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How Victor Osimhen may have been involved in Napoli sacking Rudi Garcia amongst other reasons.
Napoli have fired head coach Rudi Garcia after just four months in charge following a poor start to the season for the reigning Italian champions.
Walter Mazzarri has been appointed to help salvage the rest of the season mostly due to his availability and familiarity with the club having previously managed Napoli from 2009 to 2013.
Ultimately Rudi Garcia was fired because of the poor results but there are a few more reasons that contributed to said results including his seemingly fractured relationship with Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen and other Napoli stars.
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23:48 - 09.10.2023
Politano joins Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia in rebelling against Rudi Garcia
Rudi Garcia's control over the Napoli dressing room comes into question as Mateo Politano became the latest to publicly disagree with being substituted after Khivcha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen.
So here are four reasons Rudi Garcia got fired by Napoli just four months after he was hired in the first place.
4 reasons why Napoli sacked Rudi Garcia
1. Garcia did not get along with Osimhen and other Napoli stars
From the outside looking in, it never quite looked like Rudi Garcia got a grip on the Napoli dressing room, especially the big-name players just going by the limited information available to the public.
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He has only coached the team for four months and already has public spats with star men, Victor Osimhen and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia over his tactical decisions and substitutions.
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19:02 - 24.09.2023
Osimhen 'para' for Napoli coach Rudi Garcia for taking him off after missing a penalty
Victor Osimhen missed a penalty for Napoli in a goalless draw against Bologna and was substituted off shortly after, much to the displeasure of the Nigerian.
It is sort of understandable though as Napoli players have great admiration for their former manager Luciano Spalletti and it was difficult for Garcia to match up to that relationship.
Osimhen in particular recently spoke in glowing terms about Spalletti, revealing that they had a close personal relationship beyond football, which may or may not affect how Garcia was viewed coming in, especially as Spalletti's departure from the club was abrupt.
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16:46 - 13.11.2023
'Spalletti for me is one of the best coaches in Italy' — Osimhen hails former Napoli coach while current one struggles
Victor Osimhen has showered Napoli's title-winning manager Luciano Spalletti with praise amidst the current struggles of Rudi Garcia.
In all fairness, Osimhen in particular did speak well about Garcia on his recent appearance on the 'Obi One Podcast' "We started with a new manager, it's been going well."
2. Spalletti is a tough act to follow
Many believed at the time Garcia was hired that he was destined to fail at Napoli mostly because he was viewed as a downgrade to his predecessor and rightly so.
Spalletti has built up a reputation as one of the best coaches in Italy and the world at large so it was expected that the next Napoli manager would hold a high standing in the game.
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So it was particularly anti-climatic when Napoli announced Rudi Garcia, a man who had just been fired for poor results at Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia before that.
Napoli lost a title-winning manager and thought to replace him with Garcia, a man with just one league title on his resume which he won all the way back in 2011 with Lille.
This was never going to work for Garcia except Napoli were willing to compromise their new-found title-winning standards, which evidently they weren't.
The truth is, any top manager would have struggled to replace Spalletti's impact both on and off the pitch in Naples, let alone a struggling coach who was clearly on the decline.
3. Napoli's poor home form
Garcia also never got to endear himself to the Napoli fans who were still reeling from losing their favourite, Luciano Spalletti.
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Garcia failed to hit the ground running which did not help his cause as Napoli have one of the worst home records in Serie A.
Napoli have lost four games this season and all of those losses have come at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples having only won two of their eight games at home this season and are currently on a five-game winless streak on home soil.
4. Napoli can still have a great season
There is a chance Garcia could have benefited from a little more patience from Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis but he decided to end it before the season becomes unsalvageable.
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The possibility of hiring Walter Mazzarri as Garcia's replacement was tempting enough to make them get rid of Garcia at the first opportunity.
Napoli are currently fourth on the log, 10 points adrift of table-topping Inter Milan which is not an insurmountable lead with 26 Serie A games still to play.
Il Partenopei are also second in their Champions League group behind only Real Madrid so there is still some hope in that regard as well.
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