Football Season Guide

In the last couple of seasons, with coach Reja in charge, Lazio came real close to obtaining an un-hoped for qualification to the Champions League. Unfortunately for them, though, they always ended up failing such an extraordinary result in the very last weeks of the season. Thus, aiming at some improvement, the management decided to replace Reja with Petkovic. At his first experience in the Italian football, the Serbian coach is expected to obtain a big result with a rather unchanged squad. In fact, apart from Ederson, who will be providing some more quality in the midfield, no new players were really signed. On the other hand, a whole group of players returned from their more or less successful loans all around the country. Zarate is the one who could actually make it back to the starting eleven, provided he is not sold before the end of the transfer campaign. He is the only player who could actually form a decent forward two together with Klose. Kozak should represent an alternative up-front while Sculli and Foggia are expected to leave. As a matter of fact, a whole group of fringe players, like Makinwa or Del Nero, who had almost no opportunities to show their skills in the recent seasons, were let go without any regrets. Lazio could be punished, together with some of their players, Mauri above all, for match-fixing. A final decision will be taken in September. If so, their ambitions would be downsized.