Serie A: 6 Things to Watch for in the 2011/12 Season

With the Supercoppa and the Community Shield already decided, the Bundesliga started and the Champions League qualifying draw on the way, the end of summer and the arrival of the full-blown football season is upon us. Over these past months, sensational transfers have been made, gauntlets laid down, coaches hired, fired and rehired again, making the Serie A—while not totally unrecognizable—certainly a fair shade different than last season. There's a lot to watch in the coming months, so keep a close eye on our six things to expect in the coming season.

Giampiero Gasperini out by January

You read it here first. Giampiero Gasperini, late of Genoa, toasting to the new 2012 year as an Inter coach.

Why?, you might ask, noting that the former Juventus youth player (irony!) had enjoyed a spell of considerable success with his former club, having broken their manager record for recorded wins; but the Inter hotseat is a whole other fickle beast.

Firstly, Gasperini’s never had to manage a bench of capricious superstars whose yearly earnings dwarf certain country’s GDPs. He and Eto’o have already had a training-pitch falling-out, even before the season has started! How can you complain about not getting enough minutes in July? Suffice it to say that nouvea riche Russian club Anzhi has tabled a 30 million Euro bid for the ruffled striker, offering a pharaonic 20 million euros a year as a modest salary. Of course, should Eto’o leave, Inter would sensibly replace him with the loyal, steadfast Carlos Tevez...

Secondly, the 3-4-3 that made such a splash at Genoa will take a time and patience that’s totally absent from Inter’s constitution, as Benitez is probably telling some empty Spanish pub. The heft that it supplies in midfield comes at the expense of exposed defensive flanks, where any talented winger with a penchant for one-on-ones will have their way with a lonely Chivu or Ranocchia. And playing with three central defenders means having to do more with less—should Lucio, Samuel, Chivu or Ranocchia get injured this season, there will be no natural substitutes available (not counting Cordoba, because who really counts Cordoba?). So, the same backline would have to dispute Champions League, Serie A and the Coppa Italia.

Thirdly, the squad as a whole has begun to deflate, though not on an individual basis. With the likes of Sneijder, Lucio and Eto’o, their class remains undeniable. But the almost predetermined assuredness of past years, the assumption that Inter were unquestionably the best team in Italy and that the entire season was a mere formality, has evaporated. The confidence, the winning psychology just limped into AC Milan’s Curva Sud. And since Moratti won’t fire his favorite stars, well, the axe is going to fall somewhere.

Inauguration of the Juventus Arena Highlights Italy's Terrible Infrastructures

The dilapidated state of Italy’s stadiums has become the favorite jibe of commentators everywhere—one can hardly watch a Champions League match without some snide comment on the “crumbling arena” in which the match is being contested. Lord knows what we’ll hear when Arsenal trade the posh Emirates Arena for Udinese’s Friuli Stadium.

Yet, for all its tiredness, the criticism is neither inaccurate nor restricted to outsiders. AC Milan’s Adriano Galliani, Lazio’s Claudio Lotito and newly arrived Thomas DiBenedetto have all admitted that stadium investment, decades delayed, must be made if the Serie A is to retain its place at the forefront of modern football. The slide to fourth in the UEFA coefficients can at least be attributed to attenuated financial strength of clubs hamstrung by low ticket prices, lower attendance numbers, a total lack of concession revenues and the crowd unruliness endemic to poorly maintained structures. But inertia and bureaucratic red tape have thus far stifled all meaningful steps to cure Italy’s financial ails.

On September 8th, a project without Italian precedent will finally conclude itself when Juventus take to the field of the Juventus Arena for the first time. Costing close to 100 million euros, the structure was initially conceived to aid Italy’s bid to host Euro 2012—since awarded to Poland and the Ukraine—and was financed in part by the FIGC (Italy’s version of the FA), though the stadium itself is 100% owned by the club. The stadium can now seat almost twice as many spectators as before (43,000 being its official capacity) and contains a block of luxury suites, a shopping center, several food courts, a Juventus museum and an array of heretofore unheard of amenities. Furthermore, the incessant complaint that dogged the old Delle Alpi—that a track unnecessarily disconnected the fans from the pitch—has been comprehensively repudiated, with fans now seated within an arm’s-length of the pitch and the player dugout. There’s even a heater built underneath the pitch for the winter season.

There have been immediate rewards. Season tickets are up by over 50% from last year, despite  a price-increase and a lackluster Italian economy, while thousands of fans have flocked to the center for many of the team’s preseason appearances, many of them the children and families so absent from Calcio stands in recent years. A palpable excitement has energized fans and players alike, Alessandro Del Piero of all people stating that the opportunity to play in the new stadium represents the culmination of his entire career.

We’ll have to wait until the end of the season and beyond to accurately measure the stadium’s effect; while Agnelli and Co. can expect an immediate boost in profits, falling short of European competition last season means it will be at least a year before the Juventus Arena debuts to a larger audience. But domestically at least, we can expect a strong reaction—fresh monies and an influx of enthusiasm into a sagging fanbase make for both a healthy bottom line and match atmosphere—and we hope that the other clubs take notice.

Strong Showings in Europa League, Middling in Champions

A mixed bag awaits the Italians in Europe. Out of the four Champions-bound team—AC Milan, Inter, Napoli and Udinese—only the Milanese duo have any real experience in Europe’s toughest competition. Napoli’s been absent since the days of Maradona, while this season makes Udinese’s appearance only the second in its history.

The learning curve is steep, particularly for the Friulian side, who had the terrible luck of drawing Arsenal in the qualifiers. And without particularly stunning replacements for departed playmakers Gokhan Inler and Alexis Sanchez, it’s hard to not envision a painful rout in the imminent future. Napoli, Inler’s current employers, have retained their stars as well as their mouthy coach Walter Mazzarri (despite having inopportunely stated an inclination for the open Juventus bench), while strengthening crucial divisions within the squad. They’ll make for highly entertaining fare, of course, but they’ll hope to avoid drawing a strong group.

Even the Milanese pair don’t really enthuse right now. Neither side has signed the “leap of quality” player necessary to intimidate at these levels (though Milan in particular has made several astute signings); barring any last-minute wonder deals—not to be ruled out—I don’t expect anything more than honorable defeats somewhere in the knockout rounds.

The Europa League, however, is another proverbial kettle of fish. Though less prestigious and less lucrative, success in Europe’s minor leagues will be crucial to claw Serie A’s way out of the UEFA dungeon. Lazio and Roma in particular have thoroughly bolstered their squads, to the point that one must consider them serious contenders.

Roma and their transfers have been all over the papers, what with the American takeover and the subsequent import of talents from around the world. Just think of the possibilities if Luis Enrique can make Lamela, Bojan and Totti click up front. That is not a trident to be taken lightly.

Rivals Lazio, meanwhile, have filled the clinical striker position that has been missing these last seasons, with the arrivals of natural-born poachers Klose and Cissè. With Zarate’s intricate dribbles and the assists of midfielder “The Prophet” Hernanes (in stupendous form, by the way), Lazio will feel they’re up to taking a crack at the lesser cup.

The Making of a Cosmopolitan Rome

Mere days ago, DiBenedetto and the Italian investment bank Unicredit signed a formal agreement over the ownership of AS Roma; the Bostonian real-estate mogul and his team have thus assumed control of 67% of the team, with the remaining third owned by the Unicredit Bank. Thus, the first and only foreign-owned Serie A club has come into being.

I’ve said before that this is a very good thing, both for Roma fans and the Serie A as a whole. In a nutshell, a strong Roma makes for a stronger league as a whole, while Roman success in this year’s Europa League will help stop Serie A’s slide in the UEFA coefficients. That’s the immediate sensation, anyways.

Beyond money, however, what really intrigues is the introduction of a foreign philosophy into a league that has traditionally dismissed it. That’s not to say that Italian clubs haven’t valued or exalted players from outside Italy—they’ve been recruiting South Americans since at least the 1920s. But there has always been an emphasis on promoting homegrown players.

Look at the stats: Over sixty percent of the professional players in the Serie A are Italian nationals, while in the Premier League, that corresponding number hovers around 37%. But even that 60% is still unpalatable for many. After Italy’s shambolic nosedive in the 2010 World Cup, many commentators laid the blame on a league that didn’t give Italians enough playing time; to balance what they saw as a threat to the Italian national team, the Lega decreed that Serie A clubs could only sign one non-EU player a year. Not surprisingly, this only weakened the league further. A year later, after incensed owners complained that the organization had shot itself right in the foot, the ceiling was raised back to two.

But off the pitch there remains a very Italian way of running a club. For instance, look at who’s coaching in the Serie—of the twenty managers employed right now, only two of them were born outside the peninsula. The first is Siniša Mihajlović at Fiorentina. The second is Roma’s newly arrived Luis Enrique.  And yes, Italians are right to pride themselves on a tactical heritage that has netted them four World Cup trophies. But for all the tactical heterogeneity that flourishes within the Serie A, certain tenets remain sacred. Defense comes first. Better an older player with experience than a youngster with talent. Lots of crosses. Lots of long balls. Sink deep and counter.

What makes the arrival of DiBenedetto so exciting is that the appreciation for this legacy syncs with his willingness to work outside it. First, he snagged a Serie A veteran in the form of Walter Sabatini, ex-Palermo, the man responsible for discovering Javier Pastore (among many others) and paired him with Franco Baldini, assistant manager to Capello’s England and formerly a Roma Sporting Director himself (the man responsible for bringing in Batistuta). So, immediately there’s a wealth of Italian experience.

But contrary to expectations, Sabatini immediately hires Barcelona B coach Luis Enrique; the old guard is let go (Vucinic, Mexes, Doni, Riise), a younger crop comes in (Bojan, Lamela, Jose Angel, Stekelenburg). Preseason matches emphasize possession, technique and youth academy players. And Sabatini has stated that four or five high-caliber players will be signed before the transfer window closes, likely in that technical vein.

Whether or not prospective future buyers invest in the Serie A hinges greatly on the success of the American project in Rome, making the Lupi one of the teams to follow this season.

Big Versus Small, Starring TV Money

One of the most important clashes of the Serie A will not be contested on the pitch, but in the boardrooms of the Serie A, where a determined clutch of club owners look to fundamentally rewrite the peninsula’s footballing hierarchies. I am, of course, talking about money. Television money.

Television rights aren’t adjudicated in a universal manner across Europe.  Clubs in both Germany and England split television revenues equally, while La Liga divvies up the pie based on marketshare (i.e. fanbase). This means that in 2009, Real Madrid received 40 times the amount extended to small-town club Almeria (though the arrival of Malaga’s sheiks portend fierce debate over this).

Italy, as usual, straddles the issue uncomfortably. The inequality is not as ludicrously disproportionate as in Spain, but the top five—Juventus, AC Milan, Inter, Roma, Napoli—receive monies in accordance with the size of their fan-base as established by a third-party consultibng firm. At least, that used to be the case. In May, Italy’s Federal Justice courts upheld the Lega’s decision to restructure the criteria of “fan-base” in a manner beneficial to Italy’s medium-small clubs, to the tune of 200 million euros.

The story isn’t over.  Cast by now ex-President Rosella, AS Roma’s Lega vote has reputedly infuriated new American owner Thomas DiBenedetto as Rome, in fact, will benefit from the new arrangement. Slowly, it seems Napoli’s De Laurentiis has come to the same conclusion.

Italian bureaucracy is rightfully notorious for its deathly pace, so a final conclusion may be a ways away, but you can expect to see fissures within the Lega expand over the coming months.

Increased Competition

In the most entertaining season since the Calciopoli scandal, AC Milan violently deposed cross-town rivals Inter as the team in Italy, rippling what had become a stagnant, strangled competition. For too long it had almost gone without saying that the Nerazzuri would stroll to yet another consecutive title, with all rivals registering a merely nominal resistance (except for a plucky Roma that took the race to within a point two seasons ago).

AC Milan’s Scudetto last term heralds not just the renaissance of a traditional Italian titan, but a shift in the very structure of power. Take Napoli: Not having won a Scudetto since the days of Maradona and Ferrara, last year Mazzari’s men took a brazen title, pushing their Milanese counterparts to the very end of the campaign. Likewise, Udinese spellbound the competition with top scorer Di Natale and Barcelona-bound wunderkind Alexis Sanchez.

Best of all, last season was merely the beginning. De Laurentiis continues to astutely reinforce his squad, notably with Swiss midfielder Gokhan Inler and defensive wild-card Miguel Britos now on the books. A new-look Roma side flush with Latin talent will look to repay the largess of their newly-arrived American owners with some silverware. A cornered Juventus must return to European competition if they are to remain relevant to world football. Inter will want to kick all this to curb as soon as possible.

For the first time in what seems like an eternity, competition for the title will be tense and contested until the very end of May. I, for one, am ready for a little excitement.