Monza

The recent past has been very impressive for Monza, as they went all the way up to the top tier of Italian football starting from amateur football. Their first historic participation in the Serie A actually even saw them getting very close to a qualification to the European competitions. In fact, after a poor start to the campaign, which led to an early coach Giovanni Stroppa sacking, they straightened the ship under Raffaele Palladino, at his first experience as head coach. Having lost only once between March and mid-May, Monza eventually ran out of breath and lost the last 2, thus finishing 11th, only 4 points away from Fiorentina and the Conference League. The summer was not an easy one for Monza as their owner, entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi, died and it was, and it still is, unclear what his heirs would do with the club. Coach Palladino did not heed the offers by other clubs and decided to stay on, which is great news. In terms of departures, they saw a few players returning to their parent clubs. Among them, centre-back Marlon, who should be replaced by experienced D’Ambrosio coming from Inter, and the midfielders Sensi, who did not leave much of a mark, Ranocchia and, most of all, Rovella. Gagliardini, also coming from Inter, should thus be granted a starting place but more players are needed in that department. Back-up goalie Cragno left for Sassuolo and Gori arrived from Juventus to replace him. With Gytkjaer released, they are now short up-front with only Petagna and Dani Mota as strikers. Maric did well in the preseason but, at 27, he is a non-entity for the league.