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Serie A: Calciomercato New Year resolutions

Serie A: Calciomercato New Year resolutions

  • David Amoyal
With the 2017 almost behind us, it’s time to look to the future. While there have been many encouraging signs for Italian football aside from the Azzurri’s shocking elimination from the upcoming World Cup, there’s still plenty of room for improvements.
In the spirit of new year resolutions for 2018, let’s take a look at what the major Serie A teams, as well as the league as a whole, have to work on for next year:
 
Milan
 
I’m tempted to say that in 2018 I’d like for Milan to simply be the Milan I grew up with, but I would settle for two things: no more drama and uncertainty with the ownership situation, and much more talk about wins on the pitch in the present without a constant looking back to the glory days when things go badly.

Recent history reminds us that before you can run, you must first crawl and then walk. In recent years we’ve had a few false starts: a good string of games under Mihajlovic, Montella at least qualifying for the Europa League followed by a very exciting transfer window. But ultimately, it’s hard to say that Milan is any better than when Allegri was sacked, as a matter a fact after the losses to Hellas Verona and Atalanta things are probably worse than on the day Berardi scored a poker against the rossoneri.

A return to being a contender for the scudetto is likely a few years away, but in meantime would be great if the loan to the Elliott fund was paid- even better if by an ownership group that has the means to make Milan great again rather than after refinancing the current debt, which would ultimately be like kicking the can down the road.


 
Inter
 
This section would look a lot different had it been written after the draw in Turin against Juventus, which was followed by an appearance of Pazza Inter. But there are still some reasons for optimism going into the new year: Walter Sabatini has had a very positive impact on the team’s transfers, especially in the way he ensured the club met their Financial Fair Play obligations without selling Perisic, and you can make a great case the two best upgrades in summer where Spalletti replacing Pioli and Skriniar taking over for Murillo.

In 2018, Inter will look to return to the Champions League, a competition that neither Handanovic and Icardi have yet to participate in. After locking up Perisic to an extension, it would be great if Inter did the same with Icardi while also raising his 100 million exit clause. Look for Sabatini and Ausilio to target more young players with upside in an effort to repeat the Skriniar deal.




Napoli
 
The obvious answer is for the scudetto pact to pay off. While Napoli didn’t spend much on new players last summer, they invested very significantly to keep their core pieces by giving extensions to Insigne, Mertens a year after doing the same with Koulibaly and Hysaj (they recently did the same to Ghoulam, whose value to the club became even more apparent after missing matches because of a knee injury).

While there’s disappointment for how things went in the Champions League, no one will remember the poor performances against Shakhtar and Feyenoord should Sarri be able to lead the partenopei to their first Serie A title since the Maradona era. Beyond success on the pitch, would be great for Napoli’s long term future to make headway on the stadium front- especially since Roma is well on their way in this regard.
 


Juventus
 
The easy answer is to see Gigi Buffon lifting the Champions League cup next May 26th in Kiev, which would be the perfect ending to his remarkable career. Short of that happening, the next best thing would be for Juventus to ve on the other end of the most expensive transfer in Serie A history by convincing Lazio president Lotito to end his feud with Marotta by sending Milinkovic Savic on his way to Turin- considering the suitors with deep pockets interested in the Serbian midfielder, he’ll likely go for more than Pogba did in summer of 2016.

Would be even more special for Juventus to sign Milinkovic Savic (which by the way I think is quite unlikely as things stand) without having to sacrifice one of their crown jewels, which is what Juve had to do every time they signed a significant player in recent years (Vidal for Dybala, Pogba for Higuain, Bonucci for Bernardeschi). Considering the massive increase in the club’s revenues in recent years this would be a logical next step, although the financial prudency hasn’t prevented them from winning despite numerous core players.

Speaking of core players, would also be great to see a member of Juve’s squad winning the Ballon d’Or for the first time in fourteen years- and the best candidate in 2018 would be Buffon which is only feasible should the bianconeri win the cup with the Mickey Mouse ears.
  
 

Roma
 
Considering Sabatini and Spalletti’s departures as well as Totti’s retirement, it’s safe to say 2017 brought a lot of changes to the giallorossi. Overall things look on the way up for Pallotta’s club: they qualified out of the group of death in the Champions League, manager Di Francesco has been a revelation and off the pitch massive headway was made on the stadium front.
To keep the positive momentum going, Roma can hope for an end to the insane streak of torn ACLs on the team, a full return to health for Patrik Schick and the addition of more creative players to a team known more for brute force.
 
Italian Football as a whole
 
A new FIGC president with a long term vision to bring back Italy back to the glory days of the 80s and 90s would probably then set in motion all the other dominos needed, starting with a manager for the Azzurri closer to Antonio Conte’s caliber than Giampiero Ventura.
But that is just scratching the surface, there need to be more plans for team owned stadiums: Cagliari is next in line to open a new facility, while Fiorentina and especially Roma have made progress with one of the toughest opponent out there- Italian bureaucracy.

We’ve seen a positive trend with top players staying in Italy: all six strikers with over twenty goals scored last season stayed at their clubs, and while Bonucci, Skriniar and Bernardeschi were sold, rather than going abroad they went to another Serie A team.

@DavidAmoyal