Decibel Bellini would be the first to tell you that he has been lucky in love. Napoli’s exuberant stadium announcer is always sharing photos of his partner Valentina, with whom he is expecting a second child, on his various social media feeds. Bellini’s syllable-by-syllable serenades to every Napoli goalscorer, meanwhile, have won him endless adoration from his club’s supporters.
Life was not always like this. As Bellini explained in a Facebook post this July, “when I was a little boy, I often fell in love with the most beautiful girls in school. I was chubby and not too good looking, and in the end, despite all my love letters, offers to carry their rucksacks and everything else, I could not grab their attention.”
The story was shared with a purpose. Bellini wanted his followers to understand that sometimes “we fall in love with someone or something that simply does not want to be loved”. A record-breaking Argentinian striker, for example. Gonzalo Higuaín would complete his transfer from Napoli to Juventus two days later.
Not everyone in Naples was able to view this betrayal as philosophically as Bellini. Higuaín’s face was printed on to rolls of toilet paper sold at pre-season friendlies, and a photo did the rounds of somebody trying (and presumably failing) to flush his shirt down the can.
On Saturday, an opportunistic betting company parked a bus outside the Stadio San Paolo with a banner carrying the message ‘#coreNgrat’ (ungrateful heart) on its side. Any fan owning a replica shirt with Higuaín’s name on it was invited to step aboard and swap it for a new one.
All this, of course, was catharsis. Even Bellini – while stressing that this had never been a reciprocal love affair – confessed to being upset by Higuaín’s departure. Sometimes, though, the best way to get over a bad break-up is to throw yourself into a rebound fling. After just 33 minutes of Napoli’s home opener against Milan, supporters had tumbled happily into the embrace of a tall Polish stranger.
The name Arkadiusz does not roll of Italian tongues quite as easily as Gonzalo, but Bellini bellowed it just as gleefully all the same. “Milik” replied the crowd at each repetition. If it felt unfamiliar the first time round, then it was already starting to sound just right by the time that the striker fired them into a 2-0 first-half lead.
Despite being the second-most expensive player in Napoli’s history, at a fee of €32m plus bonuses, Milik had arrived this summer as something of an unknown quantity. Still just 22 years old, he scored 47 goals in two seasons at Ajax, as well as starting for Poland at Euro 2016 – but these games were not well watched on the peninsula.
There was a presumption in some quarters that Napoli still needed a more senior player to replace Higuaín. Rumours persisted of a move for Fiorentina’s Nikola Kalinic, or even a bid to bring back Edinson Cavani from Paris Saint-Germain. Manolo Gabbiadini was selected at centre-forward for the season opener against Pescara, with Milik on the bench. It was only after they swapped places in that match, however, that Napoli rallied from two goals down to rescue a point. Dries Mertens played the starring role in that recovery, but Milik’s strength and aggression were also noted by manager Maurizio Sarri.
Both players were duly named in the starting XI against Milan, and both were involved in the game’s first goal. Mertens’s curling shot from the left came back off a post, and Milik was perfectly placed to prod home the rebound. If this was a clumsy finish, bobbling into the ground and taking a fortuitous hop over the legs of the Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, then his next goal was a fine glancing header that flew straight into the top corner. Milik had shown real menace in between, too, teeing up Marek Hamsik after a shimmy on the edge of the box, before having his violent shot deflected behind by a lunging defender.
Milan could not contain him, much less the brilliant Mertens – who carved them open time and again, only to be denied repeatedly by Donnarumma. Without the keeper’s sharp reflexes, this match might have been all over before the interval. Instead, Milan scored twice in the space of five second-half minutes. M’Baye Niang tore past Elseid Hysaj down the left before producing a fine finish into the far side of the net, before Suso crashed home a brilliant shot from just outside the D.
Napoli were livid over the first of those goals, arguing that Jorginho had been fouled at the start of Milan’s attack; Sarri was sent to the stand for protesting. His complaints might have been justified, but on both goals the defending was suspect. There had been warning signs right at the start of the match, when Niang swung a low ball across the six-yard box only for an unmarked Ignazio Abate to blaze over.
Rather than a game of two halves, however, this turned out to be a game of three thirds. Napoli roared back into the ascendancy, Mertens and José Callejón leading the charge. It was the Belgian once again who cut in from the left and shot in the 74th minute. This time Donnarumma could only palm his shot into the path of Callejón, who slotted the ball home.
Milan imploded, Juraj Kucka and Niang each getting sent off for second bookings. Gustavo Gómez was fortunate not to join them after drawing blood with an elbow to the head of Raúl Albiól. The Chelsea target Alessio Romagnoli could have gone, too, for using his hands to claw the ball off the line after deflecting a Lorenzo Insigne cross goalwards. The referee, Paolo Valeri, did well to allow play to continue long enough for Callejón to nudge the ball in. That outcome helped Romagnoli to escape with a yellow card instead of a red.
It was a chaotic end to an entertaining match between two teams that, unsurprisingly at this early stage of the season, still have plenty of flaws to iron out. Both are expected to remain active in the final days of the transfer window, though Aurelio de Laurentiis did post a statement on Napoli’s website on Sunday clarifying that he had no intention of bringing Cavani back.
As for Milik, he posted a picture on Twitter of himself and Mertens as a pair of M&Ms. What could be better than chocolate to help mend a city’s broken heart?
Talking points
• Donnarumma might have been on the losing side this weekend, but he was rewarded for his strong form with a first call-up to the Italian national team. At 17, he is the youngest player to receive that honour since Rodolfo Gavinelli all the way back in 1911. Other new faces in Giampiero Ventura’s first Italy squad are Romagnoli, Torino’s Andrea Belotti and Genoa’s Leonardo Pavoletti. The Azzurri face France in a friendly on Thursday, then Israel in a World Cup qualifier on Monday.
• Both Milik and Donnarumma were wearing the No99 shirt on Saturday. I don’t really have anything to add to that, but for some reason it felt like a fact that needed to be acknowledged.
• A disappointing weekend for Inter on the pitch, as they were unable to convert their many chances into a win over Palermo, but an exciting one off it with both João Mário and Gabriel ‘Gabigol’ Barbosa arriving in Milan to join the club. Monday’s papers carried fretful headlines about the five-point gap to Juventus, but Inter’s target for this season has only ever been a top-three finish, not a title. The more immediate concern is that this summer’s big signings are unlikely to be able to play in Europe. Inter are operating under Financial Fair Play restrictions and had agreed a maximum break-even deficit of €30m for the year ending in 2016, followed by no deficit in 2017. These latest signings will take their summer spend beyond €100m, with barely one-tenth of that sum covered by sales so far.
• Then again, Inter could always look to Juventus for guidance on how to win games without your expensive summer signings. Higuaín and Marko Pjaca entered only as second-half substitutes for the champions at Lazio, whilst Miralem Pjanic never made it off the bench at all. It was left to Sami Khedira to score the goal that maintained their perfect start.
• Joining Juventus on six points are Sampdoria, Genoa and Sassuolo. The Blucerchiati have been aided by red cards for opponents in both of their games so far, but certainly look like a tighter unit under Marco Giampaolo, while their neighbours benefited from playing what should have been an away game against Crotone at a neutral venue this weekend. Sassuolo, meanwhile, are simply flying. Domenico Berardi, after turning down a move to Juventus this summer, has scored in all six of his team’s games across all competitions. Dating back to last season, the Neroverdi have now won six straight in Serie A.
• Crotone’s fans were certainly not happy with that decision to host Genoa in Pescara – roughly 350 miles away – while renovation works continue at their own Stadio Enzo Scida. Ultras from the Curva Sud boycotted the match, but released a statement saying that they would buy tickets anyway after their club promised to donate all proceeds to victims of last week’s earthquake.
• The future of Nikola Maksimovic remains in question after he went awol at Torino on the eve of this season – apparently in a bid to force a move to Napoli. Sinisa Mihajlovic, though, was unequivocal when asked about his centre-back this weekend, saying the player is “dead to me”.
• Kevin Strootman achieved another significant landmark in his recovery from successive knee injuries, scoring his first Serie A goal for 952 days. Unfortunately Roma, fresh from their Champions League collapse against Porto, ruined this occasion, too, by blowing a two-goal lead at Cagliari.
Results: Cagliari 2-2 Roma, Crotone 1-3 Genoa, Fiorentina 1-0 Chievo, Inter 1-1 Palermo, Lazio 0-1 Juventus, Napoli 4-2 Milan, Sampdoria 2-1 Atalanta, Sassuolo 2-1 Pescara, Torino 5-1 Bologna, Udinese 2-0 Empoli
