Things to look out for in the 2009/2010 Serie A season

By: Francesco | August 21st, 2009

I just got back from vacation so I won’t have time to put up a mega Serie A preview like I would’ve wanted, but by now we have an idea at where the 20 Serie A clubs stand for the coming season. So Serie A finally kicks off tomorrow with Bologna-Fiorentina and Siena-Milan, and the rest of the games come our way on Sunday. Serie A is finally back I couldn’t wait much longer. So here are some things to look out for this coming season:

-More Jose Mourinho memorable moments.
Last season Mourinho took Italy by storm in his first season with many memorable quotes (”Io non sono pirla” and “Zeru Tituli” being the big hits) and memorable press conferences and fights with other people through the media. This year he’s started off on the right foot, bickering with Marcello Lippi in the press.

-Serie A without Ibra and Kaka.
These were the two big transfer stories of the summer, with Kaka leaving for Madrid and Ibra for Barcelona. A lot of people say that Serie A has lost its valor with two of it’s biggest stars leaving but I think Italian calcio will be just fine.

-Diego
A lot of expectations have been placed on the Brazilian attacking midfielder’s shoulders. If Diego can survive the pressure and adapt to Serie A quickly, Juventus will have a superstar on their hands. Could potentially be one of the best signings of the summer.

-Low Cost Milan
Adriano Galliani said earlier in the summer that Milan would have a “low-cost” transfer campaign. And so far he has pretty much kept his word. Besides the signing of Huntelaar, little else was done this summer. Will the “Low-Cost Milan” surprise everyone and challenge for trophies, or will they fail miserably? It remains to be seen.

-Young managers at big clubs
How will Ciro Ferrara and Leonardo fare at Juventus and Milan and having been thrown into the big-time really early? Ferrara looks to have a commanding presence so far over the squad and has an interesting style of play, while Leonardo doesn’t really seem to be the best motivator and who knows how great of a tactician he is. Those questions will be answered soon.

-Roma still owned by the Sensi family
The big saga over the summer was when Roma would finally be sold, but it never happened. The Sensi family looks set to stay as majority owners of Roma. The squad is more or less the same as last season with a couple of new names and a couple of players that have left, but will they improve on last season’s 6th place finish?

-Inter’s new attack
Will the Milito-Eto’o partnership succeed? From what we’ve seen it could potentially be a very deadly duo in Serie A and in Europe.

-Antonio Cassano
The Sampdoria fantasista had an excellent season last season with no outburst of any kind. He looks to have finally matured and has been brilliant so far in Sampdoria’s preseason. In addition, its a World Cup year and Cassano really wants to try to get back into the national team set-up. Reminds me of 1997/98 when Roberto Baggio desperately wanted to go to the World Cup and had the best season of his career, forcing Cesare Maldini to bring The Divine Ponytail to France ‘98. Can Cassano force Lippi to call him up for South Africa 2010? We only hope.

-Young Italian talents
Mario Balotelli should find a lot of space in Inter’s attack, Davide Santon gets ready for his first full season as a professional, Alberto Paloschi leads the Parma attack, Ignazio Abate is proving to be a nice surprise for Milan, Robert Acquafresca is the focal part of Atalanta’s attack, Luca Cigarini will direct Napoli’s midfield, and many more Italian youngsters are out there ready to explode. Who will be the revelation of the season?

-Hernan Crespo
The Genoa striker was a sub at Inter all of last season and now he’s ready to lead Genoa’s attack. Despite his age I think Crespo has a lot left to give as he is still an excellent finisher and could be one of Serie A’s top scorers this season. Buy him for your fantasy calcio teams.

-Zenga/Zamparini
Two hotheads have to work together. Will Zenga get frustrated with Zamparini and his outbursts to the media? Will Zamparini sack Zenga after 1 bad result? Who knows. This is Maurizio Zamparini we’re talking about. It should be an interesting year in the Sicilian capital.

-Bari
The Pugliese club returns to Serie A after an 8 year absence. But have the club done enough to ensure salvation? The squad looks a little average and Ventura has never been that successful as a manager so its all up in the air. Maybe with the arrival of Texan owner Tim Barton the club will have more money to buy players. Serie A needs Bari, its a club with a lot of history in one of Italy’s biggest cities and in one of Italy’s biggest stadiums with one of Italy’s most loyal fanbases. If you need to root for a small club this season, choose Bari.

-Ronaldinho
With all the weight of Milan’s creativity on Ronaldinho’s shoulders now that Kaka is gone, will Gaucho sink or swim? Leonardo says he needs to change his attitude and if he doesn’t it will be yet another sad season for the former Golden Ball winner.

-Fabio Cannavaro
The Nazionale captain is back in Italy after 2 years with Real Madrid. With the World Cup looming, will Cannavaro get back into form and show us the old Cannavaro, or will he still be the new Cannavaro that looks to be ready for retirement? Has a great opportunity to form an understanding with Chiellini that will help the national team.

-Napoli
After an extremely disappointing season, Aurelio De Laurentiis wanted to create a squad this summer that would contend this season. Napoli made some excellent buys (De Sanctis, Campagnaro, Cigarini, Quagliarella) and now we’ll see if Roberto Donadoni is actually a good manager or just somebody that got ahead because of his name. If Lavezzi and Quagliarella hit it off, it should be a fun year in Naples.

-The Pazzini/Cassano tandem
When Pazzini arrived at Sampdoria, he was nothing more than a failed promise. But as soon as he started playing alongside Antonio Cassano, he turned into potential goal machine. The striking duo have now had a whole summer to practice together and work out kinks and now we’ll see if they can keep it up next season. If they pick up where they left off Samp will have no problem scoring goals next season.

-Marco Giampaolo
The Siena manager has always been held in high regard by Italian calcio enthusiasts and last season turned one of the weakest rosters in Serie A into a solid side with one of the best defenses in Serie A. If he can do the same this season with the club losing their three best players (Zuniga, Galloppa, Kharja), he deserves to move to bigger pastures.

-Mauro Zarate
Lazio’s number 10 took Italy by storm last season, scoring goals you usually only see on Playstation. Can he confirm himself as a potential superstar or will he cool down this season? Let’s hope he doesn’t cool down because he sure was fun to watch last season. A manager like Ballardini can only make him improve as well.

-A Giuseppe Mascara wondergoal.
Catania’s star player scores at least 2 wondergoals a season. Last season he scored on a volley from midfield vs. Palermo. Should be no different this season.

-Genoa entering the big time.
The Rossoblu really surprised everyone last season with their impressive campaign. Gasperini had the squad playing exciting attacking football and it payed off. This season they may become distracted with the Europa League but if the squad can handle both competitions this should be another great year for Il Grifone.

-Bologna and Livorno being relegated.
Those are my two relegation predictions for this season. Livorno has a Serie B caliber roster that I don’t think will cut it in Serie A despite the magic of Alessandro Diamanti. Bologna had the arrival of the new owner and just bought Marcelo Zalayeta, but I don’t think they have enough quality to make another great escape like last season. The third relegation spot is up for grabs. I want to say Chievo but they always somehow manage to perform a miracle.