Three teams with no big aspirations, Atalanta, Bologna and Siena, all did well last season and their Serie A status was practically never in jeopardy as they floated in mid-table waters.
Atalanta seem to have all their cards in place for another trouble-free season- Antoine Dalli
However, this will count to nothing when the 2012/13 campaign gets underway in a month’s time as the teams bracketed in the lower half of the standings reignite their challenge to avoid the bottom three places and a drop to Serie B.
When in summer of 2011 it was announced that Atalanta had been docked six points for their involvement in a match-fixing scandal, many thought that the Bergamo outfit’s days in the top flight were numbered.
However, Atalanta embarked on a superb start and eventually did good enough to finish in a creditable 12th place.
This summer Atalanta did well to extend coach Stefano Colantuono’s contract.
The ex-Palermo and Torino trainer will rely on the same crop of players from last season, meaning that the team does not need to go through a bumpy period of transition.
To date, Atalanta have also succeeded in resisting to the temptation of parting with their best players in goalkeeper Andrea Consigli, winger Ezequiel Schelotto and strikers Maxi Moralez and German Denis, scorer of 16 goals last season.
Moreover, Atalanta added Argentine duo Carlos Javier Matheu (defender) and Facundo Parra (striker) to Colantuono’s options in this window.
Transfer-market guru Pierpaolo Marino, formerly employed by Udinese and Napoli, is still involved in the running of Atalanta.
With him around and Colantuono as coach, Atalanta seem to have all their cards in place for another trouble-free season even though they will have to start the new Serie A with a minus two-point handicap for yet another involvement in an illegal betting case.
At Bologna, life without Marco Di Vaio will be much more difficult than previous years.
The veteran forward, who quit the Serie A last month for Montreal Impact in the Major League Soccer in the US, has contributed significantly to Bologna’s successful campaigns of late.
In fact, he scored 65 goals in 143 appearances for the team between 2008 and 2012.
Di Vaio’s likely replacement will be Robert Acquafresca, a Torino youth product, yet to prove himself in the top flight.
Acquafresca, 24, had stints at Treviso, Cagliari, Atalanta, Genoa and Bologna without ever becoming a mainstay at any of these clubs.
However, the former Italy Under-21 striker now has a great opportunity to unleash the talent hidden inside by ensuring that the absence of Di Vaio will go unnoticed.
To do so, he has to hit the goals... much more than the five he scored last term in 32 appearances while on loan at Bologna.
However, if they manage to keep hold of Italy international midfielder Alessandro Diamanti and Uruguayan Gaston Ramirez, then Bologna will surely not run out of ammunition much to the relief of coach Stefano Pioli who signed a new contract to stay put this summer.
Besides Di Vaio, Bologna also lost Andrea Raggi (Monaco), Jean-Francois Gillet (Torino) and Gabi Mudingayi (Inter) in the transfer market as goalkeeper Gianluca Curci and versatile defender Marco Motta are the club’s most notable signings to date.
Serse Cosmi has an arduous task in replacing Giuseppe Sannino at the helm of Siena.
After leading the team to a comfortable mid-table finish, Sannino quit the Tuscany outfit and joined Palermo.
On the other hand, Cosmi was not successful in the club’s frantic bid to help southerners Lecce avoid relegation to Serie B.
Siena have lost the services of midfielders Alessandro Gazzi (Torino) and Franco Brienza (Palermo).
They made up for those departures with the signings of Paolo Dellafiore (Novara), Matteo Rubin (Torino), Francesco Valiani (Parma) and Andrea Campagnolo (Catania).