Teams ramped up their activity in the first official week in an effort to give their coaches full squads by the start of the pre-season camps: Inter got busy and announced the signings of Diego Godin on a free transfer from Atletico Madrid, Stefano Sensi on loan with option to buy from Sassuolo and Valentino Lazaro from Hertha Berlin. Juventus answered with Adrien Rabiot from PSG and Merih Demiral from the Neroverdi and reunited with Gianluigi Buffon.
Milan added Theo Hernandez from Real Madrid, while Atalanta brought back Mario Pasalic on loan from Chelsea: the midfielder will continue to provide valuable depth in a pair of positions and had a sneakily good end of the 2018/2019 season, notching five goals in total. Napoli bought out David Ospina from Arsenal, who proved to be reliable last season and will continue to back up Alex Meret in the upcoming campaign. Lazio made an investment for a change and purchased Denis Vavro from Copenhagen: a big 23-year-old defender that will try to find minutes in a back-line that did not have many certainties past Francesco Acerbi, considering they are reportedly going to move on from Stefan Radu. They also signed young striker Bobby Adekanye from Liverpool at the end of his contract, hoping to repeat some of the bargains of the past.
Genoa brought in Cristian Zapata from Milan and Sinan Gumus from Galatasaray on Bosman transfers: two decent reinforcements for cheap for a squad that needs to be considerably shored up after last year’s near-relegation. Zapata adds experience to a back-line that often left a lot to be desired: he can play in any of three centre-back spots. Gumus spent the last five years at Galatasaray, notching 33 goals and 16 assists in 116 appearances. The 25-year-old Turk is a versatile forward, who can feature on either flank or as second-striker, which is his most likely destination. A similar player like Diego Farias thrived in that position in the final few months at Empoli, but Gumus’ playing time will hinge on their other summer moves and especially on whether or not they will cash in on Christian Kouame.
Bologna are assembling an improved roster after convincing Sinisa Mihajlovic to stick around and bought Stefano Denswil from Club Brugge and Jerdy Schouten from Excelsior. The former is a 26-year-old versatile defender who grew up at Ajax and has some international experience, while the latter is an offensive-minded midfielder, similar to Roberto Soriano, whom he will likely back up at first. Denswil is the second centre-back they have added in after Mattia Bani and they are not done there.
One in and one out for Udinese, which sold the veteran midfielder Valon Behrami to Sion but signed the 23-year-old Brazilian defender Rodrigo Becao from Bahia, who has already played one season in Europe, at CSKA Moscow, and will try to take one of the starting jobs away from Sebastien De Maio and Bram Nuytinck. They permanently sold two former loanees: Ali Adnan to Vancouver Whitecaps and Pawel Bochniewicz to Gornik Zabrze.
Two teams have found their new starting goalies: SPAL poached Etrit Berisha from Atalanta on a loan with conditioned obligation to buy, likely tied to avoiding relegation. Berisha is a decent goalkeeper, but Gian Piero Gasperini at some point went with the youngster Pierluigi Gollini and did not look back. They were unable to retain Emiliano Viviano, who was on loan from Sporting CP last season. Lecce’s sticks will be defended by Gabriel, who joined on a free transfer from Milan and played in Serie B at Perugia last season. He previously spent time at Empoli in the top league. Fiorentina brought back Pietro Terracciano on a permanent deal as a back-up.
Brescia signed their first reinforcement after the promotion: the striker Florian Aye from Clermont Foot, who was highly prolific in Ligue 2 last season and should complement well their top guy up front Alfredo Donnarumma. Sampdoria sent David Ivan and Maxime Leverbe, previously at Cagliari, to Chievo as part of the Fabio Depaoli deal, while Fiorentina’s Rafik Zekhnini will stay on loan at Twente for another season.
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