Football Season Guide

For their second season in Serie A after a 50-year-absence, SPAL managed to achieve quiet safety again, hardly ever being involved in the struggle for survival. However, with 18 defeats, they were the most-losing side outside the bottom three. Coach Leonardo Semplici, who brought them all the way up to the top flight of Italian football from the Lega Pro, will be in charge for the 6th year in a row. This makes him the longest serving man in charge of the same side in the current Serie A. Over the summer, SPAL lost their best man by far. In fact, Lazzari was sold to Lazio for some precious cash. This was basically unavoidable, considering that the Ferrara side hold one of the lowest budgets in the league. Besides Lazzari, Viviano had to travel back to Sporting Lisbon, Regini to Sampdoria and Bonifazi to Torino, their parent clubs, while Antenucci, at 35, opted for a move to the third tier. Schiattarella and Costa, who did not play much last season, also left for good. The newly-arrived Berisha will thus become the protagonist between the posts, even though last season at Atalanta, at one stage he disappeared from the radar due to some under-performing. Igor, from the Austrian Bundesliga, will be contending for a place in the back three together with the well-seasoned Felipe and Vicari. D’Alessandro and Di Francesco, both arriving on loan, will be asked to act on the right flanks. The former, in particular, will have to make supporters forget Lazzari. With Antenucci gone, though, and Floccari one year older, they seem to be lacking some depth in the attack.