A chairman at odds with his star players, a squad without a domestic win since October and a three-time Champions League winning manager sacked after a 4-0 win in their last group match of the tournament.
Napoli’s season continues to lurch towards the rocks and after chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis ruthlessly axed Ancelotti on Tuesday night, it appears to be nothing more than a formality in appointing Gennaro Gattuso as manager until the end of the season.
Yes, that’s right. Gennaro Gattuso.
Gennaro Gattuso is in line to replace his old boss Carlo Ancelotti as Napoli manager
Gattuso left AC Milan last season after failing to qualify for the Champions League
As a player, Gattuso won the World Cup with Italy and the Champions League at AC Milan
As a player, Gattuso played under Ancelotti in the Milan side that reached three Champions League finals, winning two. He has two Serie A medals and played 73 times for Italy, winning the World Cup in 2006.
He carved out a reputation as a midfield hard-man who relished the dirty work, the aggressive side of football and wasn’t afraid to get hurt for the cause. It is an attitude that De Laurentiis will be expecting Gattuso to ingrain into the Napoli squad he is currently at war with.
But can he really expect Gattuso to be successful? The era of tough love from a manager appears to be consigned to the past and Gattuso’s record on the sidelines is not one that will inject much optimism for the long-term into Napoli’s ardent fanbase.
Gattuso’s break as a boss came in a player-manager role at Swiss side Sion in 2013 – he was their fifth manager that season when he took the reins in the February of that season. He lasted until May, taking 11 points from 10 league matches but wasn’t put off by his experience in the dugout.
As a manager, Gattuso has had a tumultuous career that began with Swiss side Sion
After Sion, he took over at Palermo but oversaw only eight matches before being dismissed
Then, at Crete, Gattuso gave an explosive press conference as the club toiled financially
It was only a month until he was back, this time in Italy with Palermo, but his time there had the same outcome. Gattuso was sacked in September, having only overseen eight matches.
‘We have maybe bitten off more than we could chew,’ Palermo president Maurizio Zamperini said after only two wins.
Gattuso took time out to complete his UEFA pro-license and the following June, took over as manager of Crete in Greece but it swiftly became clear that the poor financial situation at the club was to hinder Gattuso, not that he was to ever use it as an excuse.
He erupted in a press conference after a 1-0 win of Atromitos amid reports he was on the brink of walking out.
‘I want my players to play with balls and heart,’ Gattuso raged. ‘It’s too easy for me to leave! I don’t go home and cry because we don’t have money.
‘Many teams in Europe have no money. I don’t use the excuse that the players don’t play because we don’t pay. F**k off! This is not true.’
Gattuso eventually left in December that year with five wins from 17 and threw his name straight into the hat for the Hamilton Academicals job in Scotland, looking to replace Alex Neil.
‘I know a lot about Hamilton,’ Gattuso said in an interview with The Scotsman where he underlined his credentials. ‘I think my style is perfectly suited to the way the game is played in the UK. I like aggressive football and for players to put pressure on the ball.’
But he was unsuccessful, with the club instead choosing to keep caretaker Martin Canning in the role.
Gattuso’s next job came in August 2015, with Italian Serie C side Pisa and he led them to promotion in his first season, via the play-offs. But he walked out the following month before pre-season, citing ‘serious and unacceptable problems’ as the reason for his departure.
Gattuso won promotion from Serie C with Pisa but they were then relegated the next season
As AC Milan manager, Gattuso took the club to fifth, their best finish since 2012-13
Remarkably, he returned less than a month later but the disruption to the preparations for the new season meant Pisa were always facing an uphill battle in a tougher league.
They finished last and were relegated, incredibly with the second-best defence in the league. They conceded 36 times – three less than the league winners – but scored only 23 times in 42 games.
Gattuso left, this time for good, and landed a job as coach of AC Milan’s Under 19 side in the summer of 2017. Four months later, he was replacing Vincenzo Montella in November that year as manager of the senior side.
He lasted 18 months but only led the club for one full season, departing at the end of the 2018-19 campaign for failing to return Milan to the Champions League. That said, the fifth-place finish that he did manage is their highest since 2012-13.
And in fairness to Gattuso, he hasn’t exactly failed where others succeeded. They are currently 10th in Serie A under his replacement, Stefano Pioli.
He will likely replace Ancelotti, his old boss, on a deal until the end of the current season
To succeed as Napoli boss, Gattuso will need to create in the image he had as a player
But next in Gattuso’s roll-call is Napoli, a unique challenge for any manager, as Ancelotti can attest to. He is likely to pen a deal that will last until the end of the season with the option for a further year if he gets Napoli into the top four.
They are already seven points behind and to stand any chance, Gattuso needs to unite a club that is at war with itself. It’s an appointment that looks like a disaster waiting to happen but, of course, this is football.
Napoli is also a club that adores players of Gattuso’s ilk, who relish hard yards and embrace overcoming the odds. If he quickly creates a team in that image, it could be an appointment that is mad enough to work.