Empoli

For the first time in their history, Empoli will play for the 4th year in a row in Serie A. But things could have been much different, had they not obtained an unexpected injury-time win over Roma, which led them to salvation, in the last week of the past campaign. In fact, their season had started disastrously under Paolo Zanetti, who was sacked after 4 defeats and no goals scored, while Aurelio Andreazzoli, his substitute at the helm of the team, only lifted them up to the 19th place, come January. At this point, the management hired Davide Nicola instead and he managed to lead them to reach safety by the skin of their teeth. At the end of the campaign, Nicola decided to quit for pastures new and Empoli handed the reins of the team to Roberto D’Aversa, who had a good season at Lecce before being sacked for disciplinary reasons. Since the club relies mostly on players coming from the youth system or on loan from bigger clubs, the new coach will have to deal with a renewed squad. Thus, in goal, they lost starting Caprile, returning to Napoli, and back-up Berisha together with injured Perisan and they will be replaced by Vasquez, on loan from Milan after a good stint at Ascoli, and Brancolini. In the heart of the defence, they lost Luperto but saw Viti returning, on loan from Nice, after a poor experience at Sassuolo. With Bereszynski gone, Stojanovic, back from a loan at Sampdoria, should become the new back-up right-back. In the midfield starting Maleh returned to his parent club such as back-up Marin, Kovalenko and Bastoni while they only saw Henderson and Haas back after stints elsewhere. Therefore, they are still in the hunt for a potential starter. However, it was the attack that changed the most with starting Cambiaghi and Cancellieri gone, together with Cerri, Niang and Destro. They signed Colombo and Esposito on loan but they are still short in that department.