The gelato, the thin-crust pizza, and certainly the buffalo mozzarella in Naples are the best I've ever had in my life. Combine that with the sights and sounds, the grime and crime, and the bonkers traffic, and you get quite the place to live and work. Nathaniel Chalobah, speaking with The FA's website after England U21's 3-0 win against Kazakhstan, agrees.
"You don't get bored, as there's always things to do and the weather has been nice most of the time, it's just really relaxed. It's a simple life over there, so it's not really complicated and the city has been good, I've been on a few walks into town and had a look around. It is a beautiful city and a nice, historic place. I'd heard it could be quite dangerous, but I think that's just something you hear and get told, because I haven't seen anything like that at all."
The people are really passionate about their football, real fanatics and they love Napoli, their city and their football team. I've seen that from when I've just been out for a walk and people were stopping me for photos, and I've not even really played a game for them yet. And that passion runs throughout the club, all of the players are passionate about the games and that comes from it running throughout the whole city."
-Nathaniel Chalobah; source: The FA
While that's all nice and well -- though let me tell you about those times hero of the city Marek Hamsik's been robbed -- we didn't send Chalobah to Naples just as some sort of paid vacation. He's there to work, and most importantly, to play and gain first-team experience. Which, so far, has been restricted to just 5 minutes and has prompted reports of Chelsea considering a January recall.
"It's been good, learning a different style of play and the Italian league is a very good league. Experience-wise, it's been good for me to see how they play their football, the culture, the lifestyle and everything else."
"I've enjoyed it so far and I'm just hoping to get more game-time but at the minute, the team is doing really well and it's tough but I've got to be patient."
"There's some quality players in the squad, a lot of talent and that has shown in the games and results that we've had in the last couple of weeks. We've been winning a lot of games and getting good results so the manager has been sticking with the team, but it's great to be a part of it."
-Nathaniel Chalobah; source: The FA
Should Chalobah's playing-time situation not improve, there's little doubt we wouldn't recall him, despite his enjoyable life and experience over there. That said, it sounds like he's settled well in his temporary home and hopefully, actual match action will follow soon.