Has Benitez been a flop at Napoli?

I was expecting him to do a lot better... now i dont watch Napoli often but when i do vs big teams like Juve, they dont look good.

statistically speaking, results have been underwhelming as well, and Garcia who took over at Roma around the same time did considerably better.

Napoli before 2013:

1 trophy since 1989

Napoli under Benitez:

2 trophies in 1.5 seasons


I know for some glory-hunting armchair fans, trophies don't matter and it's all about high profile games...but the game and history will always be about trophies.

that's cup though... nobody cares about cup.  Benitez did the same thing after Liverpool:  He'd fail in the big competitions and try to cover it up by taking the crappy cups.

Before Benitez, Napoli was a threat both in Serie A and in CL.  They didn't win those... but being legit competitors in those is a much bigger statement to me.

It's like winning Europa with Chelsea... nobody cared.

Mr Nick09 wrote:I was expecting him to do a lot better... now i dont watch Napoli often but when i do vs big teams like Juve, they dont look good.

statistically speaking, results have been underwhelming as well, and Garcia who took over at Roma around the same time did considerably better.

And yet has no trophies to show for it

sportsczy wrote:that's cup though... nobody cares about cup.  Benitez did the same thing after Liverpool:  He'd fail in the big competitions and try to cover it up by taking the crappy cups.

Before Benitez, Napoli was a threat both in Serie A and in CL.  They didn't win those... but being legit competitors in those is a much bigger statement to me.

when were they legit competitors in the CL

sportsczy wrote:Before Benitez, Napoli was a threat both in Serie A and in CL.  They didn't win those... but being legit competitors in those is a much bigger statement to me.

Serie A 2012-13 (Walter Mazzari): 78 points
Serie A 2013-14 (Rafa Benitez): 78 points

He's always been a cup manager, though. And he did fairly well in the CL last season. Obviously in this one is a huge disappointment.

sportsczy wrote:that's cup though... nobody cares about cup.  Benitez did the same thing after Liverpool:  He'd fail in the big competitions and try to cover it up by taking the crappy cups.

Before Benitez, Napoli was a threat both in Serie A and in CL.  They didn't win those... but being legit competitors in those is a much bigger statement to me.

It's like winning Europa with Chelsea... nobody cared.

You don't care.

Because you support 4 teams, getting satisfaction from all and are spoiled with success every season. Because if one of your teams have a bad one, the other will make up for it.

Fans who had won one trophy in 25 odd years, very much care about winning the cup.

People went to Naples and celebrated in the streets after the super cup win last month.

Real fans, you know.

Considering the circumstances, he's been a small flop, imo.

Napoli have been one of the clubs who have actually had money to spend in a time when Serie A is all about bargain buys. They spent about €100m in summer 2013. Both Milan teams have been a mess. AS Roma showed how to grab this opportunity, to Benitez hasn't quite done that. But if Napoli manage to take that final CL spot this season, then you cannot say he's been a flop. That's success for Napoli, imo. But Rafa hasn't showed anything special and if they don't qualify for the CL in the current Serie A climate, then, yeah, a flop.

Art Morte wrote:Considering the circumstances, he's been a small flop, imo.

Napoli have been one of the clubs who have actually had money to spend in a time when Serie A is all about bargain buys. They spent about €100m in summer 2013. Both Milan teams have been a mess. AS Roma showed how to grab this opportunity, to Benitez hasn't quite done that. But if Napoli manage to take that final CL spot this season, then you cannot say he's been a flop. That's success for Napoli, imo. But Rafa hasn't showed anything special and if they don't qualify for the CL in the current Serie A climate, then, yeah, a flop.

You get nothing for finishing second. trophies is all that count.

If we finish 8th in the league this season, and win a cup (anything), it's already a more successful season than last season.

You know that Napoli spent little money until they sold Cavani and made a couple of CLs in a row... they fed on scraps and signed young guys + developed them. When Benitez got hired, they spent the money from Cavani and CL.

Very different set of expectations based on transfer activity.

Your realize that i support OM, Arsenal... and PSG only in Europe because France needs the UEFA coefficient points + it was going to force OM to wake up.  

I wouldn't say that Arsenal and OM are raking in the trophies  Heck, i became a Madrid fan once Zidane joined and it wasn't exactly the most prosperous period in the world until Mou got them going again

I just don't think winning in lesser competitive competitions is anything to get excited about unless you're a mid table team. For top teams, it's just a nice footnote... but it shows nothing.

Natalie Portman wrote:

Art Morte wrote:Considering the circumstances, he's been a small flop, imo.

Napoli have been one of the clubs who have actually had money to spend in a time when Serie A is all about bargain buys. They spent about €100m in summer 2013. Both Milan teams have been a mess. AS Roma showed how to grab this opportunity, to Benitez hasn't quite done that. But if Napoli manage to take that final CL spot this season, then you cannot say he's been a flop. That's success for Napoli, imo. But Rafa hasn't showed anything special and if they don't qualify for the CL in the current Serie A climate, then, yeah, a flop.

You get nothing for finishing second. trophies is all that count.

If we finish 8th in the league this season, and win a cup (anything), it's already a more successful season than last season.

You get something like at least 25m euros of CL money for finishing second and that gives you much better chances to ensure you can be fighting for trophies in the future, too.

He won 2 cups , already more cups than the scrub of Mazzarri in more years so I wouldn't call a real flop but I waited better in league  ,   I waited a real upgrade about results too. Winning is difficult, Napoli won only 2 Scudetti in its history and it happened just because there was  Diego Armando Maradona, it was never a great club although it is the 3rd biggest  Italian City  and 4th for fans, but at least I waited to fight seriously for title . Almost as Roma, I mean. Instead Napoli stopped to do it in November both years. It happens because they insist to have average defence and midfielder ( I can't understand why Gargano is still a Napoli midfielder, but there is a mercato to improve on paper ) . And over it , Napoli is great in big games at San Paolo. Infact they played great CL matches and great matches against Juve,Roma, 2 clubs of Milano etc in its stadium , but they have still an approach totally different in big games when they are away .While in San Paolo they dominate, away they play badly and shyly , basically   never won in big games away. It was under Mazzarri , it was under Benitez. It 's fundamental thing if you want to be a big team.

Nobody is saying that Benitez should be winning CL or Serie A.  BUT, he should be the clear No.2 team in Serie A given the money Napoli spent compared to the others and should also get to the elimination round of CL.  Those are reasonable expectations. So far, he's not doing it.

Again... cup is nice but it's not used as a measuring stick for anything because it's the least competitive competition.

Yes infact I waited better in leagues as I wrote. It's clear. But also Neapolitans think it eh , let's be clear .....  though they think to have always the best team in Italy even with Roberto Stellone as CF so I don't know if their opinion counts really...

Well, his first season was very good.
Napoli replaced Mazzarri and Cavani who were two key figures of their last 3 years and changed a lot in formations and players so they needed time to gel, the defense went from a 5man backline to a 4, but he still managed to get a CL place, won the national cup and was the victim of the most undeserving knock out from a CL Group.

But this season? The signings have been dreadful. Selling Pandev, Fernandez, Behrami was nice but they needed to be replaced with upgrades, not even worse scrubs like Coulibaly, De Guzman, Michu. The defense is doing the same mistakes it has been doing in the last 2 years and Napoli has won the supercup (fluking it with a last minute equalizer and Juventus missing 35 decisive penalties) but overally they've done worse than last year both in CL and Serie A.

So I'd say, yea, he's flopping this season. He's going to leave at the end of the season anyway too

well he got the club competing for scudetto first year ended up 3rd and now behind nazio with same amount of points as sampdoria?
They did sell cavani but the club did reinvest the transfer fee. So far a failure/flop IMO

Natalie Portman wrote:Napoli before 2013:

1 trophy since 1989

Napoli under Benitez:

2 trophies in 1.5 seasons


I know for some glory-hunting armchair fans, trophies don't matter and it's all about high profile games...but the game and history will always be about trophies.

did you expect them to win trophy from serie C1?, they did won serie C1 since trophy is a trophy

Flop, nah

Should he have identified better defensive options instead of going yolo on players he already knew about? Yes.

They should be somewhere close to Roma's level, but they drop so many random points, mainly because their defence is pathetic

depends how you see it, and how you define flop.

I think he was brought to bring Scudetto in Naples, and to make the club take the next step forward in Champions League. In Italy no one cares about the cups and tbh even about super cups.

If this were the targets than he flopped.

Welcomed home any day.

I would welcome him to be on our transfer committee while Rodgers handles the team management.

As if Benitez is not a specialist at fluffing transfers himself. He is another master of the "sign 5 and pray 1 will be good" school

Isn't every manager? Some just have more money to work with than others.

Although to be honest I think the criticism of Rodgers' transfers is very overstated. I would say more than 50% of them have been good to great (Sturridge and Coutinho specifically absolute steals).