Aurelio De Laurentiis, Napoli’s flamboyant film-producer owner, may have to revise his estimate. He suggested in the build-up to this frantic, fraught game, that £100 million would be the starting price for Chelsea, Manchester City, Inter Milan and the rest of Europe’s predators should they wish to prise Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi away from the San Paolo.
De Laurentiis would have wished to see his three tenors — the Uruguayan, the Argentinian and their playmate, Marek Hamsik, the Slovak — conduct the Serie A side’s march to glory with both his heart and his head. After all, what better stage could there be to advertise his club’s crown jewels than the Champions League round of 16?
That all three failed to light up Stamford Bridge should not be held against them. This was not the night to judge the triumvirate viewed as one of Europe’s most ruthless attacking units. Even as the game fragmented after the ecstasy of Gokhan Inler’s wonderfully savage strike, Lavezzi, so menacing on home soil, seemed uncertain, rushed.
Instead, their less heralded team-mates shone: the magnificent Inler, brutal and balletic in equal measure, and the unstinting Walter Gargano, a player stuck on fast forward.
One night, though, one failure to live up to the impossible hype, will not be enough to cool the ardour of the avaricious fiefdoms of the European game.
Advertisement
De Laurentiis has grand visions of establishing his club, to all intents and purposes his creation, on this stage. Cavani, Lavezzi and Hamsik, if they remain, may drag the club back for another year, perhaps two. If they go, the funds they raise may be enough to place them there permanently.
The evidence of his plan was sitting on Walter Mazzarri’s bench: Eduardo Vargas, the Chile striker signed from Universidad de Chile for £14 million in January, and widely held to be a long-term replacement for Cavani. Napoli’s ternors have reminded the club of what it is to stand with the elite. They may have to depart for their alma mater to remain there.