S.S.C. Napoli 96-97: 

Custom Sculpts: With 15 players released and two masters available, that leaves me with a total of 9 custom sculpts to create who will be the following; Nigel Spink, Michael Oakes, Carl Tiler, Sasa Curcic, Riccardo Scimeca, Gareth Farrelly, Graham Fenton, Franz Carr and assistant manager Alan Evans.

Kit Usage: Villa's first outing in their new home strip was at Villa Park during the opening game of the 95/96 season. They faced Manchester United who fielded a young squad wearing their famous "cursed" grey away kit. Villa won 3-1 thanks to first half goals from Ian Taylor and Mark Draper with Dwight Yorke converting from the spot. David Beckham scored a late consolation goal but what people will probably remember most after this Villa victory was pundit Alan Hansen claiming that united "would never win anything with kids" - they went on to win the league this season.

This kit spanned over two seasons and it's difficult to find a visual for it's last outing but I believe it was worn against Southampton on the final day of the season at Villa Park, with the only goal coming cutesy of a Richard Dryden own goal.

Achievements 95-96:
Premier League: 4th (UEFA Cup qualifiers)
FA Cup: Semi Final (3-0 loss to Liverpool)
League Cup: Winners (3-0 victory over Leeds United)

Achievements 96-97:
Premier League: 5th (UEFA Cup qualifiers)
FA Cup: R4 (3-1 loss to Derby County)
League Cup: R4 (1-0 loss to Wimbledon)
UEFA Cup: R1 (1-1 away goal loss to Helsingborg)

A very successful campaign in this kit  then for Villa, winning the League Cup and qualifying for the UEFA Cup in both season thanks to 4th and 5th place finishes in the Premier League as well as a Semi Final spot in the FA Cup.

Make & Sponsor: Napoli's kit was supplied by Lotto and Centrale Latte di Napoli (Naples based milking and pasteurisation distributor) sponsored them. For those that have read my write up on S.S. Lazio, Napoli also join the trend of Corinthian kits that did not exist. The kit that Andre Cruz is sporting was based on the attire Napoli wore for the 94-95 and the 95-96 campaigns but the sponsor for Napoli during these seasons was Record Cucine. Centrale Latte di Napoli didn't become Napoli's sponsor until the kit change in 96-97 and Corinthian missed a small detail when taking the logo to prepare for tampo printing. Corinthian took the "Centrale del Latte di Napoli" logo instead of the logo Napoli actually sported which was did no include the "del".
Rating: 6/10

Pack Releases:
Single Blisters: All 15 players were available with Wright/Joachim/Little only available via single blister purchase

4 Packs:
AV4A: Townsend/Southgate/Yorke/Bosnich
AV4B: McGrath/Johnson/Ehiogu/Stuanton

12 Pack:
AV12P: Townsend/Southgate/Yorke/Bosnich/Charles/Draper/McGrath/Johnson/Ehiogu/Staunton/Taylor/Milosevic

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