Chapter 1 拉维齐的电话

Lavezzi returned to his home and called his agent, Aleardo Mazzoni.

"Aleardo, help me contact other teams."

Mazzoni was taken aback, but quickly understood what was happening.

In fact, rumors about Lavezzi leaving Napoli had already surfaced last season, but these rumors were all created by Mazzoni in order to pressure the Napoli club executives to raise Lavezzi's salary.

As a result, Mazzoni was rebuffed by the club president, De Laurentiis.

De Laurentiis threatened: "If any actor under me dares to talk to me like that, I'll just kill him!"

Mazzoni had no way to deal with such a club president, because the man simply didn't play by the rules…

In the first half of this season, Lavezzi was in good form, while Chen Hero, whom De Laurentiis had spent a lot of money to bring in, performed poorly. This made Mazzoni have the idea of threatening the club again—look at how well my player Lavezzi is performing, how much is his weekly salary? And what about your Chen Hero? His weekly salary is definitely more than double Lavezzi's, how is he performing? A typical example of high salary and low ability!

Therefore, Napoli needs to rely on my player Lavezzi, not some Chen Hero.

For such an important player to the team, isn't an annual salary of one million euros a bit too little?

He was just about to talk to the club manager, Marino, about this matter—he didn't dare to look for De Laurentiis, that person was too moody—when he received this call from Lavezzi.

"This time it's for real, not for a raise?"

Lavezzi shook his head: "No. I want to go to a bigger team."

Mazzoni laughed: "That's how it should have been, Ezequiel! That's how it should have been! I happen to know that some teams are interested in you..."

Mazzoni hung up the phone with a smug smile on his face. He was wondering what kind of expression would be on the face of that damn old man De Laurentiis when he found out that Lavezzi left the club because he didn't give him a raise, and Lavezzi performed well after going to other teams?

Regret it!

※※※

No one knew that Lavezzi and his agent Mazzoni had made a phone call. Before these rumors were exposed, they would always just be stories that had never happened.

After three consecutive rounds without a win, Napoli had another two-game winning streak. In the league standings, their ranking had risen to sixth, re-entering the ranking sequence eligible to participate in European competitions.

This was undoubtedly good news for Napoli.

In the first half of the season, their league ranking fluctuated, rising to fourth in the league for a while, and then quickly falling out of the top ten.

Such ups and downs were as exciting as a roller coaster.

But which Napoli fans would want it to always be so exciting? Who wouldn't want their team to firmly occupy the top spot in the league standings from the first round of the league and then not come down?

Those who like ups and downs are definitely neutral fans watching the excitement.

Having just returned from Florence, Napoli had to welcome the match against Udinese at home.

This game was also not easy to play. First of all, Udinese's strength was not weak, and secondly, Napoli had just played an away game two days ago. The time was too tight, and how much the players' physical fitness and state could be maintained was unknown.

The only thing to be thankful for was that this Napoli team currently had no other games to play other than the domestic league. The UEFA Cup group stage was eliminated, and the Italian Cup was also eliminated.

Last season, as a promoted team, they won the right to participate in the International Toto Cup. In the last Toto Cup in history, they won the right to participate in the UEFA Cup qualifying round, which made everyone have high hopes for the team's performance in the new season.

Who would have thought that an undulating first half of the season would completely ruin the team's character…

Now Napoli fans can only look forward to the domestic league.

Originally, according to the nature of the first half of the season, I was afraid that the team would have to fight for relegation in the end.

Unexpectedly, after two rounds of the second half of the season, Chen Hero suddenly broke out, bringing the team victories in two consecutive games, and the team's points instantly soared to sixth in the league, giving them hope of participating in the UEFA Cup.

The dying fire of hope in the hearts of the fans was rekindled.

Next season, do we still have hope of participating in European competitions?

※※※

Considering that the players had just experienced the game against Fiorentina, Mazzarri made a small rotation in this game, replacing several players.

Lavezzi returned to the starting lineup.

Although Lavezzi had made harsh remarks to Mazzarri, Mazzarri still planned to give him a chance. After all, Napoli can only use him now.

But obviously, Lavezzi's performance disappointed him. Lavezzi, who had already made up his mind to leave Napoli, still went his own way and didn't pass the ball to Chen Hero at all.

The cooperation between the two people simply couldn't work.

But fortunately, Napoli still had the very tacit cooperation between Arshavin and Chen Hero.

So thirty minutes into the game, Napoli took a 2:0 lead at home. Chen Hero scored in three consecutive rounds, creating his best record since landing in Serie A.

It also severely countered those media who questioned that he would fall into a goal drought.

However, this time after he scored a goal, he didn't slap the fans in the face, not because the booing of the fans at the scene was small, but because he found a new way to fight back—after he scored a goal, he lifted his jersey and revealed the t-shirt inside, which read: "This is a goal drought, I'm so scared!"

The faces of those who once asserted that Chen Hero's state would fluctuate and he would fall into a goal drought were even more ugly than if their biological father had died…

Chen Hero didn't make a slapping motion, but his t-shirt was slapping them in the face.

Some commentators laughed after seeing the words on Chen Hero's t-shirt.

Anyone who can laugh must be someone who hasn't done anything wrong to Chen Hero…

※※※

The team's second goal came from Arshavin, which was entirely a reflection of his personal skills. After receiving a pass from Hamsik, Arshavin pretended to cooperate with Chen Hero in a two-on-one, deceiving the player defending him to move inward, but he chose to break through.

After forcibly overtaking with speed, Arshavin decisively kicked the ball from a not-so-large angle.

The football went through the legs of Udinese goalkeeper Samir Handanovic, and was kicked by Handanovic's foot during the crotch-piercing process, slightly changing its course, and finally flew into the goal.

Unlike Chen Hero, who received half cheers and half boos after scoring a goal, Arshavin, although Chen Hero's good friend, didn't have any disrespectful behavior towards Napoli fans. Therefore, when he scored his first goal since joining Napoli, the San Paolo Stadium erupted with huge cheers.

Leading by two goals before the end of the first half made Napoli fans very optimistic about winning this game.

Who would have thought that just four minutes after taking the lead, Aronica made a mistake in the penalty area, tripping Udinese forward Fabio Quagliarella, and the referee imposed the death penalty, awarding Udinese a penalty kick!

The penalty kick was scored by Antonio Di Natale.

The score was tied at 2:1. The Neapolitans also felt the taste that they had let the Florentines taste in the previous league round.

And Udinese, who tied the score, had high morale, and finally tied the score before the end of the first half. This time, the goal was scored by Quagliarella.

In just one first half, the two sides scored four goals, and Napoli went from leading by two goals to being tied.

The process was full of ups and downs, just like their first half of the season, starting high and ending low.

In the second half, Napoli tried to counterattack, but because Lavezzi and Chen Hero couldn't cooperate, they could only rely on one way. For Udinese, it was much easier to curb Napoli's offensive.

So throughout the second half, although the entire Napoli team worked very hard, they still couldn't break through Udinese's goal.

In the end, they could only accept the 2:2 draw, and their momentum of rise was curbed.

But who is to blame for this?

Chen Hero scored a goal in the game, shouldn't he be responsible for this draw?

Wrong, some media still criticized him, criticizing him for only scoring one goal…

"If Chen Hero could score more goals, this game would be without suspense, how could there be a counterattack from Udinese?"

Of course, more media pointed the finger of criticism at Lavezzi.

Everyone saw Lavezzi's poor performance in these few games. Since Chen Hero went berserk, Lavezzi seemed to be completely covered by Chen Hero's light, and his performance completely lost its former sharpness.

Everyone knows that Lavezzi and Chen Hero have conflicts, but private conflicts cannot affect the team's results. This should be the principle of the players, right? Anyone who affects the team's performance because of personal grudges often does not get external support.

So no matter how famous Lavezzi was in Napoli last season, it can't help him now.

His numb expression in the game was also published in the sports section of the newspaper.

Criticism of him was endless.

"...Lavezzi performed quite poorly in yesterday's game!"

"What? Lavezzi started yesterday? Don't be kidding, I didn't see him at all!"

"Lavezzi's current problem is that he can't cooperate with the whole team. It's obvious that Mazzarri is going to support Chen Hero. If Lavezzi doesn't correct his attitude, I'm afraid he will be completely abandoned by Mazzarri..."

"It is said that in the game against Roma, because Lavezzi was replaced by Mazzarri in advance, he resented him, went straight back to the locker room, took a bath and changed his clothes, and then went home directly. This behavior angered Mazzarri, so in the away game against Fiorentina, we didn't see Lavezzi's name on the list... Now Lavezzi's performance is obviously intensifying the conflict..."

"To be honest, Napoli this season is really full of contradictions—first, the contradiction between Chen Hero and the Napoli fans and the media, then the contradiction between him and the head coach, and then the contradiction between him and Lavezzi was exposed. Now that the team has changed the head coach, the contradiction between Chen Hero and the head coach seems to have disappeared, but his contradiction with the fans has been intensified. And Chen Hero hasn't stopped here, Lavezzi has also revealed a contradiction with the new head coach Mazzarri... Under so many contradictions, it's really worrying about Napoli's results this season..."

"There are a lot of internal and external troubles. Mazzarri has a lot of problems to solve. I'm not optimistic about Napoli's results this season at all. As for the European war qualification, they should stay in Serie A first..."