a four-match winless run.
Mazzarri’s job is to ensure Napoli are immediately more competitive in the league and ensure they progress through the Champions League group.
He has been out of work since May 2022, when Cagliari sacked him while they were in the relegation zone, but he has a decent reputation in Italy.
Walter Mazzarri has been appointed manager of Napoli and the club is fourth in Serie A
Rudi Garcia was fired after four games without a win, despite only joining in the summer
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Readers may remember him during a mundane season at Watford in 2016/17, where he led them to 17th in the Premier League and used a translator in interviews, struggling to connect with fans.
In Italy he has managed major clubs such as Inter Milan, Napoli and Torino.
Between 2009 and 2013, he helped Napoli return to Europe for the first time since the mid-1990s, winning the Coppa Italia and even finishing second in the league in 2013.
His assignment at Napoli this time, with high expectations and a squad brimming with top European talent, will be similar, but with greater expectations.
Luciano Spalletti – who delivered Napoli’s first Scudetto in 33 years – left for a ‘sabbatical’ in the summer, with Garcia appointed to replace him.
However, Spalletti’s recovery period was short-lived as he took up the job in Italy in August.
Although Garcia arrived with a strong pedigree, he had to deal with star striker Victor Osimhen’s deteriorating relationship with the club and the fans.
In September, Osimhen was the subject of two controversial videos posted to the club’s TikTok account.
One of the tasks Mazzarri has on his wish list is to reconcile star striker Victor Osimhen with the club
The first video showed the 24-year-old appealing for a penalty, with sped-up audio captioned ‘Give me a penalty please’ before showing him putting the penalty wide.
A second video, circulating online and since deleted, compared Osimhen to a “coconut,” which is widely seen as a racial slur.
Napoli responded by issuing a statement pleading their innocence, but the relationship between player and club appears to have been badly affected by the incident.
Although Osimhen has scored six goals in ten games this season, things are not quite the same at Napoli and Mazzarri will need to turn things around quickly, even if the club loses some stars in January.