Another week, another round of big stories coming from Serie A. First of all, Milan have been excluded from Europa League next season, but the ruling has been milder than most expected. The Rossoneri will appeal to the CAS, meanwhile Atalanta and Fiorentina are set to benefit from this decision.
Few big transfers were made official this week: Radja Nainggolan has left Roma to join Inter on a €38M deal that includes Davide Santon. The Nerazzurri have also brought in Matteo Politano from Sassuolo. Juventus have found a new starting right back in Joao Cancelo, signed from Valencia for €40M. La Lupa continues get stuff done and have announced the arrival of Javier Pastore: even if the loss of the Ninja is a big one, they have replenished the midfield with the former PSG, Bryan Cristante from Atalanta and Ante Coric from Dinamo Zagreb. Then their ninth purchase was the young defender William Bianda from Lens. Rolando Maran got one of his guys: Cagliari have acquired Lucas Castro from Chievo.
The return of Domenico Criscito to Genoa has not gotten off the best start: the defender fractured the fifth toe in his left foot in a domestic accident and underwent surgery. He is expected to be sidelined for a couple of months, a timetable that sets his return around the first matchday, but the injury obviously affects his offseason program.
Few note-worthy extensions were penned this week. Raul Albiol has signed a new deal with Napoli, eliminating the low release clause of the previous one, so he will be staying despite the interest from some Spanish clubs. The pillars Giorgio Chiellini and Andrea Barzagli have prolonged their stay at Juventus: the former was a lock, the latter was set to become a free agent.
Manuel Lazzarri extended his contract with SPAL till 2023, so his jump to a bigger team will likely be delayed. His new back-up will be Lorenzo Dickmann, whom the Estensi have bought from Novara. Perparim Hetemaj re-upped with Chievo: he had an expiring contract and some suitors were sniffing around. Atalanta have locked down Luca Valzania, who is coming off a couple of successful seasons in Serie B and could be part of the roster for next season.
Inter spent the week selling youngsters in order to abide by the Financial Fair Play regulations: Andrei Radu and Federico Valietti were shipped to Genoa, Davide Bettella and Marco Carraro to Atalanta, Rey Manaj to Albacete, while Jens Odgaard and Nicolò Zaniolo were part of the Politano and Nainggolan packages. They have a buy-back clause for all of them, in the meantime they have registered over €30M of net profit. In the bunch, the two Grifoni are the most likely to get decent minutes in the upcoming Serie A season.
There were some minor transfer market movements as well. Fiorentina have pulled the plug on Gil Dias, cutting short the loan spell from Monaco as they could have kept him for 2018/2019 too: the winger moved to Nottingham Forest. Bologna has not retained Cheick Keita and Birmingham sent him to Eupen.
Cagliari have loaned out Senna Miangue to Standard Liegi, Torino’s Danilo Avelar moved to Corinthians for a season and the Felsinei did the same with Marios Oikonomou, who will play for AEK Athens. Sassuolo have acquired 20-year-old versatile defender Lorenzo Sernicola, who belonged to Ternana but spent last season at Matera in the third league.
Palermo have lost a second appeal against the result of the playoff final against Frosinone, so the promotion of the Ciociari to Serie A is now final. On the other hand, Parma continue to wait for the potential trial about Emanuele Calaio’s inappropriate text messages, but as days pass, it is unlikely to affect last year’s standings. Chievo have been deferred for rigging the balances with fake profits overvaluing youngsters: a situation that could have major implications, but will take a while to get sorted.
Finally, Inter and Chievo have hired their new U19 coaches. The Beneamata have chosen veteran manager Armando Madonna, while the Flying Donkeys have poached Paolo Mandelli from Sassuolo. They have also appointed Andrea Catellani from Virtus Entella as new director of the youth system.
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