Fiorentina, Genoa, Palermo and Parma are again likely to float in mid-table waters in the 2011-12 campaign. Their potential is superior to those teams destined to battle it out to avoid the drop but still far off the big guns in the race for the honours.
In this transfer market, Fiorentina caught attention for offloading some of their best talent as Sebastien Frey (Genoa), Mario Santana, Marco Donadel (both Napoli), Gianluca Comotto, Adrian Mutu (both Cesena) and Gaetano D’Agostino (Siena) left the club.
And the list of departures could grow on as Riccardo Montolivo, Juan Vargas, Alberto Gilardino and Alessio Cerci are also being linked with a move elsewhere.
Since the Della Valle family re-established the club after it was declared bankrupt in 2002, Fiorentina have been in ascendancy.
In a short span of time, the Viola regained their Serie A status and managed two top-four finishes in back-to-back seasons.
But, apparently, the trend has now changed as the owners are willing to sell Fiorentina to the highest bidder.
In the meantime, coach Sinisa Mihajlovic will be expected to bring some stability into the club and, perhaps, achieve more with less as Andrea Lazzari (ex-Cagliari) has been his biggest signing to date.
Genoa exits
In similar vein, Genoa also parted with some of their established players and the list includes Oscar Milanetto (Padova), Konko (Lazio), Domenico Criscito (Zenit) and Rafinha (Bayern Munich).
Unlike Fiorentina, though, Genoa changed coach as they have shown the backdoor to Davide Ballardini and appointed Alberto Malesani .
Frey, Kevin Constant (Chievo), Alexander Merkel (Milan) and the return of Houssine Kharja represent Genoa’s main signings this summer.
The club also took a number of young foreigners on board, namely, Evander Sno (Ajax), Giuseppe Bottani (Lugano), Escobar (Deportivo Cali), Ze Eduardo (Santos), Lucas Zima (Slavia Prague), Valter Birsa (Auxerre), Lucas Pratto (Universidad Catolica), Felipe Seymour (Universidad de Chile), Luca Krajnc (Maribor), Sebastian Ribas (Digione) and Andreas Granqvist (Groningen).
Genoa supremo Enrico Preziosi is said to be on the look-out for a few more experienced players and lately he was closing in on Milan’s unsettled striker Antonio Cassano.
Palermo have already started the new season on the wrong foot as they were dumped out of the Europa League by Swiss side FC Thun.
The Sicilians have a new coach in Stefano Pioli after the much-publicised departure of Delio Rossi.
Moreover, Palermo have also lost prized assets Javier Pastore, Salvatore Sirigu (both PSG) and Fabio Liverani (out of contract).
Matias Silvestre (Catania), Andrea Mantovani (Chievo), Eran Zahavi (Hapoel Tel Aviv), Carlos Labrin (Huachipato), Milan Milanovic (Lokomotiv Moscow), Mauro Cetto (Toulouse) and Adam Simon (Haladas) are Palermo’s best signings up to now.
Parma seriously risked losing their Serie A status last season.
It was only towards the end of the campaign, and the arrival of new coach Franco Colomba, that the team finally started to fire on all cylinders.
Colomba has since retained his post but Antonio Candreva (Cesena), Valery Bojinov (Sporting Lisbon), Massimo Paci (Novara), Blerim Dzemaili (Napoli) and Amauri all left Parma for pastures new.
On the other hand, Colomba can count on Matteo Rubin (Torino), Fabio Nunes (Portimonense), Jaime Valdes (Sporting Lisbon), Fabiano Santacroce, Emanuele Blasi (both Napoli), Jonathan Biabiany (Sampdoria), Jardim Brandao (Siena), Graziano Pelle (AZ Alkmaar) and Nicola Sansone (Bayern Munich).