Jonathan de Guzmán in the news: What really happened at Napoli?

Jonathan de Guzmán was a big purchase by Villarreal, desired by then-coach Garrido on the back of a successful campaign with Mallorca. He played less than 1000 minutes for us; after Garrido was fired, he hardly saw the pitch, and wasn’t even included in the squad most of the time under the coach who took us down (whose name I resolutely refuse to use here).

Villarreal loaned him to Swansea after we were relegated and eventually, in August 2014, sold him to Napoli for €6m (we had paid Mallorca €8m). In an interview with the Dutch paper de Volkskrant, de Guzman claims that what really happened there was that in early 2015 he felt something wrong in his stomach area. He told the club doctor, who just told him to rest. Long story short, the club won’t let him see another doctor; their doc says deGuz is fit to play even though (in his words) “I could only walk 6km, not run 10”.

By now the club brass thinks deGuz is faking injury (they still won’t let him see another doctor) and the Napoli sport director, Giuntoli, tells him he needs to leave in the summer transfer window. Bournemouth and Sundlerland were interested, but deGuzman wanted to prove his fitness and no deal was struck. The day after, he allefges, Giuntoli punched him, shouting that he had promised to leave. Eventually Jonathan was loaned out to Carpi and the doctor there, after a ten-minute exam, told him he had a sports hernia that needed to be operated on.

The whole story is here. DeGuz is still only 31 and now enjoying playing for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. As far as I know, no one from Napoli has commented on his claims. It seems odd to me, but then a lot of odd things happen in football.