Osimhen getting a new coach soon, three candidates are in play

Mount Vesuvius has been active again. Just months ago, it was ‘burning’ since Napoli finally won Serie A after 33 years, but now, it has gone up again for different reasons. Since Luciano Splaetti (under circumstances that are not fully clarified) left the club, his successor Rudi Garcia lid a ‘fire’ around the "Diego Armando Maradona" stadium for totally opposite reason. After a lacklustre performance and defeat against Empoli on Sunday, the Italian media are reporting that Rudy Garcia is already a former coach and that it is only a matter of days, and perhaps even hours, when the club's owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, will relieve him from his duties. The first favourite to replace the Frenchman on the bench of the current champion of Italy is the Croatian expert Igor Tudor, while the alternative option is a well-known face in Naples, Walter Mazzarri.

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In all the clubs where he worked so far (PAOK, Udinese, Verona...), Tudor tried to maintain military discipline and tactics aimed at minimizing errors with the ball at his feet. He didn't quite manage to do that in his last job at Olympique Marseille, a specific environment where it is very difficult to do, taking into account the factor of the large influx of fans into all the structures of the club. On the other side, his methods were not supported by the players as well, as they organized a meeting with the club’s president to complain about Tudor’s behaviour toward the players. Still, he was already in Rome today to meet De Laurentiis, and apparently, they are close to an agreement. The only difference is the length of the contract. Napoli’s president would like it to be until June 2024, while Tudor wants it until 2025.

Osimhen looks from the stands as Empoli stun Napoli

The other option is to go back to the good old days. Walter Mazzarri used to be at the helm of Napoli when players like Edinson Cavani, Ezekiel Lavezzi, and Marek Hamsik wore the blue jersey. But he is 62 now and hasn’t had a job since May 2022, when he left Cagliari. Napoli played beautiful football under Mazzarri, but will De Laurentiis choose a coach whose best years are long gone? The third option is also a risk because, unlike Mazzarri, this coach has a big name but little experience. He was the best soccer player in the world in 2006 - Fabio Cannavaro. He left Benevento in the middle of the previous season, as the club was not doing well in Serie B. He has not been involved since leaving the Ciro Vigorito Stadium, but the question is how much the crowd in Naples wants him since, as a child of the city and the club, he "betrayed" and built a playing career in the hated Juventus, previously also at Inter.