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Italian Football Thread


Kris.

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Thought it might be better to have an Italian football thread rather than just a dedicated Serie A one, as each year the thread gets filled with stuff from Serie B etc anyway, plus I imagine I'll be polluting this one with a lot of Parma/Lega Pro stuff!

Anyway, the Serie A fixtures are due out in a couple of weeks with the first round of games kicking off at the end of August. Can't seem to find any confirmation of when the Serie B/Lega Pro fixtures are out, but I'm fairly certain they are released after the Serie A ones, although I could be wrong.

Crotone, Cagliari & Pescara are the new sides in Serie A after winning promotion last year - Crotone in the top flight for the first time. Verona, Carpi and Frosinone the teams whose places they've taken. In Serie B, Como, Modena, Livorno & Virtus Lanciano were all relegated to Lega Pro, with Cittadella, SPAL, Pisa & Benevento all coming up from the third tier.

Lots happening over the summer as well so far, with the biggest stories probably being Pjanic moving from Roma to Juve (joining Dani Alves whose moved from Barcelona), Paul Pogba looking like he's leaving Juve for a world record fee and Marcelo Bielsa taking over at Lazio...then leaving after 2 days. :unsure2: 

Edited by Kris.
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Looking forward to another good season although hopefully someone puts up more of a fight to Juve this season. 

Is there anywhere that has reliable Italian lower league info? My wife's friend lives near Venafro but I can never find out how they're getting on and it would be good to see a game out there next time we pop over there.

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Thanks @Allan Jacobsen, I'll check Tuttocampo when the new season starts and try to get some of the local press too (I've never had much success with local news sites so have to rely on the corriere websites and stuff before now). Also hoping Napoli do something and that Milan can get their stuff together for a change. 

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On 09/07/2016 at 00:25, Allan Jacobsen said:

No bother. Tuttocampo is in Italian but as long as you know what you're looking for, it's pretty easy to navigate. I've had that problem myself regarding lower league Italian football. Very little information on Celano for example yet a lot of stuff on diddy teams such as Parma.

:guns

 

I was just looking through the Lega Pro wiki page and noticed that contrary to my OP, Virtus Lanciano won't play in the third tier next season as they haven't actually gotten a license, plus Sporting Bellinzago who won Serie D group A didn't even apply for a license, neither did Martina Franca who finished third bottom of their Lega Pro group last season. Paganese were also excluded from the league, they finished 10th in the same group as Martina Franca. From the groups shown for next season, it doesn't seem like another club from Serie D has taken Bellinzago's place, which I thought was the whole point of the play-off games they had at the end of last season. Another Lega Pro club might have been spared relegation instead, but I can't be arsed checking right now.

Parma have been quite fortunate in their group placings as they avoided the bigger of the Serie B sides to come down (Modena & Livorno) and ended up in Group A with Como who finished bottom of the second tier and only won 5 games all year. Realistically since the groups are sorted by location (North/Central/South) they couldn't have gotten Livorno anyway, but Modena is just along the road and could have been a possibility. They did however end up with Piacenza and Venezia who won their own Serie D groups. Funnily enough, Piacenza (1st), Parma (2nd) and Venezia (3rd) picked up the highest points total from the 9 Serie D champions. Quite looking forward to the league starting, should hopefully have more luck getting streams of their games than I managed last year.

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13 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

The Italian lower leagues always bemuse me a little in terms of promotions/relegations

Once you're beyond Serie B, it can get ridiculous. Even just from my post above there's 4 teams who should be in the third tier next year but won't be, f**k knows what's going on even further down the pyramid.

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7 hours ago, Allan Jacobsen said:


The deadline for clubs to make final submissions for membership to Lega Pro etc is 15th July I believe.

I believe Messina and Akragas from Girone C are in bother too. Pisa did not get a Serie B licence. Vicenza are in trouble as well so if they don't get into Serie B then Livorno will be put back into Serie B.

Melfi are certain to be saved from relegation now. Rimini are still in bother. Modena are fine. Carrarese, who went bankrupt, are apparently safe as they founded a new company. I don't like that personally. If you go bankrupt, you should start in a lower division hence the reason I strongly dislike Catanzaro.

I'll have a look to see what else I can find.

 

7 hours ago, Allan Jacobsen said:

Lucchese may not be given a licence AGAIN. Third time they have got themselves settled into Lega Pro/Serie C, third time this has happened. I think it's only been 10 years between their first enforced demotion to Eccellenza and this potential new one.

Venezia will be a danger next season. They're still picking up some very good players for that level plus Inzaghi is in charge. They'll need to do well this year, as in promotion to Serie B, or I expect them to be bankrupt again next year.

Regarding lower level stuff - goodness knows. They might not be announced until 15th July. I'd be surprised if Sorrento (4 relegations in 4 years) are still around as they are skint and no longer play in Sorrento itself I believe.

My concern is Celano obviously. Not seen anything to suggest financial troubles - which, of course, means they'll be humped.

Also Catania have been deducted 6 points for non-payment of a transfer fee to another club. They're a joke club just now. Relegated for match fixing, not paying transfer fees. Be interesting to see if they pick themselves up or if they'll be humped next season.

My only wish is that Catanzaro get relegated to Terza Categoria (ninth level) for being fannies.

Cheers for all that. So is it all purely financial reasons that are stopping clubs getting licenses?
Shame about Pisa, it had taken them long enough to get back up. Gattuso will (hopefully) be seething. For some reason I thought they were far more successful than they are. Just had a look at wiki there and it seems this would have only been their 3rd season in the second tier in about 22 years. As it stands now they've actually had as many bankruptcies in that time as seasons in Serie B.

ETA:  Agree on Catania being a bit of a joke these days, mental to think they finished 8th in Serie A just three years ago. Followed how they were doing for a while last season and they were fucking lucky not to finish in the relegation play-offs, think they avoided it by a point or something.

Edited by Max Power.
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On 14 July 2016 at 19:24, Max Power. said:

It's a good signing, but strange because they don't really need him. Unless they actually are expecting Bonucci to leave.

It's only a loan for now, but I was thinking more Rugani than Bonucci. Milan seem to want him either on loan or permanently for around €30M. I never realised that Barzagli's 35 years old now.

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Opening Weekend:

Atalanta-Lazio
Bologna-Crotone
Chievo-Inter
Empoli-Sampdoria
Genoa-Cagliari
Juventus-Fiorentina
Milan-Torino
Palermo-Sassuolo
Pescara-Napoli
Roma-Udinese

Juve v Fiorentina the highlight. Pescara v Napoli looks decent, too, as does Mihajlovic going back to Milan with Torino. Not the worst start for Crotone, either.

All Fixtures here:
LINK
 

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Hopefully Palermo can do better this season after their skin of the teeth escape last season but Franco Vazquez leaving isn't exactly a step towards that.

With Zamparini at the helm though it will be nothing if not eventful.  Wonder how many managers they will go through this year!

 

 

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Just now, Allan Jacobsen said:

Have they brought anyone in to replace Vazquez yet? To be fair, Palermo always manage to find a decent South American from somewhere. Their squad doesn't look impressive at all though.

Zamparini though - guy's batshit mental.

They were going to bring in a few players but then Zamparini fired the director of football cause he didn't want the players he'd identified.

So business as usual then.........ha ha!

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On 22/07/2016 at 19:53, Allan Jacobsen said:

Juve-Fiorentina straight off the bat. That'll be tasty. Hoping for Fiorentina to take points off them clearly.

Pescara have lost their top goalscorer from last season so it'll be interesting to see how they replace Lapadula. Last time they came up, they lost 2, if not all 3 of their top goalscorers and didn't replace them. Hopefully they'll have learned from that.

Looks like they're making moves in that department right now - Giovanni Simeone (Son of Diego) looks to be joining and they have made an apparent approach for Federico Macheda. Simeone could be an interesting one, only just turned 21 and seemed to have an alright spell on loan at Banfield. 12 goals in 34 games, having played a few of them out wide rather than up front, too, is a decent return. Macheda would be a very poor signing though, he's utter mince. There was also talk of Dani Osvaldo last month I'm sure, who'd be a decent signing IMO. His career seems to have went to shite a little since he left Southampton though.

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