Football Season Guide

After a poor start to the campaign, the first under coach Paolo Zanetti, last season Empoli managed to straighten the ship and eventually reach safe shores, sealing their salvation well ahead of what was expected. Even though they were quite inconsistent and had serious offensive problems, they scored only 37 goals, they were sometimes spectacular and even pulled famous wins against giants like Inter and Juventus. Empoli summer was quite a busy one with players coming and going, as several of their talents attracted interest from bigger clubs while a whole bunch of loanees returned to their parent clubs. Undoubtedly, Vicario’s departure represents the main loss for coach Zanetti. The new Tottenham goalie was often considered among the best Serie A players last season. Caprile, on loan from Napoli, will have to prove his worth after doing well at Bari in Serie B. Empoli suffered another major loss at left-back, as Parisi left for pastures new: he will be replaced by Pezzella, potentially a talent but hardly capable of becoming a protagonist wherever he went. In the midfield, Bandinelli and Akpa Akpro left but they managed to hire Ranocchia, who had an inconsistent season at Monza. If nothing else, wonder boy Baldanzi should remain at the club after impressing in the past campaign. However, the attack was the area Empoli needed to strengthen the most and little has been done so far. In fact, they got rid of all the deadwood, like Pjaca, Destro and a forgettable Satriano, but also had to wave goodbye to their top scorer Cambiaghi, 7 goals and 2 assists, while they only hired 20-year-old Shpendi, who did well in Serie C last season. Considering that Caputo is not getting any younger, more should be done up-front. New signings, winger and attacking midfielder Gyasi and Maldini could become protagonists in the new 4-2-3-1 system.