Football Season Guide

Even though they achieved salvation very early and they fought for a top 10 finish almost until the very end, Chievo Verona cannot be too happy with the way the past season went. In fact, compared with the previous campaign, they proved more inconsistent and displayed too many problems both defensively and offensively. They tended to alternate negative and positive streaks, often conceding too many goals - quite a disappointment for what had been the fourth best defence of the whole Serie A just one year earlier. First of all, Rolando Maran will spend his fourth year with the Flying Donkeys and he will will have to tighten the defence which has remained basically intact over the summer. In fact, only Gennaro Sardo, who retired, and Nicolas Spolli left but they did not really spend much time on the pitch. Thus, in front of the solid Stefano Sorrentino, Fabio Cacciatore and the ageing Massimo Gobbi will still be acting as the main full-backs. Nicolas Frey and the new-comer Paweł Jaroszyński, a Polish left-back unknown at this level, will act as the alternatives. Meanwhile, Dario Dainelli, Alessandro Gamberini and Boštjan Cesar will still be competing as centre-backs. Mattia Bani, returning from a positive loan at Pro Vercelli, could be given some decent playing time considering the age of the regulars. In the midfield, Maran will be spoilt for choice. Chievo did manage to keep the likes of Ivan Radovanovic, Perparim Hetemaj and, above all, Lucas Castro together with some valid replacements like Samuel Bastien and Luca Rigoni. The club have also added an interesting prospect in Gianluca Gaudino who joins from Bayern Munich. Mariano Izco, who had spent most of the past season on the sidelines, and Jonathan De Guzman, who failed to leave a mark, were let go without any regrets. Valter Birsa was another key player who did not leave the club despite the offers made. He is the man who is expected to initiate all their offensive actions and to take care of all the set pieces. This time around, he will have a promising replacement in Luca Garritano from Cesena. The attack was possibly the department that was strengthened the most during the transfer campaign while Serge Gakpe, who never really impressed, was allowed to go back to Genoa. In fact, Manuel Pucciarelli, who was relegated with Empoli last time out but had displayed plenty of qualities in the previous campaign, and Alejandro Rodriguez, who also had a positive season at Cesena, were added to the eternal Sergio Pellissier, the remarkable Roberto Inglese and injury-prone Riccardo Meggiorini in attack.