Victor Osimhen – GAME OF THE PEOPLE

LAST SEASON, Napoli were arguably the most exciting team in Europe. They were not the best, that accolade belonged to treble-winners Manchester City, but for exhilarating football, Naples was the place to be. They had two of the continent’s most watchable players in Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and they were scoring goals for fun. They were worthy winners of Serie A.

This season, Napoli have struggled with more or less the same team. Admittedly they lost coach Luciano Spalletti, who wanted a sabbatical but has now taken over the Italian national team, but they had the cachet to hire a big name coach who could continue the good work. Spalletti felt, with the title won, the club was at the end of a cycle and that it was a good time to step down. At 63, he may have been reluctant to build another team, preferring instead to move into international football management.

Whatever the reason, Napoli’s problems have become bigger than a new coach. Osimhen, the figurehead of the scudetto year, has been hampered by injury and contract talks. Other players who were outstanding in 2022-23 have looked jaded and a yard off the pace. There may be a simple reason for the collapse; winning the title in the way they did may have burned the team out. At present, they are tenth place in Serie A and they are on their third coach after sacking Walter Mazzari, who had replaced Spalletti’s replacement, Rudi Garcia. Francesco Calzona, coach of Slovakia, is in charge of Napoli until the end of the current campaign.

Italian champions do not normally fall in the way Napoli have, in fact most European title winners make a decent job of defending their crown. In 2022-23, 22 of UEFA’s 54 league champions retained the title they won in 2021-22, including Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Celtic, Paris Saint-Germain, Red Bull Salzburg and Shamrock Rovers.

Napoli are in danger of the worst Italian title defence since Hellas Verona in 1985-86. They won the scudetto, surprisingly, in 1984-85 and finished 10^th a year later. It was very much a one-off.

The English game has a history of champion clubs underperforming, going back as far as the 1920s when Everton went from top in 1928 to 18^th in 1929, and a year on, were relegated. Manchester City can better that fall from grace, winning the championship in 1937 and falling through the trapdoor in 1938. In the post-WW2 years, Chelsea’s solitary title before the Abramovich years, in 1955, took so much out of their team they slumped to 16^th in 1955-56. Ipswich Town did even worse after their 1962 triumph, falling to 17^th and then 22^ndand relegation. One of the most unexpected title wins of all time, Leicester City’s in 2016, was followed by 12^thplace in 2016-17.

In Germany, the Bundesliga has been the sole property of Bayern Munich for the past decade, but it wasn’t always like that. In 1968, Nürnberg were champions but the following year, they were relegated. Other clubs have been found wanting in the year after hitting the summit, such as Eintracht Braunschweig in 1968 (ninth), VFB Stuttgart in 1985 (10^th) and Wolfsburg in 2009 (eighth). It says a lot about Bayern Munich’s current status that the possibility of finishing second in 2023-24 is setting alarm bells ringing in Bavaria.

Spain has long been dominated by Real Madrid and Barcelona, with the occasional visit of Atlético Madrid to the winners’ podium. Between this trio, 73 league championships have been secured. Only 19 have been won by the rest of Spanish football. Real Sociedad (two wins) and Valencia (six) both dropped to seventh place when they last defended the La Liga title in 1982-83 and 2004-05 respectively. It is unlikely that the current masters of Spain would fall as far as seventh in this or any season, such is the polarisation of the European game.

In France, Paris Saint-Germain have slotted into the spot that has, for some time, been occupied by Real, Barca and Bayern in Spain and Germany, in other words, the alpha club that others have to beat in order to be champions. Since they started to dominate French football, only Monaco and Lille have been able to overcome the huge advantages PSG have, but Lille in 2021-22, found the burden of being the top dog too much, finishing 10^th in Ligue 1.

The reasons why some top clubs find it impossible to repeat their golden year are manifold; exhaustion, a change of coach, money, the loss of key players and motivated opponents can all conspire to make trophy retention nigh on impossible. Napoli may be experiencing some of these hurdles as they drift out of contention for even a European place in 2024-25. They can still improve the situation, but three coaches in a single campaign tells its own story.

VICTOR OSIMHEN of Napoli has signed a new contract that will take him through to 2026. The much-coveted Nigerian striker, who netted 26 goals as his club won their first scudetto since 1990 in 2022-23, has been the subject of considerable interest from abroad. Still only 24, Osimhen has scored eight goals this season but has suffered from injuries. Osimhen will be part of the Nigeria squad that takes part in the Africa Cup of Nations in January, so Napoli, whose season has been disappointing, will be without their key man. He has won 28 caps and scored 20 goals for his country.

Arsenal slipped up at home to West Ham and blew the chance of returning to the top of the Premier League table. The Gunners were beaten 2-0 with a goal in each half by the Hammers. Needless to say, there a VAR controversy surrounding the visitors’ first goal. Arsenal dominated the game, carving out 30 shots on goal and enjoying 74% of the possession, but West Ham took their chance and scored in the 13^th minute through Soucek and with a 55^th minute header by Mavropanos. It could have been even worse, but goalkeeper David Raya saved a penalty from Said Benrahma. Arsenal are two points behind leaders Liverpool. West Ham, in sixth, didn’t apologise for their defensive performance. “If you remember, Arsenal used to make a living out it,” said manager David Moyes.

The lack of understanding of football by politicians has been highlighted once more by leaked papers that reveal Sir Tony Blair’s enthusiasm for a possible relocation of Wimbledon FC to Belfast in the late 1990s. Blair, who was Prime Minister at the time, felt a move to Northern Ireland would be a “significant breakthrough”. While he may have been thinking of the possible PR gains it would bring, Wimbledon were a poorly supported club and would have surely struggled to win over the Belfast population, even if they had changed their name to Belfast United. The city has a number of clubs with strong roots, such as Cliftonville, Linfield, Crusaders and Glentoran. Furthermore, what would such a relocation have done for Wimbledon and its fans?

Jenni Hermoso of Spain has been named the Guardian newspaper’s footballer of the year for 2023, the fourth time in six years that a women has won the award. The much-travelled 33 year-old, who plays for Mexican club Pachuca, was a member of Spain’s World Cup winning team. She missed a penalty in the final against England, but it was an incident during the trophy presentation that sparked off the most news from the competition’s climax. Spanish Football Federation president, Luis Rubiales, planted a kiss on Hermoso’s lips, and in the aftermath, this became a symbol of the sexism and misogyny that often prevails in attitudes towards women’s football.