The Return Of Serie A

Date: 25th August 2012 at 5:11pm
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In the last ten seasons we have seen Serie A dominated by three clubs, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter with Roma coming close to breaking that stranglehold on some occasions.

Welcoming the 2012-13 Serie A season, most people already believed that Juventus and AC Milan would create a two-horse race. However, that was a prediction back in May or during the Euro 2012. As time progresses many things have happened and it is not necessarily the case that Serie A will be as boring as a two horse race next season.

Antonio Conte, Juventus’ influential coach, has been slapped with a 10 month ban after he failed to report that there was attempted match fixing during his time in Siena. Losing Conte will be a big blow for Juventus as his presence on the bench and his half-time team team talks proved to be very important for the Bianconeri last season.

Moreover, this could also change Juventus’ transfer strategy as many big players could also be turned off knowing Conte would not be contributing 100% next season.

Similar to Juventus, Serie A runners-up last season, Milan have their own struggle as well after selling their influential players Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and most recently Antonio Cassano.

With a huge decrease on quality with these departures as well as the bad economical situation at the club, Milan will have a hard time to replace those players.

Difficulties in acquiring top players, questionable fitness of important players such as Alexandre Pato many now think the Rossoneri will face a rather difficult season in 2012-13.

While the two giants suddenly have to ‘slow down’, the other Serie A sides seem to get a new momentum. To name a few, there are Inter, Fiorentina, Roma, Napoli and the always surprising Lazio and Udinese are ready to challenge next season.

After cutting high earner players such as Lucio, Diego Forlan, Giampaolo Pazzini, Thiago Motta with Julio Cesar and Maicon likely to follow next, Inter are reconstructing their squad with younger, developing players for the future in Samir Handanovic, Matias Silvestre, Freddy Guarin and Rodrigo Palacio. With the recent addition of Antonio Cassano, Inter are having one of the best mercati so far in the peninsula.

Fiorentina are also enjoying their transfer activity despite losing Riccardo Montolivo, Valon Behrami and Alessandro Gamberini.

La Viola’s sporting director Daniele Prade has managed to bring interesting names to Artemio Franchi and start fresh by building a team around their future star player, Stevan Jovetic. Two decent playmakers, Alberto Aquilani and David Pizzaro, have been acquired along with exciting new names such as Francesco Della Rocca, Emiliano Viviano, Juan Cuadrado and Matias Fernandez.

Roma are also moving quickly during their preparation for next season under the new coach Zdenek Zeman, after disappointing seventh place finish in Serie A last season.

Along with their impressive purchases this summer namely Ivan Piris, Federico Balzaretti, Mattia Destro and Michael Bradley, signs of improvement are starting to show as the Giallorossi won all their pre season games, including every single match in their USA tour against Zaglebie Lubin, Liverpool and El Savador national team.

Things are becoming interesting down south as Napoli have increased their squad depth by acquiring competitive players to challenge for the Scudetto after winning the Coppa Italia last season.

Vahlon Behrami and Alessandro Gamberini are brought to San Paolo to add more steel and depth in Walter Mazzari’s squad.

Although losing one of their three musketeers, Ezequiel Lavezzi to PSG, Napoli have made Goran Pandev’s move from Inter permanent. Moreover, Napoli might even already have a potentially better replacement for Ezequiel Lavezzi in Lorenzo Insigne. With only two competitions to participate in, Serie A and Coppa Italia, can they beat the odds?

Although both Udinese and Lazio have had a quiet summer and mixed results during their pre-season, both teams cannot be ruled out as top five contenders.

Udinese may lose their key players, but their history of developing the young ones and Francesco Guidolin’s tactical intelligence will guarantee a surprise every season. Even though they have achieved a Champions League spot in the last two seasons, it would be a big surprise if they do the same next season.

On the other hand, Lazio might have had mixed results during their pre-season especially after a series of defeats to Siena, Torino, Galatasaray and Getafe without scoring a goal. However, looking how they progress despite their internal problems last season and relying a lot on the team’s chemistry, Vladimir Petkovic might surprise everyone on his first year in Italian football.

Despite all the excitement during transfer window and pre-season friendlies, Inter, Fiorentina, Roma, Napoli, Udinese and Lazio’s quality are yet to be seen while both Juventus and Milan are still the teams to beat next season.

However while the later two are having their struggles, the other six are starting to catch up and we are likely to see the competitiveness return to Serie A this coming season.

Follow Devin Kalinin on Twitter: @KalininDevin and be sure to check out Banana Kick as well.

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