Outsiders vie for top-three finish

Juventus, Lazio, Roma and Udinese will not start the new season bracketed among the title conten-ders. These four sides, however, still have all cards in place to bid for a top-three finish.

Juve are now under the charge of new coach Antonio Conte. His task, not an easy one from all aspects, is to take the Bianconeri back to the old glory days. Juve are coming from two successive seventh-place finishes and this year they’re out of UEFA competitions.

Over the summer, the ‘Old Lady’ not only resorted to the change of coach – Conte replacing Luigi Delneri – but they also bolstered their squad with the signing of top-notch players like Andrea Pirlo (Milan), Mirko Vucinic (Roma), Arturo Vidal (Bayer Leverkusen), Stephan Lichtsteiner (Lazio), Reto Ziegler (Sampdoria) and Michele Pazienza (Napoli).

Other signings could be in the pipeline before the transfer window shuts next Monday as club chief Beppe Marotta lately hinted that at least two other players – presumably a defender and a midfielder – will be signed before the deadline.

Conte was a great player in his days and a mainstay in Marcello Lippi’s Juventus who conquered Italy and Europe in the late 1990s.

However, Conte’s only experience in the top division is restricted to a short stint with modest Atalanta in 2009/10. His biggest achievements to date were leading Bari and Siena to the Serie A.

Conte has constantly played down Juve’s chances for major honours next season, claiming that unlike Milan, Inter and Napoli, his team will go through a bumpy period of transition until the new signings settle in.

Whatever happens next season, Juventus simply cannot afford to stay out of the Champions League for the third time running.

Last season, Lazio missed qualification to the Champions League by a whisker as they were edged by Udinese in an epic race that went right to the end.

Lazio’s campaign was truly remarkable though given that in the previous year the team from the capital had only made sure of avoiding the drop towards the end.

Lazio president Claudio Lotito kept faith with wily coach Edy Reja and strengthened the side’s attacking prowess with two prolific strikers – Djibril Cisse (Pana-thinaikos) and Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich).

Italy goalkeeper Federico Marchetti will re-launch his career after an entire season frozen out at Cagliari. He was signed as a replacement for Uruguay international Fernando Muslera.

Mark Bresciano (Al Nasr) and Lichtsteiner (Juventus) have also left for pastures new but Lazio kept hold of all their other best players.

Great things are expected of new Roma owner Thomas DiBenedetto as he took over the reins of the debt-ridden club from the Sensi family.

So far, Roma have been anything but convincing in the way they have operated in the transfer window, offloading the valid Vucinic (Juventus), Julio Sergio (Lecce), Jeremy Menez (PSG), Doni (Liverpool), John Arne Riise (Fulham) and Philippe Mexes (Milan).

The Giallorossi, with new coach Luis Enrique at the helm, made up with the signing of various non-Italian players, including Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax), Gabriel Heinze (Marseille), Eric Lamela (River Plate), Jose Angel (Sporting Gijon), Loic Nego (Nantes) and Bojan Krkic (Barcelona).

There is no argument in saying that Udinese are a weakened team compared to last year.

To start with, the north-east-erners parted with three of their best players – Alexis Sanchez (Barcelona), Gokhan Inler (Napoli) and Cristian Zapata (Villarreal).

Udinese are seeking to fill the void left by the notable departures either by promoting young players from within their youth system or by signing unknown foreigners at basement prices.

Tonight, Udinese will be trying to qualify to the Champions League group stages for only the second time (after season 2005/06) in the club’s history as they need to come back from a 0-1 away defeat to Arsenal at the Friuli stadium.