Vincenzo Montella... tough job to revive Milan’s fortunes.Vincenzo Montella... tough job to revive Milan’s fortunes.

The chief objective for teams like Fiorentina, Inter, Lazio and Milan in the 2016-17 Serie A will most definitely be a top-three finish and a place in the Champions League the following year.

Last season, Inter finished fourth, three points ahead of Fiorentina but 13 adrift of third-placed Roma. Coppa Italia runners-up Milan only managed a seventh placing and Lazio a disappointing eighth, three points behind the Rossoneri.

This has been a summer of big changes for San Siro rivals Inter and Milan.

Suning, which nowadays ranks among the top three Chinese non-state owned enterprises with close to $50 billion in annual sales, ac-quired a majority stake in Inter.

Erick Thohir retained his position as president of the Nerazzurri but former club owner Massimo Moratti left after many years of success, particularly between 2005 and 2010.

Earlier this week, the new Inter bosses also deemed fit to part company with coach Roberto Mancini and instead appoint Frank de Boer, formerly of Ajax.

The decision to show Mancini the backdoor came as no surprise albeit it was ill-timed. Most of senior squad’s pre-season preparations are already over.

Inter had an awful build-up to the new season, culminating in a 6-1 defeat at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, in Oslo.

A 3-1 loss to France champions Paris SG and a heavy 4-1 defeat to Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern Munich were other negative results for Inter this summer.

In the transfer market, Inter have already acquired the services of Cristian Ansaldi (Genoa), Caner Erkin (free agent), Ever Banega (free agent) and Antonio Candreva (Lazio).

One still has to see whether these new signings are suitable to De Boer’s attack-minded 4-3-3 playing system as club captain Mauro Icardi continues to be linked with a possible transfer move down south to Napoli.

Inter badly lack a creative midfielder and a leaky defence also needs attention.

If the new owners fail to provide the right players to De Boer, Inter will struggle for a berth in the Europa League let alone challenge for a top-three finish.

Milan have also changed hands completely in the off-season.

Early this month, it was made official that Silvio Berlusconi’s reign at Milan was over after more than three decades as the former Italy prime minister agreed to sell a 99.93 per cent stake in the club to a state-backed Chinese group for a value of €740 million.

Milan, now coached by Vincenzo Montella, signed last season’s Serie B top-scorer Gianluca Lapadula from Pescara last month along with defenders Leonel Vangioni (River Plate) and Gustavo Gomes (Lanus).

But for Milan to regain most of their lost pride, the new bosses will have to unveil more signings of note before the end of this transfer window on August 31.

On July 6, Lazio owner Claudio Lotito said he had hired the much-travelled Marcelo Bielsa to take over from Simone Inzaghi who had replaced Stefano Pioli to-wards the end of last season.

However, two days later Bielsa backed out of the deal before conducting a single training session.

Although Bielsa was linked with a return to the Argentina national team eventually it became in-creasingly clear that the former Athletic Bilbao and Marseille mentor had quit Italy because of Lazio’s failure to spend big on the transfer market.

Lazio, again with Inzaghi in charge, have lost arguably their best two players in Miroslav Klose and Candreva whereas they have signed Ivan Vargic (Rijeka), Jordan Lukaku (Ostenda), Ciro Immobile (Sevilla), Wallace (Braga) and Moritz Leitner (Borussia Dortmund).

Lotito is also reported to be keen on signing former Torino prodigy Alessio Cerci before the transfer deadline.

Fiorentina have practically remained unchanged from the previous season with Paulo Sousa still at the helm of the team.

The ex-Juventus and Borussia Dortmund midfielder will surely be tempted to give teenage forwards Federico Chiesa – son of former Italy and Fiorentina striker Enrico – and Ianis Hagi – son of Romanian legend Gheorghe – an extended run in the Serie A.

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