Napoli’s treatment of Zieliński is questionable, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise

Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock

An article that I seemed to write practically every couple of months last season was how often Napoli were either trying to negotiate Piotr Zieliński to a significantly lower wage when offering a new contract, or actively offering him around to other clubs both in Italy and abroad. 

Now he has entered the final six months of his contract, Zielu has been bumped from the starting 11 and made to train on his own, in the wake of reports he has agreed a deal to join Inter on a free transfer this coming summer. 

Put in this context, it’s even more baffling as to why Eljif Elmas was allowed to leave for RB Leipzig earlier in this window, given he would be a more natural replacement for Zieliński than Napoli’s other options in midfield. 

I think it is quite clear that making Zielu persona non grata is not the choice of manager Walter Mazzari, but far more clearly Napoli’s owner Aurelio Di Laurentiis. Di Laurentiis seems to be taking a far more hands-on approach this season than he has for a while, and in my opinion it’s no wonder therefore that Napoli find themselves struggling to recreate anything close to last season’s form. Of course, Di Laurentiis has form for this behaviour towards players, something to which Arkadiusz Milik will attest. Interesting that Di Laurentiis did not take the same approach when Lorenzo Insigne was running down his contract at Napoli, but that’s a different matter. 

That last sentence perhaps implies some kind of mistreatment of Polish players at the hands of Di Laurentiis, and whilst there are miserable parallels between the situation Milik was put into and the early indications of how the rest of Zieliński’s season might pan out, I don’t think there is any case of xenophobia or ill-will on Di Laurentiis’ part. Far more likely is that Di Laurentiis is just being petty, something again which followers of Italian football will note has been a recurring theme of Napoli under Di Laurentiis. 

Napoli fell to a last minute Lautaro Martinez winner last night in the Supercoppa Italiana, which saw Inter retain their Supercoppa title after having won the previous two editions to boot. There is no doubt that had Zieliński been selected to play even a small part in the match, it would have been to Napoli’s advantage. 

With Zielu now facing six months of far reduced time on the pitch, this creates a problem for the Polish national side. Zieliński is an obviously key part of the side, some would say the key part. If he’s not playing regularly, who knows what kind of shape he will be in come the Euro 2024 play-offs and then the tournament should Poland advance. I suppose we can count ourselves lucky that Sebastian Szymański has been absolutely red-hot for Fenerbahce this season, but Szymański and Zielu are of a different profile even if they are both attacking midfield players. You’d have to say that the absolute best team that Poland could deploy (on paper, at least) has both Szymański and Zieliński starting, but if the latter is not getting time on the pitch for Napoli then you have to expect a certain rustiness when he plays for his country, which he inevitably will in the play-offs in March. 

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