Napoli, waltz in defense: Marin out and Danilo in. But only after Juventus

Naples, January 21, 2025 - Waiting Alessandro Good morning, Napoli he doesn't sit idly by and tries to tackle a defence which, however, from the perspective of Antonio Conte, needs more than a prop. The identikit has always led to a single name, despite some options that are more disturbing than real that periodically come out: Danilo Luiz DaSilva, by profession (almost) ex-captain of the Juventus.  

Via Marin, inside Danilo

  The Brazilian has virtually taken off the black and white shirt for days now, with the termination of his contract seemingly just around the corner. Instead, everything will be postponed until after the next league match, which curiously will see the team Thiago Motta go to Maradona with the aim of keeping their unbeaten run intact and perhaps even snatching a victory that could shorten the standings a bit at the top: looking at the issue from this perspective, it is better, therefore, not to strengthen a direct rival on the eve of the championship clash, a bit like the reasoning that had been used by Napoli before challenging the Fiorentina, which would then end up Michael Folorunsho. This time there is much more at stake, with all due respect to the protagonists of the story. And then, when it comes to creating even just a small channel of dialogue between Juventus e Napoli, the story always gets heated due to old rivalry issues ignited in recent years by 'exchanges' that have taken place at desk level: the Juventus sporting director is Cristiano Giuntoli, the man who built the Scudetto-winning team 2022-2023 season, while the blue one is John Manna, young free-range weaned right at Vinovo and with an old history of support behind them. In short, dealing for these two clubs is a bit like walking on a minefield, between objective and media obstacles. In fact, the initial idea was to give Danilo a Tale without even going through the resolution, but going to discuss with the Juve of financial compensation: an idea, needless to say, that immediately fell through. So, barring any further twists, everything will happen next week, regardless of the result of the match Maradona, with Tale which should therefore have its dream defender for this second half of the season and for the future. At the same time, the mysterious object Rafa Marin should go on loan to Villarreal to try to shake off after a first semester in blue that was totally to forget. The failure is strong for the only player who did not benefit from the treatment Tale, but at the same time it is not definitive, because starting next summer the issue will be discussed and addressed again with the mutual hope that in the meantime the home air will do the Spaniard good.

The Return of Buongiorno

  In all this waltz there is a very important piece missing, a bit of the absentee from the party that is not talked about enough because the other guests are giving their best: when will he return? Good morning? The initial diagnosis of the double fracture to the lumbar vertebrae that occurred in training in mid-December outlined an optimistic timetable of approximately 40 days which more or less should have come to a conclusion. In fact, the return to the field of the former Turin, the defensive linchpin of the first part of the first half of the season Napoli, is not far away, but the contemporary excellent performance guaranteed by the replacement Juan Jesus is making the wise caution of the case win. It is therefore difficult, if not impossible, that Good morning could be the match scheduled for Saturday at 18 despite the good intentions to revive that derby atmosphere which, to stay on topic, also concerns the market. In fact, the '99-born player had been strongly sought after in the summer to replace the Juventus rearguard when the difficulties in reaching Richard Calafiori, then passed by Bologna all 'Arsenal, had become insurmountable. In that case the no was dry and peremptory and related precisely to his long past in grenade, to the point that instead the brief and not so convinced blitz of theInter had really come close to hitting the target. Yet, in the end, he prevailed. Napoli, which thanks to Tale he won the first matches already in the transfer market, regaining credibility in the eyes of the players despite the disastrous previous year. The rest, always under the guidance of the Salento coach, is being done by the players themselves, in this case transforming last year's defensive sieve into an iron defense that has only suffered in the championship so far 14 goals, the lowest figure ever. TheAtalanta and his lightning-fast attack made the Azzurri lose their way quite a bit, even though they were often saved on that evening and during the season by a Alex Meret increasingly decisive, but the fort holds up even without its bulwark, whose return is not far away but not as close as one might have hoped in the long march towards the match most anticipated by an entire square. It is always like this thanks to a very heartfelt rivalry and it is even more so this year in which the stakes are very high. Beating the Juventus would allow the Napoli to put an end to the rival's unbeaten run in the league, giving themselves a luxury scalp that would definitively distance a team that is still dangerous despite the already wide gap in the standings (13 points). By extension, the Azzurri would strengthen their leadership, currently under attack by theInter and with theAtalanta more delayed but not yet out of the game. In short, at stake on Saturday night is not only the parochialism that so fires up the fans, but much more. He knows Tale, old black and white heart as well as Manna, and he knows it too Danilo, someone who next week will find himself switching sides to bring the best of his repertoire to the Italian cause, including quality, quantity and a winning mentality, the most useful ingredient between now and May.