Napoli fans can look forward to taking part in Europe's premier club competition next season for the first time since Diego Maradona graced the southern club.
The only fly in the team physio's ointment is that it is uncertain who will lead the side and their passionate fans in their debut Champions League after a spat between chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis and coach Walter Mazzarri.
The only fly in the team physio's ointment is that it is uncertain who will lead the side and their passionate fans in their debut Champions League after a spat between chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis and coach Walter Mazzarri.
Perhaps flattered by links to the likes of Juventus and AS Roma after leading the two-time Italian champions to a surprise third-place finish, the Tuscan coach has refused to commit his future to the club despite having two years left on his contract.
''It's a historic achievement not reached since Maradona's day over 20 years ago,'' Mazzarri said while continuing to dodge questions about whether he will still be in charge next season.
''We are proud and satisfied because this team and this city are back in the European big time, exactly where Napoli deserve to be for their fans, their history and prestige''. The ambiguity has not gone down well with fiery cinema producer De Laurentiis, who has threatened to lock Mazzarri into his contract, even against his will.
''Mazzarri is my coach,'' he said. ''If someone is not on the market, he is just not on the market. ''I wanted Mazzarri for some time and now that he's arrived, I intend to keep him''.
The fans are divided. Some feel betrayed and are in favour of letting the 49-year-old former Sampdoria boss leave.
But others hope the club can patch things up with a man who has turned the team around after replacing Roberto Donadoni on the bench early in the 2009-2010 campaign.
''This achievement was unthinkable given where we were two years ago,'' Mazzarri stressed during the celebrations for automatic qualification for the group stage of the Champions League.
''My staff and I took over a team who were fourth from bottom and we've reached the Champions League in such a very short time''. Not all of the merit is Mazzarri's though and, while a repeat of this term's third-place finish is a tall order, there are grounds to believe Napoli can continue to perform at a high level even under a different coach.
The squad will need reinforcing during the transfer market to compete in the Champions League but it has a strong core led by strikers like Uruguayan Edinson Cavani, Argentine Ezequiel Lavezzi and Slovak Marek Hamsik. Naturally, they will also have to stop these players being lured away to bigger clubs, but De Laurentiis looks determined to do that.
At one stage this season, he even said he would not accept a 50-million-euro bid for Cavani, who has scored 26 Serie A goals so far since his arrival from Palermo in last summer.
Furthermore, De Laurentiis has proven an astute chairman, steering Napoli up from the third tier of Italian football after bankruptcy in 2004 and putting up the investments necessary to match his ambitions without overstretching the budget.
He is attentive to every detail of running the club and has a talent for hiring the right people, as shown by the appointment of Mazzarri and transfer market chief Riccardo Bigon. ''Napoli were in the ashes when I took over, there was nothing,'' De Laurentiis reminded fans recently.
And with or without Mazzarri, he will be working to ensure the revival continues.
''It's a historic achievement not reached since Maradona's day over 20 years ago,'' Mazzarri said while continuing to dodge questions about whether he will still be in charge next season.
''We are proud and satisfied because this team and this city are back in the European big time, exactly where Napoli deserve to be for their fans, their history and prestige''. The ambiguity has not gone down well with fiery cinema producer De Laurentiis, who has threatened to lock Mazzarri into his contract, even against his will.
''Mazzarri is my coach,'' he said. ''If someone is not on the market, he is just not on the market. ''I wanted Mazzarri for some time and now that he's arrived, I intend to keep him''.
The fans are divided. Some feel betrayed and are in favour of letting the 49-year-old former Sampdoria boss leave.
But others hope the club can patch things up with a man who has turned the team around after replacing Roberto Donadoni on the bench early in the 2009-2010 campaign.
''This achievement was unthinkable given where we were two years ago,'' Mazzarri stressed during the celebrations for automatic qualification for the group stage of the Champions League.
''My staff and I took over a team who were fourth from bottom and we've reached the Champions League in such a very short time''. Not all of the merit is Mazzarri's though and, while a repeat of this term's third-place finish is a tall order, there are grounds to believe Napoli can continue to perform at a high level even under a different coach.
The squad will need reinforcing during the transfer market to compete in the Champions League but it has a strong core led by strikers like Uruguayan Edinson Cavani, Argentine Ezequiel Lavezzi and Slovak Marek Hamsik. Naturally, they will also have to stop these players being lured away to bigger clubs, but De Laurentiis looks determined to do that.
At one stage this season, he even said he would not accept a 50-million-euro bid for Cavani, who has scored 26 Serie A goals so far since his arrival from Palermo in last summer.
Furthermore, De Laurentiis has proven an astute chairman, steering Napoli up from the third tier of Italian football after bankruptcy in 2004 and putting up the investments necessary to match his ambitions without overstretching the budget.
He is attentive to every detail of running the club and has a talent for hiring the right people, as shown by the appointment of Mazzarri and transfer market chief Riccardo Bigon. ''Napoli were in the ashes when I took over, there was nothing,'' De Laurentiis reminded fans recently.
And with or without Mazzarri, he will be working to ensure the revival continues.
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