Main priority – avoiding the drop

There are some seven or eight Serie A sides, among whom the three newcomers, whose chief am-bition will be to keep their heads above water next season.

Many of the game’s critics in Italy contend that for a team to be successful in a pursuit to extend their stay in the top flight, so-called minnows need to collect as many points as possible in the initial stages of the campaign, at a time when the big guns normally vie for their best form.

Whoever starts the season on the wrong foot, like Bari did last year, is almost certain to be doomed because things can only get tougher particularly when their more-quoted counterparts step up a gear or two.

Cesena is a typical case of a Serie A newcomer that were off to a flying start last summer.

Later on in the season, Cesena, then coached by Massimo Ficcadenti, could afford to lower their guard only to peak towards the end of the campaign, eventually finishing 15th with 43 points.

It was a truly remarkable feat for this club considering that this was their first Serie A campaign in almost two decades.

Ficcadenti is no longer in charge of Cesena though. The ex-Torino midfielder has now been replaced by Marco Giampaolo.

As recently as 2006, Giampaolo was touted among the Serie A’s emerging coaches, having led the unfancied Ascoli first to promotion in 2004/05 and then to avoid the drop the following year.

However, things turned for the worse for Giampaolo. The 44-year-old is said to have failed in his last three missions, having been sacked in succession by Cagliari, Siena and Catania.

Now, Cesena represent an ideal opportunity for the Swiss-born coach to prove himself all over again.

Cesena have been quite busy on the transfer market this summer.

The signings of Adrian Mutu, Gianluca Comotto (both Fiorentina), Eder (Brescia), Antonio Candreva (Parma) and Roberto Guana (Chievo) are the epitome of a club that craves to establish itself among the elite of the Italian game.

Serie A debut

While Giampaolo will be doing his utmost to revive his ailing coaching career at Cesena, Eusebio di Francesco, Attilio Tesser and Giuseppe Sannino are set for their Serie A debut.

Di Francesco inherits a Lecce side that finished season 2010-11 on a high.

The former Roma winger did well with Serie B outfit Pescara but helping Lecce preserve their status could be a taller order as last season the southerners only avoided relegation by just five points.

Julio Sergio (Roma), Christian Obodo (Torino), Daniele Caccia (Piacenza), Moris Carrozzieri (Pa-lermo), Rodney Strasser (Milan), Andrea Esposito (Bologna) and Souleymane Diamoutene (Pes-cara) are valuable additions to an already-settled base.

Nevertheless, the Lecce ‘old guard’ will have to repeat last season’s heroics, particularly towards the end of the campaign, if they are to avoid the drop.

Novara are coming from two successive promotions from the Lega Pro Prima Divisione (formerly the Serie C1) to the Serie B and straight into Serie A after beating the more quoted Reggina and Padova in the play-offs.

This is a truly remarkable achievement for a club that has been missing from the top flight for the past 55 years.

Tesser, 53, was the brains behind Novara’s rise to stardom last year.

Perhaps a more daunting task lays in store for the ex-Cagliari coach as the Novara scouts kept themselves busy this summer, bolstering the squad to make the transition to the top flight as smooth as possible.

In general, Novara have signed players with a track record in the Serie A like Morimoto (Catania), Granoche (Chievo), Riccardo Meggiorini (Bologna) and Massimo Paci (Parma).

After three years in charge of Varese, Giuseppe Sannino joined Siena to plug the gap left by the departure of Antonio Conte to Juventus.

The capture of midfielder Gaetano D’Agostino from Fiorentina represents Siena’s best signing to date.

Like Siena, Atalanta, too, made an immediate return to the top flight.

Last season’s Serie B champions are still under the charge of Stefano Colantuono.

The Bergamo outfit, unlike the other two newcomers, have kept their squad largely unchanged and will once again turn to their evergreen 38-year-old captain Cristiano Doni for inspiration.