Sampdoria, Udinese among teams failing to deliver

Sampdoria and Udinese, pre-season favourites to challenge for a top-four placing, failed to meet their expectations in the 2005/06 Serie A.

The year before, these two same sides were the main protagonists of an epic race for a Champions League berth but the same cannot be said of last season as Udinese and Sampdoria collected 19 and 20 points less respectively than the previous campaign.

Samp remained practically unchanged with respect to 2004/05. They thought they could bank again on a tight defence, a strong midfield and a forward line, in the shape of Francesco Flachi and Fabio Bazzani, that can score goals.

Bazzani, however, was ruled out through injury before the season had actually started. His replacement - Emiliano Bonazzoli (formerly of Reggina) - started on a high but eventually stopped scoring goals before suffering an injury that sidelined him for several weeks.

Samp's attacking prowess became all the more impoverished after they loaned the up-and-coming Marco Borriello to bottom side Treviso.

It was all too much for Flachi to carry his side's attacking firepower on his shoulders. Samp suffered a surprising early elimination from the UEFA Cup before they were also knocked out from the Coppa Italia. They finished in a modest mid-table position in the league standings.

Sampdoria's decision not to rejuvenate their squad had a counter-productive effect on the fortunes of the team. Also, the Blucerchiati desperately lacked strength-in-depth to cope with the high number of injuries sustained during the course of the campaign.

Surely, this was a season to forget for Water Novellino and his players.

Participation in the Champions League was always going to be a drain on Udinese's restricted resources.

The Friulani, figuring for the first time in the European Cup, started the season brilliantly but not too much days had elapsed before the club fell out with leading striker Vincenzo Iaquinta over the extension of his contract.

As the season progressed, it became all the more evident that new coach Serse Cosmi was not a favourite with some of his players, particularly striker David Di Michele. He moved to Palermo during the January transfer window.

Elimination from the group stages of the Champions League was a harsh blow on Udinese. From then onwards, their season went from bad to worse until veteran coach Giovanni Galeone took over towards the end of the season.

Galeone, who had led Udinese to Serie A promotion in 1994/95, led the team out of the relegation zone. Udinese remained unbeaten until the final day when they went down to Treviso.

Much more was expected of Palermo. The southerners parted company with striker Luca Toni and coach Francesco Guidolin after they had booked a place in the UEFA Cup.

Toni's likely replacements in attack, Stephen Makinwa or Andrea Caracciolo, failed to sparkle as Palermo paid a high price for their lack of attacking firepower.

The Sicilians ended the season just one point short of their tally in 2004/05 but, surely, this cannot be considered to be a positive campaign for them.

Coach Luigi Del Neri paid for the side's poor form and was replaced by Giuseppe Papadopulo midway through the season. A good run in the UEFA Cup and Coppa Italia partially made up for an otherwise disappointing season.

On Monday, it was made public that Guidolin will be making a return to Palermo after a short stint in Ligue 1 (see story below).

Treviso misfire

Towards the wrong end of the table, one finds bottom side Treviso with only 21 points to their credit in their first season among the elite.

They never got going. After the decisions to relegate Torino and Perugia in summer 2005, Treviso had limited time to assemble a competitive squad and, unlike fellow newcomers Ascoli, their signings failed to leave their mark.

Treviso were down and out almost immediately because they could not even win their direct home encounters.

Similarly, Lecce were condemned earlier on. The southerners never managed to plug the gap left by the departure of attack-minded coach Zdenek Zeman. The supporters turned against the owners of the club for not having retained the controversial Czech coach.

It was definitely a turbulent season for Lecce, who finished with 15 points less with respect to the previous campaign.

Messina found the going extremely tough in their second successive season in the top-flight. They remained practically unchanged during the transfer season but for some reason, the players failed to ignite and therefore fell short of expectations.

A massive 17 points less than a year before made of Messina an automatic candidate for relegation.

Siena struggled more than expected but at least they retained their status for the third season running.

The players were there but not everyone was behind coach Luigi De Canio, who handed in his resignation shortly after the end of the season.