Football Season Guide

The past one was a very tough and complicated season for Ascoli, who managed to avoid the immediate relegation in Lega Pro only in the very last round...in the end they reached a very honourable 15th position. All in all an excellent outcome for a team that had been built to participate to the Lega Pro league and was admitted to Serie B only at the end of August because of the penalty imposed to Teramo...little time to purchase or take on loan higher level and more experienced players and little time for the coach to put together many new players. After an obvious poor beginning that forced the club to fire inexperienced coach Petrone and entrust the bench to Devis Mangia, things slowly got better especially after the winter break. Unfortunately few rounds before the end Mangia left for some health problems and the bench entrusted to the Primavera coach who anyway managed to save the bianconeri from relegation. In summer the club appointed as new coach Alfredo Aglietti who had an excellent past season with Virtus Entella. While Mangia usually fielded the squad with a very defensive 4-1-4-1, Aglietti should opt for a more attacking system of play, either the 4-3-1-2 or the 4-3-3. As for the transfer market the very good news is that they managed to keep forward Daniele Cacia who last year scored 17 goals. Moreover Ascoli continued their collaboration with Udinese, excellent midfielder Jankto went back to Friuli but interesting midfielders Hallberg and Jaadi made the opposite path. In attack they lost Petagna who went back to Atalanta but the nerazzurri gave on loan former Salernitana Leonardo Gatto. For the moment the team seems weakened in defense where they lost Mitrea and Milanovic. The beginning of the season wasn't very good as the bianconeri were defeated by Lecce, a Lega Pro team, in the second round of Coppa Italia.