Atalanta, Chievo, Empoli, Palermo, Sassuolo, Udinese and Verona have one common objective ahead of the new season – avoiding a bottom-three finish.
All seven teams were successful in their pursuit to stave off the relegation threat last term but the 2014-15 season represents a new challenge so they will have to do it all over again.
Atalanta seemed down and out last year despite a promising start to their Serie A campaign.
When things started precipitating, veteran coach Edy Reja replaced Stefano Colantuono and he managed to turn things around.
Whereas Atalanta have kept faith with the much-travelled Reja, this summer the Bergamo outfit have lost the services of Daniele Baselli and Davide Zappacosta, arguably among their best performers last season.
More recently, French defender Yohan Benalouane left Atalanta to join Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City for a transfer fee of around €7 million.
Atalanta have not been particularly active on the transfer market this summer.
In fact, Slovenia international midfielder Jasmin Kurtic (Sassuolo) represents their marquee signing to date. Other transfers of note were Davide Bassi (free agent), Dutch midfielder Marten De Roon (Heerenveen), Brazilian striker Marcos De Paula (Messina), young Serbian goalkeeper Boris Radunovic (FK Rad) and striker Gaetano Monachello (Monaco).
Atalanta are also reportedly chasing former Roma defender Rafael Toloi (Sao Paolo) and Colombia centre-back Stefan Medina (Monterrey).
But, perhaps, even more importantly for Atalanta is to keep hold of the much-requested midfielder Luca Cigarini.
Rolando Maran did an exceptional job helping Chievo avoid relegation last season. The ex-Catania mentor transformed Chievo’s fortunes after a disastrous start under Eugenio Corini.
The Verona-based outfit eventually finished 14th in the final league standings.
Chievo have remained practically unchanged. For the new season, their new signings are Massimo Gobbi (free agent), Lucas Castro (Catania), Fabrizio Cacciatore (Sampdoria), Diego Farias (Cagliari) and Paul Jose M’poku (Standard Liege).
Maurizio Sarri quit Empoli this summer to join ambitious Napoli. The 56-year-old trainer was arguably the mastermind behind Empoli’s ascendency of late.
Apart from Sarri, a number of key players, including Davide Bassi (Atalanta), Daniele Rugani (Juventus), Matias Vecino (Fiorentina), Luigi Sepe, Elseid Hysaj (both Napoli) and Simone Verdi (Milan) quit Tuscany in search of pastures new.
Meanwhile, Marco Giampaolo has a good opportunity to revive his ailing career as he was un-veiled as Sarri’s successor.
He had been unemployed since quitting Serie B outfit Brescia in September 2013.
Empoli will turn to schemer Riccardo Saponara for inspiration as they are in desperate need of more reinforcements of substance to bolster their chances of staying up among the elite.
Down south Giuseppe Iachini is still in charge of Palermo.
The Sicilians did very well last term on their return to the top flight, and they’re now determined to build on last season’s 11th place finish.
Palermo, however, lost the services of two key players in Paulo Dybala (Juventus) and Edgar Barreto (Sampdoria).
In recent years, club supremo Maurizio Zamparini showed he has a knack for signing relatively unknown foreign players, mould them into stars and sell them at a huge profit.
This summer was no exception as Palermo’s signings include Ahmad Benali (Brescia), Matheus Cassini (Corinthians), Aleksandar Trajkovski (Zulte Waregem), Julian Velasquez (Gaz Metan Medias), Aljaz Struna (Carpi), Granddi N’Goyi (Leeds), Gennaro Troianiello (Bologna), Gaston Brugman (Pescara), Oscar Hiljemark (PSV), Edoardo Golda-niga (Perugia), Simone Co-lombi (Cagliari) and Abdelhamid El Kaoutari (Montpellier).
Sassuolo, still under the charge of Eusebio Di Francesco, have replaced quality with quality in attack as French striker Gregoire Defrel was signed from relegated Cesena to replace Italy international hit-man Simone Zaza, who joined champions Juventus.
Andrea Stramaccioni’s Udinese endured a disappointing campaign last season as they could only finish 16th.
The ex-Inter coach was sacked at the end of the season.
New coach Colantuono has a good opportunity to bounce back after he was fired by Atalanta towards the end of last season.
This summer, Udinese have lost talisman Allan (Napoli) whereas their new signings are Ali Adnan (Rizespor) and Duvan Zapata (Napoli).
Ali will go down in the history books of the Serie A after becoming the first Iraqi player to sign for an Italian top flight outfit.
Andrea Mandorlini’s Verona received a big boost last month as they secured the services of international striker Giampaolo Pazzini on a free transfer.
The former Iner and Milan striker is expected to form a formidable attacking partnership with veteran striker Luca Toni – last season’s Serie A joint top scorer with 22 goals.