Napoli won a historic third Scudetto last season but have been in turmoil since title coach Spalletti resigned at the end of the season.
The 62-year-old wasappointed in November after thesackingofmanager Rudi Garcia, but Napoli have fallen to ninth in Serie A ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League roundof 16 matchagainst Barcelona.
Slovakia national team coach Francesco Calzona hasbeenretained until the end of the season and will manage the firstlegagainstBarça.
Calzona led Slovakia to Euro 2024, but he has a bigtaskaheadofhimafterreturning to Napoli andservingasmanagerLucianoSpalletti’s assistant inhis first trophyless season at the club.
Calzona will reportedly continue his work-in Slovakia and bring in Marek Hamsik, who is also the best player in Napoli’s history, breaking Diego Maradona’s club goalscoring record for the first-time.
Napoli won a historic third Scudetto last season, but have been in turmoil since title coach Spalletti resigned at the end of the season.
Napoli are a whopping 27 points behind league leaders Inter Milan, and have collected 15 points from just four wins out of 12 league games since Mazzarri took over.
This is even fewer than the 21 games García had scored in 12 league games as manager, and Napoli were fourth overall at the time of the Frenchman’s sacking.
Even if Italy finish fifth, it is highly unlikely that Napoli will return to the top four and qualify for next season’s nascent Champions League.
Napoli are nine points behind fourth-placed Atalanta and fifth-placed Bologna, but Mazzarri has not scored in nine games in all competitions, and there are little signs of closing the gap.
It was a disappointing end to Mazzarri’s short second term as Napoli manager, who helped lead southern Italy’s biggest club back into the upper echelons of Italian football between 2009 and 2013.
Mazzarri led Napoli to his 2012 Italian Cup, defeating undefeated league champions Juventus in the final, clinching the club’s first trophy in over 20 years.
He left in May 2013 after finishing second in the Italian top flight with an exciting team that featured Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marek Hamsik and Edinson Cavani in attack.
