Football Season Guide

For the first time in ages, in the past campaign Milan incredibly failed qualifying to the European competitions. It was a disastrous campaign for them from all points of view: technical as both Allegri and Seedorf were sacked for faults that were not completely their own, managerial as there was, and still there is, confusion on who was or is giving the orders, Galliani or Barbara Berlusconi, and, consequently, in terms of the transfer campaign, with useless players and too many duplicates filling the squad. The current season will thus represent some sort of a re-foundation for the club and the squad. The former star Filippo Inzaghi will be the man at the helm of the team: he was quite successful with the junior team but has no experience as a coach in Serie A. Of course, this might represent a big risk for the Devils. He should be adopting a 4-3-3 formation and, for such reason, the management has been trying to re-shape the squad that was meant more for a 4-2-3-1. For some reason or another, stars like Kakà and Robinho left and, along with them, a few players who had had little chance to shine in the past campaign, such as Emanuelson, Constant, Birsa, Silvestre and Amelia. On the other hand, Taarabt returned to QPR, his loan deal having come to an end: a loss that is being regretted. Diego Lopez, from Real Madrid, is expected to start in goals with De Sciglio and Armero, a rather unpredictable player who has failed to impose himself since his early Udinese days, or Albertazzi as the full-backs and Alex, from PSG, to join Rami in the heart of the back four. Poli and De Jong could be joined by promising Saponara in the midfield while extroverted, and not always reliable, Menez, also from PSG, should act in the forward three together with Balotelli and El Shaarawy, who has to prove himself again after a long injury absence. However, more big names could be arriving as Milan aim at returning at the top as soon as possible.