In normal circumstances, Serie A newcomers set their sights on avoiding a bottom-three finish.

Last season, Frosinone and Carpi failed in their quest to extend their stay among the Italian elite beyond their maiden year.

In the next Serie A season, starting in less than three weeks’ time, the task awaiting Cagliari, Crotone and Pescara will be to emulate Bologna by confirming their top-flight status.

Cagliari and Crotone were by far the best two sides in the Serie B last year.

Eventually, the Sardinians finished one point above Crotone to clinch the championship.

The first thing Cagliari did this summer was to retain the services of coach Massimo Rastelli.

The former Piacenza and Napoli striker was regarded as the mastermind of Cagliari’s promotion.

It is always a headstart for any club to retain the backbone of a side that had done so well the previous year.

Cagliari are just doing that.

In addition, the 1969/70 Italian champions have already signed Bruno Alves (Fenerbahce), Simone Padoin (Juventus), Artur Ionita (Verona), Vasco Oliveira (Benfica) and Marko Pajac (Celje).

Maicon (free agent), Mauricio Isla (Juventus) and veteran striker Marco Borriello (free agent) are also on Cagliari’s radar.

According to reports, Gokhan Inler, of Leicester City, remains a top target for Rastelli, especially now that long-time target Luca Cigarini has signed for Serie A rivals Sampdoria.

Crotone will have to do without coach Ivan Juric. He quit the club soon after leading them to their first ever promotion to the top division to take over at Genoa.

Ex-Bari mentor Davide Nicola will get a second chance to prove himself in the top flight, following a poor stint with Livorno in 2013/14, after accepting to replace Juric at Crotone.

So far, they have signed a host of new players mainly from the lower divisions – Federico Cec-cherini (Livorno), Andrea Mazzarani (Modena), Andrea Nalini (Salernitana), Mario Sampirisi (Vicenza), Alexandar Tonev (free agent) and Nigerian forward Simmy (Portimonense).

Pescara gained promotion via the play-offs after beating Serse Cosmi’s Trapani 3-1 on aggregate in the play-off final.

Massimo Oddo, a former Lazio and Milan player, has been at the helm of Pescara since the end of the 2014/15 season after replacing the sacked Marco Baroni with only one game left.

Up to now, Pescara have ac-quired a number of exciting players, including former Milan prodigy Bryan Cristante from Benfica, Rey Manaj (Inter), the highly promising Alessio Di Massimo (Juventus), Cristiano Biraghi (Inter), Marko Leskovic (Rijeka) and Fabio Ceravolo (Ternana).

Atalanta (13th last season), Palermo (16th) and Udinese (17th) endured a difficult 2015/16 campaign and flirted with relegation until the very end.

This time around, Atalanta will be led by GianPiero Gasperini, formerly of Genoa, whereas Giuseppe Iachini (ex-Palermo) has taken over from Luigi De Canio at Udinese.

Edoardo Reja had been at the helm of Atalanta since March 2015.

This summer, Alberto Paloschi (Swansea City), Ervin Zukanovic (Roma) and Andrea Petagna (Milan) have joined Atalanta.

The Bergamo club, however, will have to do without influential midfielders Cigarini (Sampdoria) and Dutchman Marten de Roon (Middlesbrough).

Coaching changes

Coach Davide Ballardini has been confirmed by Palermo who have lost a few key players in this transfer window, including Stefano Sorrentino (free agent), Enzo Maresca (free agent), Alberto Gilardino (Empoli) and the highly-rated Franco Vazquez (Sevilla).

Palermo need stability after changing coach no fewer than seven times last season.

Rolando Maran is still in charge at Chievo, who finished a creditable ninth in the 2015-16 final standings. The Verona-based outfit are almost unchanged compared to last season.

Empoli, one of the surprise teams of the Serie A campaign last season, are now under the charge of Giovanni Martusciello.

Marco Giampaolo quit Empoli after helping the side finish 10th last season. He was recently unveiled as Sampdoria’s new coach after being linked with fallen giants Milan this summer.

Empoli need to find replacements for Piotr Zielinski (Udinese), Leandro Paredes (Roma), Lorenzo Ariaudo (Sassuolo), Lorenzo Tonelli (Napoli), Mario Rui (Roma), Michele Camporese (Benevento) and Marko Livaja (Las Palmas) as they all left to seek pastures new in this off-season.

It remains to be seen whether Empoli will resist the temptation of cashing in on the sale of quality midfielders Assane Dioussé and Riccardo Saponara.

Empoli could struggle if they fail to bring in adequate replacements.

But, didn’t we say the same things this time last year when Empoli parted with coach Maurzio Sarri and holding midfielder Mirko Valdifiori?

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