Napoli Manager on the Hot Seat as the Azzurri Fall Again.....
Napoli trainer Edy Reja seemed resigned to his fate following a 2-0 home loss to Lazio on Sunday afternoon. The southern side's fall from grace over the last few months has been shocking and the man who has risen with the side from the third division is feeling the heat once again. Truth be told, Reja has never been a popular figure among the Napoli faithful. In 2005, they lost in the Serie C promotion playoffs to their bitter local rivals Avellino. Though the team rebounded to earn two successive promotions, booking their place in Serie A, many supporters did not believe Reja was the right man to guide them in the top flight. His only other Serie A adventure, with Vicenza in 2000-01, was so unmemorable that, in the wake of Napoli's 2-0 loss to Cagliari in the 2007-08 opener, Reja was asked by SKY how it felt to make his Serie A debut.
After an Intertoto Cup run and a flirtation with the UEFA Cup this season, Napoli looked as if they were going to make a run at the Champions League places but their season has completely unraveled. While Napoli has tried to insist that they will be holding on to their young nucleus, the drop in form has made the departure of Marek Hamsik increasingly likely. All factors point to chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis making a managerial change, but Reja still has a bit of hope.
If he is able to keep his job it will be for the following reasons:
1. De Laurentiis and Marino have been loyal to him before and, though they have grand plans for this club, do not seem to be as trigger happy as other boardrooms.
2. The slump is largely the result of the club's ambition, and not entirely Reja's fault. Edy was put in a difficult position this season. Napoli began training for the Intertoto Cup early in the offseason and have been playing competitive fixtures since July. He was then not able to rotate the squad as he was expected to fight for a Top-4 finish. The same players have gone the whole way... and they're exhausted.
3. Napoli are in that rare spot in the table where there is nothing to play for. Collectively, they have nothing left in their legs and even with a change at the top, cannot realistically challenge for a spot in Europe. On the flip side, it is difficult to imagine them being sucked back into the relegation dogfight. They're too talented.
That being said, trying to predict the fate of Serie A managers is virtually impossible so only time will tell how this plays out....
