Chapter 1 Two Days After Tying Udinese, Italian Media Suddenly Broke Such Rumors - Real Madrid Contacted Lavezzi!

This is really shocking news.

Everyone in football knows what level Real Madrid is at. Being favored by Real Madrid means your level can already be among the top European stars.

Although Real Madrid's performance in Spain and the Champions League is not good, their century-old foundation is still there. Any player favored by Real Madrid, even if they don't go in the end, will feel secretly pleased.

So when this news came out, the whole city of Naples was attracted, and even other Italian media began to pay attention to this matter.

"Insiders revealed that the Galaxy Battleship has already inquired about the price from Napoli... Mazzoni confirmed this matter, saying: 'Yes, this is true. But I want to say that Lavezzi's heart belongs to Napoli. He is an Argentine and a admirer of Maradona. But being favored by Real Madrid is still a very happy thing!'..."

"Everyone knows that Real Madrid has been living in the shadow of Barcelona in the past two years, and the team urgently needs players who can break Barcelona's monopoly. In the eyes of Real Madrid's top management, Lavezzi is such a player!"

…

Mazzoni is really good at stirring things up. There are many more articles in the media about the relationship between Real Madrid and Lavezzi.

Whether this is true or not, at least it caused panic among Napoli fans.

Some fans went to the training ground with big banners to support Lavezzi during the team's training, trying to keep him, and not wanting him to leave Napoli. Of course, as Lavezzi's public enemy in the team, Chen Hero was once again shot while lying down. Those extreme fans pulled out banners and shouted slogans asking Chen Hero to get out of Napoli.

With Chen Hero's increasingly arrogant behavior after scoring goals, his relationship with those extreme fans is getting worse and worse.

Now everyone is not surprised to hear boos from those extreme fans targeting Chen Hero around the training ground at any time.

At first, some teammates were worried that Chen Hero was always in such an environment, with too much pressure, which was not a good thing for him.

But they soon discovered that Chen Hero was not affected by those extreme fans at all. No matter how loud their boos were or how loud they cursed, they couldn't hurt a single hair on Chen Hero, so what was there to worry about?

As for personal attacks, he has a bodyguard who is almost inseparable, who is responsible for picking him up and dropping him off even when he comes to training.

Those extreme fans at most throw stones and signal flares. To talk about something more dangerous, that's the level of the Mafia, but the Mafia in Naples is relatively low-level, unlike those in Sicily, who have successfully whitewashed themselves. The Mafia in Naples is always under the strict crackdown of the Naples police and procuratorate.

What's more... the boss of Napoli club, Aurelio De Laurentiis, is said to have a mafia background. Think about it, as a local in Naples, doing such a big business, if he really hasn't dealt with the Mafia, no one will believe it if he says it.

This is the current situation of Napoli football, always unable to get rid of the dark background, even in the Maradona era.

There was even a rumor that Maradona was dragged into drug use by those Mafia members in Naples...

※※※

Club manager Marino reported the team's situation to De Laurentiis, including the transfer rumors about Lavezzi.

"Are you sure this is not an excuse to ask for a salary increase?" De Laurentiis asked.

Marino shook his head: "His agent has not contacted me."

"Wait a little longer." De Laurentiis replied. "Observe again."

When Marino walked out of De Laurentiis' mansion, he was still shaking his head and sighing.

He actually hopes that the club will keep Lavezzi. First of all, Lavezzi's strength is there. Regardless of whether the matter of Real Madrid being interested in him is true or false—the media said that Real Madrid Club has already inquired about the price from them, but Marino, the manager, knows the actual situation best. He has not received an inquiry from Real Madrid—at least Lavezzi does have the strength. The Real Madrid thing may be false, but he knows that there are indeed some teams that are very interested in Lavezzi.

Secondly, Lavezzi was signed by him. He is very optimistic about Lavezzi, and Lavezzi can basically be regarded as his direct player. He doesn't want to let his direct player go like this.

But looking at the chairman, it seems that he means "let it go"...

※※※

The transfer rumors from Real Madrid don't even know if they are true or false, and then news broke that Inter Milan is interested in Lavezzi, and the reason for this news is very funny—because Inter Milan chairman Moratti has a hobby of collecting Argentine players...

No one thinks this is true.

But reporters went to ask Lavezzi, asking him if these transfer rumors were true.

Lavezzi, who was impulsive in front of coach Mazzarri, denied it when facing reporters. "I am a Napoli fan, and I have never thought about leaving Napoli!"

Saying such definitive words, if he really leaves Napoli in the end, wouldn't he be slapping himself in the face?

So the clever Lavezzi left himself a way out: "Unless the club doesn't want me!"

Okay, with just this sentence, the club is pushed to the villain camp. If Lavezzi really transfers and leaves, then it must not be because he is pursuing a wealthy team, but because the club ruthlessly and unjustly sold him...

Reporters ran to interview Marino again, wanting to hear the club's attitude towards this matter.

Most of the time, De Laurentiis is not in Naples, and the specific management of this team is also the responsibility of Marino, so reporters have become accustomed to Marino's voice representing the club's official opinion. They don't know that Marino will regularly call De Laurentiis to report, and many major events have to be decided by De Laurentiis.

"These are all rumors!" Marino righteously refuted the media's claims about Lavezzi leaving. "Lavezzi is an important member of the team, and we will not let him leave!"

"The conflict between him and Chen Hero..."

"This is a matter for the coach to solve, and I believe Mazzarri can perfectly solve this matter."

※※※

Marino passed the buck to Mazzarri, and Mazzarri really had a headache.

How to solve the Lavezzi problem?

But when he saw the news of Lavezzi's affairs with those clubs, he suddenly became enlightened.

He does have a way to perfectly solve this matter, and the specific method is—to sell one of the two of them.

But this idea has to wait for the support of the club management. Italian clubs are different from English clubs. In Italy, the coach is just a coach, just like their job title. They are only responsible for the team's training and games, and they basically have no right to interfere in other matters. They only have the right to make suggestions on the team's building policy, who to buy and who to sell, but they have no right to decide. This is already good. If they encounter something worse, they don't even have the right to make suggestions. The club manager or the boss has the final say on who to buy and who to sell. As for whether the person they buy is suitable for the team's tactics or whether it is what the team's coach needs, they don't care.

Anyway, buying people is completing my responsibility as a team operator. Next, you just use the ingredients I give you to make what I like to eat. If you can't make it, then fire you!

What? You said I didn't buy eggs for you to make the tomato scrambled eggs I want to eat? That's because you don't have enough ability! Since you don't have enough ability, then I'll fire you, and I'll find a coach who can make tomato scrambled eggs for me without eggs! —This is the thinking mode of many Italian club owners and managers.

So in Italian football, the coach is very tragic. They are often used as scapegoats by club managers and bosses when the team's performance is not good. What's even more pitiful is that this kind of thinking is deeply rooted in Italian football, and even Italian fans and players think this is a matter of course.

As long as the team loses, it must be the coach's problem, and it has nothing to do with the team's infighting, the managers' money laundering-like random buying and selling of people, or the boss's hobby of CospLayA coach...

Someone did a statistic. From August 2000 to June 2004, these four seasons, the frequency of coach changes in the top two leagues in Italy and England. Among the thirty-six Premier League and Championship clubs, only eleven coaches persisted throughout, 30.6 percent. What about the 29 Serie A and Serie B clubs? There were only three people!

Roma's Capello, Chievo's Del Neri and Perugia's Cosmi. In Italy, the survival rate of coaches is only 10.3%.

Even these three "surviving" coaches did not survive the summer of 2006. And among the eleven English club coaches who survived for four years, there are still five who are "alive."

Completely different football cultures and concepts in the two countries have led to completely different situations for coaches.

So if he doesn't get the support of the club management, Mazzarri will have a hard time in Napoli. Unlike Wenger and others in England, because they are both the coach and the manager of the club, they have almost the final say on the club's affairs.

※※※

"Sell Lavezzi?" Marino frowned when he heard this.

"Yes." Mazzarri nodded.

"This... just because he has a conflict with Chen Hero, it would be too much to sell him..."

"It's not because he has a conflict with Chen Hero. I talked to him once. I hope he can accept my opinion, change his playing habits and style in the new tactics, instead of sticking to his old ways." Mazzarri explained. "But he doesn't listen at all."

"He's just not used to it for a while..." Marino defended Lavezzi.

"Yes, I thought so at first, so I gave him time. But in the last game against Udinese, you saw what his performance was, Mr. Manager. Even the Napoli media is criticizing his performance, it's not just me saying that."

Marino also felt that this matter was difficult to handle. He didn't want Lavezzi to leave, but Lavezzi's own performance was not good, so he couldn't find a suitable reason to defend Lavezzi.

In the end, he could only persuade Mazzarri to give up the idea from Lavezzi's popularity.

"This... it's probably difficult to sell him. After all, Lavezzi has a very high reputation in the hearts of the fans, and is considered by many to be Diego's successor. If we sell him... it's not good to explain to the fans!"

Mazzarri didn't buy it: "I don't think it's good for us to explain to the fans if the team's performance is not good."

What he said was also true. Napoli has been in decline for many years. They finally saw a glimmer of hope. If it is ruined... not only the coach, but also him, the club manager, will not be able to explain to... the club chairman!

Marino felt a headache, he waved his hand: "Let me think about it again, think about it again..."

Mazzarri also knew that it was difficult for the club manager to make a decision now. Of course, he knew that Lavezzi was introduced by Marino, and he had repeatedly expressed his pride in his keen eye in public occasions afterwards.

It does take some psychological preparation for him to drive away the player he introduced...