The Old Lady is back, so we can rightly say Serie A is back in full swing this season. No disrespect to Inter and their championship sweep last term, but Italy’s top division isn’t quite the same without Turin giants Juventus, and their absence last season certainly took some of the excitement out of Serie A. Of course, Inter’s title also owed much to the form of Juventus old boys Patrick Vieira and Zlatan Ibrahimovic – who opted out of the drop to Serie B – and when you consider that the likes of Lazio and Milan had huge points deficits to overcome, it’s no surprise that the Nerrazurri took the scudetto at a canter.
Things are sure going to be different this term, with Juve joining the usual pretenders – Inter, Milan and Roma – for what should be a closer race.
Inter are my favourites to repeat, after adding the prolific goalscoring of David Suazo to an already strong squad. They’ll have to do without Marco Materazzi early in the season, but they have the squad to cope with that, especially with the highly-rated Christian Chivu arriving from Roma. The stability of keeping virtually the same team will serve the Nerazurri well, but I think Roberto Mancini has his eyes firmly set on the Champions League this year. That could prove a distraction from Scudetto ambitions.
Milan look a little too old again – Paolo Maldini, Dida, Alessandro Nesta, Pippo Inzaghi, Ronaldo, Clarence Seedorf, Massimo Ambrosini are all over 30 – but we’ve been saying that for the past 4 years and they conquered Europe last season. The arrival of Brazilian Emerson from Real Madrid does nothing to reduce that average age – nor does it raise the team’s entertainment value – but they got a potential gem in the shape of 17-year old Alexandre Pato, one of Brazil’s few successes at the recent World Youth Championships. I think he’s one for the future though and much would depend on the form of Pirlo, Kaka and Seedorf his season.
Roma still have Francesco Totti – will he ever move? – and boast an impressive midfield with newcomers Mauro Esposito and Ludovic Guily complementing Daniele De Rossi and Alberto Aquilani. Brazilian centre-back Juan, arrives to replace the departing Chivu in defence but they just don’t look as solid a team as they did three to four years ago under Fabio Capello.
Juventus got off to flying start, scoring five goals last weekend, and that would boost confidence no end. Again, it’s a different team from the one that “won” back-to-back titles under Capello. David Trezeguet is back with old hands, Pavel Nedved, Gigi Buffon and Alex Del Piero, but there are several new faces as well. Vincezo Iaquinta has loads of serie A experience and should fit in well, and the likes of Tiago (ex-Porto, ex-Chelsea, ex-Lyon) and Jorge Andrade (ex-Deportivo la Coruna) have decent track records. But it’s all down to the “Tinkerman”, Claudio Ranieri, to mould these different parts into an effective whole.
I’ll bet you want me to stick my neck out and pick a winner – just so you can call me on it in May. Okay, fair enough. I don’t think Juve will win in their first season back, and I don’t think Roma have a deep enough squad to last the distance. It’ll be one of the Milan teams – my heart says Milan but my head disagrees: Internazionale to win again.
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