Image via Complex UK
For many football fans in the UK, Serie A was the first European league to become appointment viewing (thanks, Channel 4) and while the snowballing stories of cover-ups and corruption hasn’t done the reputation of Italian football any good, it’s still one of the world’s must-see leagues.
This year’s Serie A looks to be a truly open affair at the top and bottom of the table – something that can’t always be said for the heavily lauded La Liga or Bundesliga – with Juventus, Roma, Napoli and Inter Milan all able to boast squads of title-winning quality.
Here’s our survival guide for watching Serie A in 2014/15.
Here's how Serie A works
Let’s get the straightforward stuff out of the way. 20 teams make up the Serie A and the league is played in a round-robin format, which means that the first and second round of matches will be played in the exact same order. The race for the title and the battle to avoid relegation are played it out in the same manner as the Premier League, with the bottom three teams losing their top flight status.
In a sign of the times for Italian football, Serie A has dropped one place in UEFA’s coefficient table - which determines the best leagues in Europe based on performances in the Champions League - to fifth, meaning that just two teams from Italy will automatically qualify for next season’s Champions League. The team that finishes in third spot will get the opportunity to qualify for the competition via preliminary rounds and those who end up in fourth and fifth will be welcomed by football’s problem child, the Europa League, in 2015/16.
These are the biggest transfer stories in Italy this summer
Serie A has the slowest rate of economic growth amongst Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues and it’s been 14 years since they last set the world transfer record. All things considered, it’s no surprise to see that the highest profile signings in Italy this transfer window are ageing Premier League icons who have arrived for little or no money. NemanjaVidic, Patrice Evra and Ashley Cole have all enjoyed sparkling careers in England and the slower pace of Italian football will suit three players who can feel time ticking.
Alvaro Morata’s £16m transfer from Real Madrid to Juventus is the big money move that’s turned the most heads. The European champions had high hopes for the 21-year-old but 11 goals in 52 appearances wasn’t enough to pull him above the likes of Benzema, Bale or Ronaldo.
There are high hopes for A.S. Roma, who have complemented Ashley Cole’s arrival with the most expensive signing in Serie A this summer. Argentinian midfielder Juan Iturbe joined Roma’s ranks for a cool £17.4m, after eight goals with Verona last season. He’s already been cursed with a tag of the “next Lionel Messi”. AC Milan have began their rebuild with the acquisition of some of European football’s most underwhelming names. Brazilian defender Alex and winger Jeremy Menez have joined from PSG, while Real Madrid misfit Diego Lopez will be keeping goal at the San Siro this season.
Here’s a look at this year’s newly promoted teams
Last season’s Serie B champions, Palermo, have more reasons to be confident than any other promoted side. They were the best performers on every level in Italian’s second tier, scoring the most goals (62) and conceding the fewest (28). Last year’s top scorer Abel Hernandez will be Palermo’s biggest dangerman, while the arrival of goalscoring midfielder AyaloChochev - who interested Wolfsburg and Monaco - will give the side another edge. One worry for Palermo will be their manager, Giuseppe Iachini. He’s earned four promotions to Serie A in his career but is yet to see out a full season with the same club the following year.
Empoli were the other team from Serie B to earn automatic promotion to the top flight but they still ended up 14 points behind Palermo, winning less than 50% of their games. Veteran striker Francesco Tavano netted 23 goals but Premier League fans may be more reactive to their second striker: Middlesbrough flop cult hero Massimo Maccarone. His success in front of goal will be a barometer of just how far Serie A has fallen.
Penniless Cesena are the last of this year’s promoted sides and the favourites to go straight back down. They earned promotion through the play-offs and while their defensive record was impressive in Serie B, they had a goal shy team where no players reached double figures. Guido Marilungo has been one of five players brought in on-loan from Atlanta to put that right but 7 goals in 48 Serie A games suggests that he won’t be the right choice.
Serie A has the best history of any European league
While Serie A has yet to truly recover from the match fixing scandal that rocked Italy in 2006, the league has historically been considered the gem of European football.
Serie A has produced 18 Ballon d’Or winners since 1961 and between 1995 and 2004, players from Italy’s top flight scooped the award five times. The likes of Marco van Basten, Roberto Baggio, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Pavel Nedved all raised the beautiful game’s benchmark in Italy.
The UEFA Champions League has also been dominated by Serie A, with the league producing the highest number of finalists (26) amongst Europe’s best leagues.
These are Serie A's biggest rivalries
Juventus and Fiorentina share Serie A’s most bitter rivalry. The feud between the two teams intensified on the final day of the 1981/82 season when Juve won the Scudetto in controversial circumstances at Fiorentina’s expense and it grew worse eight years later, when the Old Lady pinched the iconic Roberto Baggio from Fiorentina in a world record move. Cue riots on the streets of Florence that left over 50 people injured. Nearly 25 years on, the hate hasn’t dissipated.
The Milan Derby is the most famous fixture in the Italian football calendar. The rivalry dates back 106 years, when Internazionale was formed in response to Milan signing foreign players. Traditionally, Inter has been the club of the bourgeois and AC Milan has gained working class support. Today, things aren’t quite so clearly divided (AC is owned by Silvio Berlusconi and Inter by a left-wing businessman). This is a rare derby in that both parties are decorated domestic heavyweights.
Finally, we come to Lazio Vs. Roma. Billed as the battle of Rome (or Derby della Capitale), it’s a fixture where the fans take centre stage. Both sides feature infamous sets of right-wing ‘ultras’ and intense, violent clashes are part of this rivalry’s fabric (in 1979, this fixture saw the first fan death in Italian football). Historically, Lazio were the only side to resist fascist dictator Benito Mussolini’s desire to create a unified Rome side and ever since, both clubs have fought for the city’s bragging rights. Expect a slugfest on and off the pitch.
Here are the players set for a breakthrough year
Kingsley Coman is soon to become the most talked about talent in Serie A. The ‘new Paul Pogba’ turned down Arsenal and Liverpool to join up with the real Paul Pogba at Juventus after becoming PSG’s youngest ever player in 2013. Coman found minutes hard to come by at PSG last season but he’s dazzled in France’s youth set-up, where’s been capped at every level through to U21s and scored 5 goals.
At only 20-years-old, it’s impressive that Albanian left back Elseid Hysa has racked up 66 first team appearances for Empoli but this will be his first season in Italy’s top flight and it’s a chance to turn promise into proven ability at the highest level. The powerful defender was tracked by Lazio last year and he’ll be key to Empoli’s chances of Serie A survival.
The Torneo di Viareggio is one of the most prestigious youth tournaments in world football and this year, Parma starlet Alberto Cerri took the tournament by complete surprise. He scored six goals as Parma made their way to the quarter finals, earning him the Golden Boy trophy (previously won by new Borussia Dortmund star Ciro Immobile). Cerri’s rise to prominence won’t happen overnight but expect to see him make his mark in Serie A as the season goes on.
Here’s what the bookies say
Juventus are the favourites to win this season’s Serie A, with odds of 5/4. A greatly improved Roma side are just behind at 3/1, while Napoli make up the front runners with odds of 6/1. The two Milan sides remain outside bets, with Inter priced at 16/1 and AC at 18/1.
Both Cesena and Empoli are favourites to go straight back to Serie B, at odds of 6/11 and 3/4 respectively. Minnows Sassuolo – who surprised everyone by fighting successfully for survival last season - are being backed for the drop at 13/10. The bookies think they’ll be scrapping it out with Chievo, who are priced at 6/4 for relegation.
Carlos Tevez (4/1) is the bookies’ favourite to nab this season’s Golden Boot with last year’s winner, Ciri Immobile, now playing in the Bundesliga. The evergreen Luca Toni, who hit the back of the net 20 times in Serie A last season, is priced at 8/1. The newly arrived Alvaro Morata looks well priced at 12/1 and World Cup fans could get nostalgic and back German legend Miroslav Klose at 66/1.