What Happened To Napoli Amid Worst Serie A Title Defence In Decades

In many ways, Napoli's dire and lethargic 0-0 draw with Lecce epitomised their season. On their final day wearing the the sky blue shirt with the Scudetto badge proudly stitched into it, a badge they waited some 33 years to wear again, Napoli failed to muster a victory against a side they picked up four points in the league-winning season. By the end of the 90 minutes, Napoli had officially entered the record books as the worst reigning champions in the three-points-per-win era of Serie A — a period stretching back nearly 30 years —and doing much worse than their last title defence in 1990/91, when Diego Maradona was banished from the Italian game amid a crippling cocaine addiction. The descent was compounded by the fact they failed to qualify for Europe for the first time in over a decade, and this despite seemingly half of Serie A qualifying for European competition next season due to the performances of clubs in 2023/24.