Bologna, Catania and Chievo, along with newcomers Lecce, Cesena and Brescia, will have a common objective next season – keeping their heads above troubled waters to extend their Serie A stay.
These clubs, however, will have a mountain to climb to reach their preset target. Due to a restricted budget, all six are heavily dependent on developing juniors from their own youth academies and signing unknown players from lower divisions at bargain prices.
In Italy, it is also a common occurrence for big clubs to ‘park’ those players considered surplus to requirements at smaller clubs.
This way, these fringe players are given more playing time to blossom while helping their ‘adopted’ teams to keep away from the drop zone.
It is a known fact that the so-called relegation-battlers usually require 40 points approximately to make sure of safety. For some, that tally is not so difficult to obtain but others may indeed struggle.
The lower echelons in league standings anywhere in the world are exactly like quicksand. If a team gets entangled at the wrong end of the table, then it would be all the more difficult to recover and survive.
On the other hand, if a team starts on a high – like Bari and Parma did last season – then their chances of preserving their status are enhanced in no small way.
Stefano Pioli has a mammoth task to fill the void left by Domenico di Carlo, now at Champions League hopefuls Sampdoria. The ex-Vicenza midfielder took over at Chievo in November 2008 following a stuttering start under Giuseppe Iachini. Di Carlo went on to steer the ‘Flying Donkeys’ to two mid-table finishes.
Pioli is now hoping that his second stint with a Serie A outfit will be longer and more prosperous.
In his debut season in the top flight, at Parma, he was a complete flop. He was eventually replaced by Claudio Ranieri in February 2007.
Over the past three years, Pioli did well at Grosseto, Piacenza and Sassuolo in the Serie B. But leading Chievo to safety could prove a tall order moreso after the club lost two key players this summer – Mario Yepes (Milan) and Erjon Bogdani (Cesena).
Uruguay midfielder Mariano Bogliacino (Napoli) is Chievo’s most notable signing to date as Pioli inherits a squad that is largely unchanged. It is now up to the new coach to keep up with the good work started by his predecessor.
Bologna and Catania were off to uninspiring starts last season and, inevitably, both resorted to a change of coach. The move did the trick for both teams as they avoided relegation.
Bologna replaced Giuseppe Papadopulo with Franco Colomba and Sinisa Mihajlovic transformed Catania into a tenacious side capable of beating Juventus and Inter, among others, in a bold comeback after a disastrous spell under Gianluca Atzori.
Colomba is still in charge at Bologna but this summer Mihajlovic replaced new Italy coach Cesare Prandelli at Fiorentina.
Colomba’s chief target should be to bolster a team that struggled for most of the season and only made sure of survival towards the end.
Bologna offloaded a number of seasoned players, the likes of Andrea Raggi, Salvatore Lanna, Stephan Appiah, Massimo Marazzina, Cristiano Zenoni and Martins Adailton.
Rene Khrin (Inter), Christian Lupatelli (Cagliari), Albin Ekdal (Siena), Nicolo Cherubin (Cittadella), Luca Siligardi (Piacenza) and Riccardo Meggiorini (Bari) are the new faces at Bologna.
The highly-rated Khrin, 20, has a chance to show his true potential in midfield after making only five first-team appearances for Inter last term.
Meanwhile, Marco Giampaolo will try to revive his coaching career with Catania. He was sacked by Siena barely two months into last season.
The Sicilians, who currently have no fewer than 12 Argentinians on their books, look well equipped to stave off the drop, especially if they manage to hold on to prolific striker Maxi Lopez.
Iachini and Luigi de Canio make a much-awaited return to the top flight at the helm of Brescia and Lecce respectively.
Brescia were promoted after winning a play-off against Torino whereas Lecce were last season’s Serie B champions. The southerners were the only side to make an immediate return to the top division as Torino and Reggina failed in their quest to end their Serie B sojourn after 12 months only.
Cesena are back in the Serie A after a 19-year absence. Pierpaolo Bisoli quit Cesena after their second-place finish last term to join Cagliari. Cesena’s new coach is Massimo Ficcadenti.
This will be Ficcadenti’s second tenure with a Serie A outfit after being fired by Reggina in 2007.