This could be Napoli’s year

Napoli had such an outstanding campaign in 2010-11. For most of the season they played a prota-gonist role in the Serie A title race with Milan and Inter before settling for third place and a slot in the Champions League.

Considering Napoli had started the season last August with the sole objective of staying in the upper half of the standings and a place in European club competitions, the team did exceptionally well and results went far beyond expectations.

Not only did Napoli manage to improve on their previous league position, but they also succeeded in qualifying to the group stage of the Champions League at the expense of more-quoted sides like Juventus and Roma.

Edinson Cavani proved to be a bargain buy from Palermo. The Uruguay man was sharp in front of goal and the absence of Fabio Quagliarella, who had moved to Juventus, went unnoticed.

Cavani went on to score 26 goals in 35 matches in Serie A.

Napoli’s formidable attacking prowess did not rely on Cavani only as Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi also proved to be the southerners’ trump cards.

This summer, there was talk that Walter Mazzarri had fallen out with Napoli supremo Aurelio de Laurentiis. Speculative reports said the coach was planning to quit the club and join Juventus. But this was nothing more than a rumour.

Cavani was also tipped to join the free-spending Real Madrid but De Laurentiis is aiming high and persuaded his striker to commit himself to the club by signing an improved contract, tying him until 2016.

Even much-sought-after duo, Hamsik and Lavezzi, were linked with big-money moves elsewhere.

Mega-rich Manchester City, in particular, were reportedly inter-ested in luring both Napoli for-wards to the Barclays Premier League in England.

But De Laurentiis intends to build on last season’s success and fought admirably, at least so far, to keep the pursuers at bay.

Marcello Lippi, who led Napoli to a sixth-place finish in season 1993/94 before moving to Juventus, was recently quoted as saying that Mazzarri’s team, along with champions Milan, should start favourites for the league title in 2012.

Indeed, this is a bold prediction by the former Italy coach as Napoli have last won the league in 1990 when the legendary Diego Maradona captained the team to a second Serie A title in four years.

Napoli have been in continuous decline since then, both on and off the field of play.

Their troubles were com-pounded in August 2004 when the club was declared bankrupt with debts estimated at over €70 million.

As recently as 2006, Napoli were still a Division Three team. But since De Laurentiis took over the southerners have been in ascendency all the time, particularly in the last two years with Mazzarri as coach.

The question that follows is, can this team do a quantum leap in quality and challenge seriously for the scudetto or was this a one-season wonder team that peaked last year and will go back into hibernation soon?

This summer, De Laurentiis underlined his intentions of taking Napoli to the next level by adding Miguel Angel Britos (Bologna), Mario Santana, Marco Donadel (both Fiorentina), Blerim Dzemaili (Parma) and Gokhan Inler (Udinese) to Mazzarri’s squad.

If Cavani, Hamsik and Lavezzi stay put Napoli could go places.

The double challenge of the Serie A and UEFA Champions League will, obviously, be a drain on their resources but if the coach sticks more to substance than style, the team will start winning games even on days when they are not on top of their game.

Lippi might have been slightly optimistic in his predictions. But, although it will be difficult for Napoli to topple the likes of Milan and Inter in the title race next seson, they seem to have everything in place to fight for another top-three finish and, perhaps, even better than that.