Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
As for Marino (for those who don't know, Napoli's sporting director), he may have brought Hamsik, Lavezzi and Santacroce but what else? Consider how much Napoli have spent over the last 2 seasons and what has Marino brought to Napoli... Rinaudo, Aronica, Denis, Zalayeta, Zuniga...
There has been very little progress over the years, in fact, Napoli have taken several steps back...
Now Marino is nowhere near as bad as Marco Branca, but I think he's taken the club as far as he can. A change in policy and approach among the management far ups might be just Napoli need to turn their season around. That and a proper left back
by reading that, i realise a little intro to marino is needed
months ago, abhi asked me how come napoli had such an ability to find unknown talents around the globe... that was my reply...
there are just 3 sport directors in europe who are better than ramon rodriguez (aka "monchi")...2 of them are italians..... one of those 2 legends (that's really the only word that fits in) is Pierpaolo Marino.
Pierpaolo Marino and Pantaleo Corvino are for sports directors, what maradona and pelè were for football players: GODS.
it would take one entire day to tell u about all the stars Marino signed in his carreer (when they weren't stars yet, of course)....
just to give u an idea....
the napoli team that won 2 scudetti was one of his creatures (i'm talking about maradona's napoli). careca, alemao, bagni, giordano..... were all his signings
before napoli there was Pescara (allegri, esposito, and a young brazilian kid called dunga!)
then there was the great experience with dino viola's roma.
oh and shall we talk about his experience at udinese? bierhoff, amoroso, di natale, pizarro, iaquinta......
i tell u, if zamparini asked me "ok ben who would u rather me to get? kakà, messi, pirlo, fabregas or pierpaolo marino?
i would pick marino with no hesitations..... and i'm serious. with that God on your side, your future is fu**ing guarranteed!
so, long story short, marino isn't just "not as bad as branca".... he's the very best u can find in the world, speaking of team directors.
he built napoli from scratch. when de laurentis bought napoli, after the bankrupt, the club had no training facilities, no personnel (and by personnel i mean they didn't even have a gardener to take care of the san paolo pitch). Napoli as a football club and as a company "died" with the bankrupt... they lost everything. marino took care of every single aspect of the club (financial aspects, logistic aspects and technical aspects). he rebuilt the club scouting network and was the only responsible of one of the most unbelievable comebacks in european football.... just 5 years ago napoli was playing in serie c (the equivalent of the british league one)..... in just 5 years brought napoli back where it belongs, and built one of the most entertaining and successful clubs in italy.
hamsik, lavezzi, santacroce, gargano, mannini... they were "nobodies" when he bought them. how many clubs in europe can claim to have discovered so many unknown talents in the last 3 years??
and look at the amazing squad he built this season...zuniga, campagnaro, maggio, datolo, cigarini, quagliarella.... so many top notch signings, it's just insane.
of course having so many new players, it takes some time to "gel" them and turn this amazing roster into a proper football team.... but obviously that's not marino's responsability.... he's not the coach.
milan sold kaka this season. some might say it was a wise move, some might say it wasn't.... but one thing is for sure: kaka didn't leave for free and milan got a huge load of money.
by firing marino, de laurentis is giving away (for free) an asset wich is much more important than all the kakas, the ronaldos the messis u can imagine.... and unless he's gonna sign corvino or monchi (wich is extremely unlikely), there's no way he'll find a better sporting director than pierpaolo marino.
If Ferrara wanted to win that game, he should brough in Trezegoal much earlier for Amauri... This is the same Amauri Italy is pinning their hopes on for the WC2010 
). And you're one to talk, since when do Juve play "entertaining" 
)... so, between work and hospital, i had no free time at all....
