Sabiri sees Desta Noglu out of the
poles and he does a masterpiece that unlocks the score. 1-0. Sabiri has caught up with his imagination.
Hello and welcome back to another season of Serie A Spotlight. We are hosts Matt and Jake and you can find us today in front of one of those illegal vans in Naples where they sell fake kits basically.
That's what our setup looks like today.
Firstly, the kits are entirely real as you know because we spent a lot of money on them.
But what Jake is referring to for those of you that normally just listen to our audio on Spotify, Apple Play, Google Podcasts or whatever, we've decided to introduce a little bit of video just for our TikTok platform, our Instagram platform, a bit of YouTube here and there.
We get that you guys don't just want to watch us talk about football for two hours long so we decided we'll just keep this for snippets.
Exactly and this will help you apply a bit of context to what we look like you know.
Exactly, stop thinking we're Jamaican. We're not that cool guys.
I'm clearly Libyan and he's clearly, what would you be?
Mexican I guess.
Colombian, you could be Colombian.
Maybe Colombian, but yes we'll have another season of Serie A coming up.
Obviously we all know what happened last season.
We started the podcast, we started going through matchday by matchday, what was going on.
We're still going to be doing that so we're going to be going through matchday one together, matchday two together, matchday three together and talking about how the games went.
But we've decided to remove the prediction series and instead I don't know if you want to introduce this.
Serie A, slips, Serie A spotlight slips.
Serie A, spotlight slips.
We're going to be working together instead of against each other every weekend.
We're going to be coming up with the best slips to bet on for the weekend.
Of course we do not encourage betting, we do not promote betting or gambling of any forms but we will do it just for entertainment purposes.
Exactly, bear in mind that gambling is gambling.
There's no right formula, we're always going to fuck up, we're always going to lose money.
So we just want to show you guys what we think is a good idea of a slip and how we think the games are going to turn out.
Hopefully this time I won't lie to Jake and tell him that's what I'm going to get from a kid.
He was meant to get me three from last season's fucking bets.
I got the none.
He got me none.
He said well you got me this one, the Saponara one.
I pitched in for this one heavily with Sarah.
The classic one, 1980s.
Exactly, thank you for explaining it to the viewers.
I keep thinking because we're on camera I don't have to do that.
Of course we're not uploading all the video, it doesn't make any sense, it takes too long.
Exactly, but yeah fuck it.
What we're going to do this time round guys for this episode, obviously this is a warm up for the entire season.
That's to come the entire 40 episodes that are still to come out in season two.
So what we're going to do is we're going to go through the entire league table of last season,
obviously removing the three relegated teams and introducing the three newly promoted teams.
Jake's going to give us a bit of insight about the manager, if they kept the same manager,
if they've replaced the manager, is the new manager better, is he worse, so on and so forth.
Twice I will be giving us a little bit of a transfer update.
Obviously still a couple of weeks left of the transfer window,
but hopefully this will give you guys a good idea of what's going on.
Yeah, so we can start from the top with Milan.
Oui.
Of course, so they're going to restart the season of course,
but purely at the helm as we know as always his contract expires in 2023.
The theme of the transfer market currently can be made in Belgium right now,
the arrivals of Origi and Decatelar.
They should be lining up with their usual 4-2-3-1 formation, kind of shift to a 4-3-3,
and there will be moments in the season where you're watching Milan,
you're going to be like what formation is this, where is everyone playing,
why is Calabria in the middle, why is Adli left back, what's going on,
like that's just the Piolli system, the 1v1, it creates a lot of confusion.
But the starting lineup should look like this.
Milan, Calabria, Calulu, Tomori, Hernandez, Benassir, Tonali, Decatelar, Adli, Leao, Origi.
That's what I would like to see as a Milan fan and as a Serie A fan.
I mean, Adli has shown so much during pre-season, obviously pre-season is pre-season.
You can't judge a team of how they perform in pre-season, but you can judge players.
It's as simple as that, and Adli down the middle looks incredible.
He looks amazing, man.
I saw a shout saying, he looks like Zidane with hair.
I saw a shout saying Decatelar in the attacking mid position,
because he's naturally an attacking midfielder,
and then Salamakker and Missias fighting for their place on the right-hand side.
I would prefer seeing Decatelar down the right, maybe being a bit more of a central right winger,
kind of like Barardi with his sweet left foot and his size, the size of Decatelar is incredible.
Yeah, he's like 6'2", literally.
Adli down the middle, because he's so forward-minded, he always wants to play the ball forward,
he always knows what's going on behind him.
And then Origi, I just want to see a bit of a change up there, I want to see a bit more pace,
I want to see a bit more, I don't know, a bit more explosiveness probably.
Even though Milan do thrive with a target man, of course let's not get into the starting formation too much,
because we know as the season progresses, everyone will get their turn,
and there will be moments where there won't be enough players in the squad, it's as simple as that.
Like what happened last season against Hellas Verona for Milan,
where Castille, Yeho and Kroon-Inshallah carried the team on their shoulders.
But anyway, what I do notice about Milan this time is that they have depth, a lot of depth,
to the point that a few injuries won't destroy them, you know,
granted they're going to be competing on all fronts,
I do feel like Milan, you know, being a pot one, are going to be looking to go even further in the Champions League.
They did very well last year, don't let the fourth place finish distracting Milan, played very well,
with a very thin squad.
So I think this year they'll take the Champions League a bit more seriously,
and I think that, you know, I think Milan have improved.
Yeah, I think Milan improved as well.
Piole did point out that when asked what else is left for Milan in the transfer market,
he made a very vague claim.
He said there's still a spot clearly available in midfield,
and there's a spot available in the defensive area as well.
So in the midfield, we know that Milan have been linked with Renato Sanchez quite a bit,
Liao and Manon are tired of commenting on his Instagram post at this point.
They've become their part-time job.
Literally, they must get commission of that.
And center back, I mean, fuck knows.
There was a JV being linked, you know.
There's obviously the whole Buttman thing that went on as well.
God knows what's going to happen over there.
But like you mentioned, so there have been the signings of the Catalar and Origi.
So the Catalar was signed for 32 million, Origi on the free.
There have also been Messias, Florenzi, Pobeg and Adli that have either been redeemed
or they returned from loan.
And then out of the club have left Romagnoli, Castille, Occhessi, Caldara.
And Caldara on loan to Spezia along with Daniel Maldini.
Who scored, he scored in the Coppa Italia.
Did he?
Yeah, he scored the fourth goal for Spezia in the Coppa.
Happy to see.
Yeah.
It's interesting to see, bro.
Like right now, apparently Barcelona can't redeem, or they have to, sorry,
they have to make a sale in order to redeem Kessy and Christensen.
I don't know exactly what it is, but they have until Saturday.
Exactly.
So, you know, Christensen and Kessy are a midfielder and a defender.
Just bring them in.
There you go.
Christensen, Jamie always mentioned to me that he'll be good in Italy
because he's good playing the ball out the back.
And that's pretty much all he's good at.
Because obviously he's not very highly rated.
So another was this whole thing about Milan balancing the books.
Milan have spent 32 million signing the Catalar and the income from all those signings,
all those names that we mentioned, Romagnoli, Castillejo, Kessy, Caldara, Maldini,
well, leave Caldara and Maldini out.
That's just an income of 13.05 million.
So you have Romagnoli on a free, Castillejo on a free, Kessy on a free.
I don't know where the 13.05 million come from, but Milan have only made 13.05 million.
I don't like to get too much into finances.
I know that.
Do you want to know how much the value of the departures were though?
The actual value of them?
99.7 million.
That's all Castillejo.
No, no, no.
5% of it is Castillejo, 95% of it is his pocket.
Great.
So that's Milan.
We're going to say where we think they're going to finish.
Exactly.
So I think we both believe that Milan removed a lot of the fringe players, brought in finally
those two positions that really needed to be cemented.
The right wing department, the striker department, the account department, you could say, has been somewhat fixed as well.
Lack of experience, but fantastic.
There's depth, there are options.
So for example, if Brahim flops again, it's not like, ah, fuck it, there's no one left.
You know, now you can plug in Pobega, you can plug in Adli, you can try out De Kettler there and put Messias on the right, Salamak is on the right.
There's room to play now for Milan.
Exactly.
Where do you think Milan ended up?
So, alright.
Obviously, I'm so stressed about this because I'm looking at my table and I disagree with every single little thing I put down.
Yes, I have my table in front of me and honestly, the top three is the toughest one.
Look, so originally I was thinking Juve, right?
And then I thought to myself, you know, I watched them a little bit in preseason, I watched a few highlights from last year, you know, and I remember that Allegri is at the helm.
He can get them going, you know, with a bit of momentum and they will get the results, 1-0 here, 1-0 there, 2-1, you know, all these types of victories.
And they have many good players now, you know, with Di Maria, we'll get into that.
I like the way this is going right now.
But I don't think that they have enough midfield depth to actually win the league, Juve, yet.
I agree.
Then that leaves Milan and Inter or Roma, who are the dark horses as well, but let's say Milan and Inter, let's keep it realistic.
I believe that Inter have a big sail to make and I have a feeling that sail might be screenier, right?
And if that does happen, I do believe that they will be significantly weaker without screenier.
You know, and considering the manner with which Milan won the league last year, everything seemed to be against them.
The calls, the injuries just kept getting worse and worse and worse for Milan.
At the point I was just like, this has to be some kind of social experiment to like see how long it will take me until I like, you know, do something extremely regretful.
But at the end of the day, Milan won the league.
Granted, it was by two points, but they were extremely dominant. They looked fucking pissed every time they dropped points.
So I think it would be unfair for me to come here and say, OK, Milan have improved, but they're not going to win the league.
You know, so I'm going to say I'm going to say it here that Milan are going to go back to back twice in a row.
Yes, I love it. I'm not. I'm not confident about it.
I love it. But it's just the prediction I have to make. I love it, man. I love it. Well done. Well done.
I have Milan in second. Reason being, I don't believe Inter have a big sale to make. It's as simple as that.
But anyways, let me just stick to Milan second for now so that when Inter and Juve come up, I will have something to say about them.
So, yeah, I would say Milan in second. I feel like they have significantly improved.
I think in certain areas of the season last year, we saw some serious weaknesses in Milan, particularly when the injuries came about, but not even when there were injuries about.
It's just the low block, man. Exactly. Penetrating the low block. Exactly.
And I see other teams just with some of the additional firepower that they have, which we'll get into later. I think that will take them all the way.
I think very much that Milan are there, bro. Milan can fucking do it. How many points do you think Milan won't win the league by?
No, like maximum five. Maximum five. It's not two victories apart. Like Milan are not two victories apart from anyone at the moment.
That's getting clipped of Milan come fifth. Yeah.
Shall we move on to Inter? Simone and Inzaghi's Inter, two trophies on the showcase for them. They have the Italian Super Cup and the Coppa Italia.
You know, they're going to stay together, Inzaghi and Inter. He's bound with them till 2024.
President Zhang on Instagram said that Inzaghi is a gift. Sorry, it's a gift to be able to work with Inzaghi.
Excuse my voice, I'm a little bit sick. The youngest manager in the league, by the way.
No. Oh, sorry, Zanetti is. He's the second. I forgot that Zanetti stayed in the league for a second.
So the only difference is that we can see the main differences that we can see is that Perisic has fucked off to Tottenham, leaving, of course, the left hand side in Gossens' very capable hands.
And they'll be lining up with their usual 3-5-2 formation, Handanovic between the sticks, he'll have pressure from Onana, Skriniar, Divri and Bastoni, Dumfries, Barela, Brozovic,
Celanoglu, Gossens, Lautaro, Lukaku. Now, isn't that the team that won the league two years ago? Yeah.
Minus Perisic. That's it. It's exactly the same team. And minus Celanoglu, actually. Yeah, there you go. There you go. And Onana.
Yeah. But what do you think, bro, about this team? I mean, I mean, you look at last season's great team towards the end of the season,
you could say they were directly, directly better than Milan. There was that fucking Coppa game, for example, that 3-0 where they just destroyed Milan.
Beginning of the season, midway through, yes, Milan were significantly better. And Milan got all of the dirty work done there, fucked off a little bit in the third quarter of the season.
Then the fourth quarter picked it up again. I think Inter were significantly better in that third quarter. And I think they were pretty consistent throughout the season.
There was one spell just after Christmas where they really fell off when they dropped points to Sastovol. Yes, that was what lost them points.
That's when Lautaro sucked. Exactly. When Lautaro sucked, Minyav. But what Inter have done here, bro, is they've added Lukaku, who has experience in the team.
Sure, we all know that Lukaku can fall off it like he did at Chelsea and like he did at United, so on and so forth. He hasn't.
Yeah, he must be chomping at the bit to get back out there, man. He must be. So there's Lukaku. There's Onana between the sticks.
I believe that Alanovic will still start, make a couple of howlers. Yeah, and then Onana will step in. I see that happening 100%.
I see that happening so much. There's Henrikh Miketarian in case you thought that Inter for a second were not versatile, which they obviously are.
They've just gone off. Picture this 60-50 minute Shadanoğlu is having a shit show. They bring on Miketarian instead. That's fucking fire, bro.
You know, people think Miketarian and they imagine like, you know, they don't take him seriously almost. But Miketarian is a solid, solid player.
The way he drives forward and that like final ball that he gives, the penetrating ball, he's very good at that. But Roma, he was instrumental to their play.
Especially on the counter, man. And he has flair to his game. No hate to Henrikh. No hate to Henrikh whatsoever. He's a fantastic player, man.
And when I saw the signings of Lukaku and Miketarian, I'm like, OK, Inter are thinking short term at this point.
They got Lukaku on for a season, though now apparently they have a second season that they can have him in as well.
Chelsea were like, keep him for another year, maybe he can play us. Well, Inter are paying his wages, man.
And then they've only gone and signed Aslani and Bellanova. Again, obviously more depth.
And obviously, I mean, Aslani was instrumental for Empoli last year and Bellanova was incredible for Caliari.
These are both on loan. They paid seven million to get them on loans, but they have the option to buy for both of them.
Now, those are moves for the future. Aslani, 20 years old, Bellanova, 22 years old, Onana, 26 years old.
So Inter have had a very, very good Mercato, man, in my opinion, and I think they got stronger.
And I think with the moves that happened around them, they're kind of flying under the radar right now.
People don't really, they're not really praising them that much.
In reality, this was a solid, solid market for them. They got the Brozovic replacement, which they didn't have last year.
In Aslani, as you said, very capable, you know, they still have DiMarco, you can put in a shift on the left, you can pop him in the center back.
But bro, I still feel that they have a sale to make. It can't be.
They were in financial ruins a couple of months ago. Everyone's saying, they're fucked, they have to sell, they have to sell.
Now they're just bringing in players without letting anyone go, apart from Paris.
We've seen crazy at all.
We have seen crazy at Barcelona, case in point. But bro, I do think that one of Bustoni or Scrinio will go, or Lautaro.
That would change things.
It would. I think it would.
That would change things. But, however, obviously, this is Simone Enzaghi's Inter, his first season in charge.
I mean, we saw what he did, bro. He was so close to winning the League of Twenties for that God-forsaken Bologna game in hand.
Yeah. Thank God.
The next kit I need is what's his name, bro? Radu. I swear to God.
I'll buy you a Radu.
Thank you. I would love a Radu kit.
Radu kit and a kiss on the cheek.
Inter have also redeemed Joaquin Correa for 23.6 million.
Give me a break.
That's a decent deal, to be honest.
Correa? I would take Correa for that amount, bro.
He's 15 million at most, I would say, Correa.
No, I'm talking shit. He's 23 years old.
No, he's 27.
He's 27?
He's 27 years old.
I can't read.
No, he's a pretty good player. And in today's market, getting under that is interesting.
23.6 million, what? For the two random braces he scores?
Exactly.
A year?
He scores three braces a year. That's it.
Fuck, that's it.
I mean, he had 22 goals in 92 appearances for lots. He has Sevilla on his CV as well, Sampdoria.
And he plays for the Argentina national team. He's a decent player, 6'2 as well.
I don't like him.
You don't like him?
I'm not a big fan of Correa. I get that he's technically gifted, he's quick, he has flair to him.
His finishing isn't great, bro. His link-up play isn't great.
He seems like he's a good energetic player.
He's a good energetic player to bring on.
It's as simple as that. I don't believe he's at 23.6 million.
Especially with today's market.
If Inter are in financial ruins, they're going to sign Correa for 23.6 million.
Not Correa, man. It's Nzaghi. It's the Nzaghi link.
Nzaghi wanted him so Nzaghi got him.
Yes, he clearly understands. Maybe he appreciates his tactical understanding.
I guess, man. There's nothing to appreciate.
Inter have offloaded a bunch of players.
Okay, so there's a feast.
Yes, we're in Malta. These are not bombs, these are fireworks.
You're going to hear them.
And I'm afraid there's absolutely nothing we could do about it.
We would pause between every firework, but fuck that.
Inter, they've offloaded Ranocchia to Monza on a free.
Vidal to Flamengo on a free.
Perisic to Spurs on a free.
Vecino to Lazio on a free.
Van Hoysden has been loaned out to AZ Alkmaar.
Radu has been loaned out to Cremonaise as well by you, Cremonaise.
Thank you very much.
Martin Satariano, not the Maltese one, but the Uruguayan Italian.
Satariano, my bad.
Has been loaned out to Empoli.
I like this guy, young, very good, 21 year old.
Sensi has been loaned out to Monza.
Sanchez has had his contract terminated.
Caicedo's loan ended and Kolarov fucking retired.
But Maldini doesn't have to sell players, man.
My God. No, no, no, not at all.
Inter, out of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, eleven offloaded players have made 8.4 million.
Yeah.
And they've spent 38.6.
They add another three million on top of that and they can pay Lukaku's wages for one million.
If they add another 10 million on top of that, they can feed them for a week.
Haven't they improved though?
Yes, they have.
I mean, you can't put Lukaku instead of Dzeko on the starting eleven and say they haven't improved.
They have improved.
There we go.
Got it.
So where do you have them finishing?
Bear in mind, man, this is the same team that has fucking Varela, Kshala, Noblu, Prosofich in the middle.
I have them in second.
They're fucking mayhem, Inter, man.
I hate them so much.
I have them in second.
You?
You have them in second, I have them in first.
First?
I think they're very possible.
I think they're gold.
I think they're favourites, bro.
They probably are, man.
They're favourites.
They probably are.
I have them there. When you think of the fact that this is going to be Inzani's second season with them,
I think what he did with the limited resources, he didn't have limited resources,
but he definitely has additional firepower now.
He has additional firepower now, higher quality all around, man.
I think it takes them over the line this season.
It'll be close between Milan and Inter, but yeah, we've got our top two established.
Very possible, yeah.
And they were inverted. We disagree, bro.
That's great.
OK, up next.
Naples.
A fun one.
So Napoli, Luciano Spalletti's men.
Can I just make a point and say the top seven teams have all kept the same manager for the first time like ever.
That's great.
Great continuity.
Next year is going to be so juicy.
First time like ever.
Next year, more like this weekend.
Bro, I'm so gassed.
I'm so gassed.
So Spalletti's contract is up until 2023.
He has said already like we're thinking of next year when it comes to the transfers that he's made.
He's kind of implying that this is kind of a...
What's the word?
It's like a gap year.
Let's say that. There's a term for it, a something period.
It's a gap year.
They're taking a gap year.
They're going to have fun.
They're going to go play in the Conference League.
You know who made that excuse?
Ferrari.
Don't care like.
Ferrari.
Straight up, not even listening.
Last season they were like, fuck it, this season we're going to spend a cent on the car unless there are damages to it and we're going to invest all of it in next year.
And then as they did, they have all the best cars on the grid.
Nice. It's the same with LeBron James, you know.
Napoli will continue with top four specialist Luciano Spalletti with their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Very dynamic, very versatile over there.
Matt?
Yeah, I mean, when it comes to their transfers in the beginning, I was like, OK, doesn't seem like they're doing much.
But I'm a little bit more hopeful for Napoli now.
Let's take a look at what they've lost before looking at what they've gained.
So they've lost Khalidou Koulibaly for 35 million.
They've lost Dries Mertens out for a free to Galatasaray.
Obviously he is the second most highly rated historic figure in Napoli's football history.
Is their all-time leading goal scorer?
They still obviously prefer Maradona, but Mertens is up there.
They lost David Ospina on a free to Al Nasser.
They lost Insinie, obviously their captain on a free to Toronto.
Malcui was released, Goulam was released and Tutino was sold to Genoa for 5.5 million.
So, I mean, you lose Koulibaly, you lose Mertens, you lose Ospina, you lose Insinia.
You're like, how are we going to recover from this?
They've signed Gvarah, Vita Gvaracheliya, the Georgian left winger from Dynamo Batumi.
He actually looks solid.
He looks pretty fucking good.
He looks very, very good, man.
Are you hearing this shit?
Hopefully they're not.
Yes, Gvaracheliya looks like the type of guy who's really good in one-on-one situations,
very creative with his dribbling, you know, can get himself out of there, has an eye for goal as well.
He's a very good player.
Will he be enough? Is he an upgrade to Lorenzo Insinia or Dries Mertens?
No, but he is a long term solution.
He's 21 years old, OK, he doesn't have much experience when it comes to the big stage.
The man doesn't look like he should have confidence whatsoever.
However, pardon me.
But yeah, obviously Insinia is irreplaceable no matter who they sign on the left,
because you can't find a left winger to orchestrate your entire game plan.
That's what Insinia used to do.
But a good replacement in Gvaracheliya, I have high hopes for him.
Another guy that they signed, which is two guys who are pretty much going to be fighting for their spot to replace Koulibaly,
or they could play alongside each other.
There's Leo Ostegard.
They signed him directly from Brighton.
I know he was at Genoa last season.
Young center back, 22 years old, signed him for 5 million.
Not a bad player.
He's a little bit rough at times, a little bit clumsy.
He's a little bit aggressive at times.
Yeah, he's not mature yet.
He seems to get red cards pretty stupidly at times, but he's a very good defender.
He's a tough motherfucker, a tough Norwegian motherfucker.
And alongside him, they've signed Minjae Kim, or Kim Minjae.
He is a South Korean center back from Fenerbahce.
They signed him for 18.05 million.
Yes, he's quite...
And Kipara for 15.
Quite highly rated, Kim Minjae, and he's 25 years old as well, which kind of explains the price tag a little bit.
I'm just looking through my notes, bro.
So Ospina has left.
Maret is probably off to Spezia.
He won't go to Spezia though.
Because Spezia, now he was an option for it.
They've signed Dragovski, which we'll get into.
So Maret is probably...
They still need someone.
Yes.
They shouldn't start Maret.
I don't think they should start Maret.
They should not start Maret.
But we'll get to that very, very, very soon.
There's just one more signing that they've made, which is an upgrade from Mario Rui.
This is Mathias Oliveira.
He is a Uruguayan left back.
They signed him from Hetafeh for 15 million, just 24 years old.
An upgrade that they've been looking for, you know, for ages over Mario Rui.
Now Mario Rui has stepped up last season, but obviously he's still the guy to step aside
should Napoli want to improve a certain position in particular.
So Mathias Oliveira is also a good signing.
They spent Napoli a total of 59.05 million on Ostegard, Guarachelia, Oliveira and Kim.
And aside from that, obviously they have also redeemed Zamboan Guissa for 15 million from Fulham
because he was on a season-long loan.
26 million they spent on him.
Now the goalkeeper situation.
Yes.
Right.
They have Maret.
Is Maret a potential starter for them?
Possibly.
I mean, they have considered starting him before, but that was a few mistakes ago, wasn't it?
Yeah, they were starting with a goalkeeper that just left on a free to Al Nasser.
So what does that say about Maret?
I mean, Ospina is a massive personality.
He's a very good goalkeeper, very highly rated.
This one in Colombia, he had a very good season last year as well.
Arsenal fans would tell you otherwise because of his bad stint.
Otherwise about Chesney as well, you know, but in reality, these guys have grown since those days.
They've moved on, they've changed.
I do have one criticism about Ospina over the course of his entire year.
Great shot stopper, keeps the ball in play way too much.
After he makes a save, it doesn't seem like he parries it to safety and take off the sword.
The ball seems to bounce in front of him and people tend to get the rebound on him
or he'd need a Kaledou Koulibaly to remove the scraps.
So there's definitely room to improve in the goalkeeping department.
I don't think Maret would quite cut it for them.
Who do you think could be a direct replacement for Ospina?
It's an interesting one, man. I would have said Craniot, but...
Craniot would have been a no-brainer.
For some reason, Monza managed to get their hands on him.
You know, Romero wasn't half bad for Venezia.
Would have been decent.
Or they can just give Maret a fucking chance, man.
He's a young goalkeeper, just play him and see what happens.
At the end of the day, your team is already weakened, in my opinion.
This team is weaker than last season's, by the way. Let's get to that.
I was about to say, I think it's a more difficult question than you're making it out to seem right now.
Yes, I do think they downgraded now.
But I think the signings they made showed a lot of maturity.
Signings for the future, you know what I mean?
Sure.
Now it depends. It really depends on what happens with Fabian Ruiz.
Because it seems like he's one foot out the door already.
He's one foot out the door for him.
You lose your best defender.
You lose your best goalkeeper.
You lose your best midfielder.
You lose your captain.
I think that's quite clearly downgrading, you know what I mean?
I think that they've granted, OK, maybe they showed maturity because they invested in the future.
But these guys are at serious risk of missing out on top four now after competing for the title last season.
I agree with you, 100%.
Let's talk about the future again, because they lost at the end of the day.
Two 29-year-olds, I believe, no, sorry, in Sidney, 31.
Rhys Mertens, 35.
Gullibaly, 31.
Ospina, 33.
You know what I mean?
So I do see where they're coming from with these guys.
They are considering the future.
But, yeah, for this season, significantly downgraded, no?
Yes.
Where do you have them?
Wait, sorry, they're projected right now.
Oh, yes, of course.
So for now, it's Maretten Gull, D. Lorenzo Rahmani, Kim Minje, Oar Ostegard, Olivera, and then in the field, you have Anguissa and Lobotka, and for now, Fabian Ruiz, Lozano, Ozymen, and Kvaratshelya.
Not a bad team.
Not a bad team in theory now.
Luciano Spalletti, the top four specialist.
Now that's the thing.
I felt really weird putting them where I put them because it's Luciano Spalletti, and I believe that Luciano Spalletti always finishes top four.
You have them in fifth as well.
I have them in fifth as well.
Just missing out.
Yeah, yeah, and I think it will be close.
Yeah.
I think it will be close.
I think throughout the season, there will be a point where we think that Napoli will get top four.
But I think they'll miss out.
We know how Napoli struggle in getting over the line when they need to get over the line.
And I think in this case, it won't be the league title.
It will be the fourth spot.
And I think that's where they'll slightly miss out, man.
I see it being a point or two between them.
I don't know about you.
Maybe.
I think they're going to be leaky, man.
I don't know if they'll miss out.
I think they might fall back, and they'll have a few devastating results.
I just look at their defense, and I see, OK, granted, they're good individually, but these guys have to jell-o.
You know, Kim Min-jae is new to the league.
Ostergaard is used to playing with Genoa, just constantly defending, like never being on the front foot, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Mered is going to be leading the goal.
He's going to be controlling the defense.
Quite young to do that.
Now, Ospina was very good at doing that.
You know, you have another guy, Oliver, who's just come into the league as well.
Lots of new faces there.
They're going to be leaky.
And literally, only Ostergaard has serious experience out of those, and it was not even a full season with Genoa.
So not sustainable for the season, but sustainable in the future.
It's funny because you look at the owners of Naples, you look at De Laurentiis, and his ambition really doesn't match Spalletti's, man.
It really doesn't, because I think he will keep feeding Spalletti scraps, and Spalletti will turn those scraps into a meal.
Wow, very poetic.
That was beautiful.
Yes.
But that's Naples for you.
Fifth place will lock it in.
And shake.
There you go.
Perfect.
On to the next.
Juvenis.
Forza Juve!
I can't believe we spent so long there.
I kept saying Juve.
What a dodo.
I am fed up of this noise.
This noise is actually pissing me off so much, man.
No.
Juventus.
Maximiliano Alegri's men.
They play a 4-3-3, of course, and they'll continue with that.
Of course, you can see Alegri changing it up, even shifting to a 3 at the back at some points in the season.
He's contract bound until 2025, so he's not going anywhere.
And he said the team needs to be fixed, the club knows it, we talked, and there is unity of purpose.
So they're working together, hand in hand, Alegri and the management, trying to fix this flaming trash can that is Juventus at the moment.
Now, to be honest, they have done decently.
Matt, do you want to introduce quickly?
I'm sure everyone knows how they've done, but just in case.
So they've re-signed Paul Pogba from United once again, after remaking a serious markup on him, man.
They also signed Angel Di Maria, the 34-year-old Argentine right winger, all-time leading assist for PSG.
One of the greatest Argentine players in history, it's as simple as that.
They've signed Bremer, the MVP defender of last season, 25-year-old Brazilian centre-back, moved directly from their club rivals in Torino.
And they signed him for 41 million.
They got Pogba on a free and they got Di Maria on a free.
They've also signed Andrea Cambiasso from Genoa for 8.5 million, the 22-year-old left back, but he's been instantly loaned out to Bologna.
Yeah, a nice move for him.
Yeah, Juve have spent a total of 89.5 million on these players.
However, they've also offloaded Delikt to Bayern Munich for 67 million.
I don't care because they've upgraded in Bremer, in my opinion.
I don't think Delikt is a massive loss in that case.
Obviously, this is coming from someone who didn't really rate Delikt throughout his time at Juve.
So 67 million to Bayern Munich, some serious, serious revenue over there.
Mérih Demiral has been redeemed by Atalanta for 20 million.
Mandragora has gone to Fiorentina for 8.2 million.
Ramsey, Dybala and Bernat have all left on a free.
Ramsey to Nice, Dybala to Roma and Bernardeschi to Toronto.
One, two, three.
All for one!
Well, he counts. He carries S's and then he goes swan, two, three.
It's so weird when he has those numbers.
Morata's loan ended at Juve, so he's gone back to one.
Dedico.
Oh no.
He scored a hat-trick against them in pre-season.
What?
Yeah.
Morata scored a hat-trick against Juve for Atletico in pre-season.
That must be very good for his mental health.
Yeah.
I'll take it.
Obviously, Giorgio Chiellini has also left on a free to Los Angeles Football Club.
And he's shooting from out of the box.
He's shooting outside the box. He's handling the ball when he's the last man
and getting a yellow card because he's fucking Chiellini.
So Juve, despite signing Bremer, Pogba, DiMaria and Cambiasso,
have actually profited from this market.
They've spent 89.5 million and they've made 98.64.
Most of that, like a third, sorry, two-thirds of that coming from selling Delict.
I think they've been making good moves.
They're trying to fix a team that was looking extremely concerning.
They're getting some guys off the box like Ramsey. Apparently, Rabiot might go to United now.
So it's such a good move from United.
From United, yes. But United, we're going to just let them burn their own stadium.
No problem.
So the way they're going to be lining up next season is Shesney in goal.
Danilo Bonucci, Bremer and Kostic at the back.
Pogba, Locatelli and McKennie in the middle.
DiMaria and Chiesa flanking Vlaović in the middle.
Now, Piper, that's a really good team.
Pogba's already injured, so they're going to go into the season with Rabiot, Locatelli and McKennie starting.
So once again, it's the same midfield that kind of flopped so aggressively last year.
Juve's best signing is by far Bremer.
I think so.
By a landslide, he's their best signing.
I would say it's DiMaria, man.
Bro, no way, no way.
DiMaria is nine years older than Bremer.
DiMaria will get injured at some point.
He'll be out for a while. He's 34 years old, man.
Now he's going to be 35 in the next season.
He's not the same guy.
He's not the same guy, bro.
But whenever I put on a final and he's playing, he's fucking tripping the keeper from outside the area.
He's good, but he's not the same guy.
He's not the same guy, granted.
But you know what I mean?
I think that this guy, bro, in Italy, he's going to confirm top four for Juventus.
He's going to be the catalyst.
Top four would be confirmed without him, in my opinion.
That, I'm not too sure.
I'm not too sure about that without him.
I think they lack creativity without him.
I think Bremer is a staple signing for Juve.
25-year-old fucking MVP last season.
Signed from a direct rival.
He's, you know how good Bremer is.
You know how good Bremer is.
I think when Pogba is fucking dancing and being a little precious queen
and Di Maria's out tearing his cruciate ligament on the right wing at 35 years old,
Bremer will be there at the heart of the defense leading everything, man.
That's my take on it.
Perhaps you could also say while Bremer's struggling to adapt to a four-in-the-back formation,
Di Maria will just be doing Di Maria things out wide.
It's very possible.
I think that Bremer is more likely to flop than Di Maria.
Really?
I don't think Di Maria will flop.
I think when Di Maria's on the pitch, he'll be fantastic.
Just how often will he be on the pitch is the question.
How many games did he play last season?
That's an interesting one.
Check it out.
You want to explain to the listeners what the feast is, what the celebration is, bro?
So this Santa Maria, it lines up perfectly with Ferragosto in Italy.
If you have any Italian listeners for some reason listening to Assyria's podcast in English,
it's the same as your Ferragosto pretty much.
We celebrate the Virgin Mary over the course of two weeks.
There are really annoying loud fireworks, and they are shut up just from in front of where me and Jake live.
So that is nice and dandy, especially when we have a podcast that we enjoy.
Exactly, and when we're pressed for time because we are working men.
Last year he had 19 appearances for PSG.
Probably not in terms of all of them, it's just a very saturated PSG team.
And in these 19 appearances he had 5 goals and 7 assists.
The year before he had 23 appearances, 4 goals, 9 assists.
See how the number keeps getting lower though of appearances?
I think Juve with Champions League, that's a good point.
Juve with Champions League struggled to get a lot of game time.
Like fitness-wise, he might struggle.
We'll see.
Where do you have Juve ending up despite all this?
Because it sounds like a lot of negative talk, but Juve have simply had a super Mercato.
You bring in Bremer, Pogba, Di Maria, there's talks about Milinkovic Savic.
There are always talks about Milinkovic Savic.
I saw a tweet recently from an English media house.
They were like, Sergei Milinkovic Savic, the man that has been linked to everyone yet no one's seen him play.
It's like you're saying, oh bro.
I have Juve finishing in fourth.
Fourth?
Fourth.
I have them in third.
I think that I'm still concerned about their midfield despite them signing Paul Pogba, which is hilarious.
But their front three is mayhem.
Their front three is crazy.
And then when you take into consideration their form from January onwards last season under Allegri,
like okay, super boring to watch.
Very, very fucking boring to watch.
The fact is they kept on winning game after game after game until that Coppa lost against Inter or the league lost against Inter.
The league lost against Inter.
There was that controversial retake of the penalty.
If they carry the form they had towards the end of last season and these signings fucking perform,
I think to be honest, when I was initially making this, I was considering putting them as league winners.
Juve?
Juve.
I was considering.
I mean the last episode of anyone tuned in.
I said that when the league, I was very high on it.
That was before they signed Bremer and I actually mentioned the idea of them signing Bremer on the podcast.
That was quite funny because Minto was like, who are they going to buy?
And the defense was like, you know, fucking Bremer, man.
And they actually did.
That was crazy.
I think they'll have enough to get to third place.
Bro, you mentioned Kostic.
Has he returned from loan or something?
No, no, he's new.
He's new.
They've signed Kostic.
I must have missed that.
Kostic was a new signing for Juventus.
He joined from Frankfurt.
I knew it.
Yes, the Europa League winners.
I knew it.
OK.
You know how much they signed for?
Because I literally missed it.
Because they must have spent more than 89.5 million.
16 million.
OK.
With Adonis apparently.
Yeah, they stood profited, but 16 million for Kostic at left back.
I've seen Kostic play before.
I've seen him play, but as a winger, man, never as a left back.
Same, bro.
That's why it was so weird.
I'm like, they're signing Kostic as left back.
Same, same.
How interesting.
Yeah, one for Fanta Karchu.
Literally.
At least, you know, they like a good versatile wing back.
The Quadrados, the Alexandros, you know.
The Danilos as well.
The Danilos.
Shall we move on?
It's Lazio next.
Lazio.
Someone still loves you.
So of course, this is Maurizio Sarri's Lazio.
He has contracted with them till 2025, if he makes it that long.
I was going to make the same joke.
It's crazy.
Yeah.
Now, there are many question marks around this team, of course,
because they're not sure if Luis Alberto's staying.
They're not sure if Milenko Vissavi's staying.
They're not sure if a cherrybee's staying.
They don't know anything, basically.
Sarri places usually.
What's that?
Let's move on, man.
All right.
So Sarri always places 4-3-3, even if he doesn't have the players for it,
he keeps playing that.
That's all he knows.
That's what he insists on playing.
Matt, do you want to run us through the transfer campaign very quickly?
Yes, not a whole lot of names that I'm familiar with.
I'm familiar with Gasale, who they signed for 7 million from Hellas Barona.
Romagnoli, who they got for enough free from Milan.
Apparently, he's always wanted to play for Lazio.
I knew he was a Lazio fan, but I think after lifting the league with Milan,
he showed a bit of disrespect saying,
before I thought I wanted to play in Serie A,
but now I know I wanted to play for Lazio.
I never wanted to play for Milan.
Never wanted to fill in Nesta's boots.
I think he's made his dream move come through,
and he's getting a bit ahead of himself.
We can see clearly that Romagnoli isn't the epitome of intelligence as a person.
You can see it by looking at his fucking soulless, expressionless face.
What a normal hair.
The most normal hair in the world.
Generic human hair.
They've signed Mario Gila from Real Madrid Castilla.
Spanish centre back, 6 million.
They signed him for just 21 years old.
Vecino on a free from Inter, the 30-year-old centre midfielder.
I thought he was much younger than that.
They got Canchilleri from Verona on a one-year loan, the 20-year-old right winger.
Then these are the guys I have no idea about.
Marco Santonio, who is a Brazilian 22-year-old central midfielder,
who they signed from Shakhtar for 7.5 million.
And Luis Maximiliano, who is a goalkeeper, a 23-year-old goalkeeper,
who they signed from Granada for 12 million.
I would imagine that that's a direct replacement for Thomas Dracoscia,
who they lost on a free to Brentford, the 27-year-old Albanian goalkeeper.
They lost Luis Felipe on a free.
Can we talk about how fucking crazy that is?
That's a shambolic that they let that happen.
But at the end of the day, that's a trend in football nowadays.
Can't really blame them.
Luis Felipe, I can't believe we're losing him to La Liga.
I enjoyed watching him so much last season.
And they finally got rid of Lucas Leiva,
35-year-old Brazilian has returned to his native country playing for Grêmio.
They lost fucking God knows how to pronounce his first name, Moriki.
And 28-year-old striker...
Sherda.
Bro.
Sherda Mugir.
I have vetkt here.
Vetkt.
I don't know.
Moriki.
What was that again?
That...
The Vinky?
Moriki?
It sounds like that.
Moriki?
They made 7.7 million for this fucking noggin.
Well, they bought him for 20.
What?
They signed Moriki for 20 million?
That's mayhem that they lost 13 million for.
They sold Pepe Reina on a free to Villarreal.
Pepe Reina's 39, by the way.
So Lazio have spent 37.7 million and have made 35.8 million.
Not too bad.
They will be lining up with Maxime...
Maximiano, sorry, in goal.
And they've also brought in Providel.
Have they brought in Providel, Lazio?
You must have missed that.
Maximiano and Providel will be...
God, I called Maximiano Maximiliano.
Lazari, Casale, Romagnoli and Maricich at the back.
Of course...
Pretty gross, huh?
Vecino, Marcos Antonio, Milinkovic, Savic, Felipe Anderson, Immobile and Zakkanje.
So again, a team that can cause problems and demolish the teams below them.
Can they keep up with the teams above them?
We will see.
My instinct is no.
I don't think they'll make more than a point against teams in the top seven, even in the top eight.
You think they'll get one draw all season?
Not one draw.
The best they can do against any of the teams would be a draw.
I don't think they can beat any of them.
It needs to be a really weird draw, like a derby, for them to win.
You know what I mean?
I would say that they might surprise us.
Because at the end of the day, Sarri's system does take time and time is something that he's being given.
It doesn't seem like he's being given the players that he would want, though.
You know what I mean? Players that fit his system.
I don't know. Maybe these are all players that he's requested.
Like if they find three centre backs.
Which are very important to his game.
And Romagnoli can play the ball pretty well, to be honest.
And Romagnoli has said already that he prefers Sarri's style because it's not man to man.
But it's a collective unit. A collective tactic.
They don't play man to man, one versus one.
Which of course he's going to say that because Lukaku absolutely fucking destroyed them when they were one on one.
Literally. No man, I don't know about that.
Do you think they've improved? Do you think they've gotten worse?
So, looking at the team...
If it stays like this, I'd go as far as saying that they've improved.
I think it's a very similar situation to Napoli where I think they have more depth in their team now.
LaLcha have certainly struggled for depth in the past season.
But they haven't lost key pieces yet. Napoli have lost key pieces.
No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying they've clearly increased the depth in their team.
Ah, because I compared it to Napoli. I just got to know. But they have, bro.
Luis Felipe for example.
Sure, but they've brought in Milan's captain.
Strakosha. Milan's captain. You're going to call him Milan's captain.
He lifted the scudetto last year.
Norify Romagnoli. Calling him Milan's captain.
No, no. He's not a bad defender, bro.
They improved simply because they have more options now. That's what I'll say.
They have more options, so they've improved. Will that improve their place in the league?
Definitely not, because everyone around them has improved way more.
So they stayed where they are, pretty much. And everyone's improved more than them.
Where do you have them finishing?
Sixth.
You have them in sixth. I have Lazio in eighth. Eighth.
That would be fucked, bro. This is Sarri we're talking about here.
I know we're talking about Sarri, but Sarri can lose a dressing room. And we've seen that before.
So you have Atalanta and Fiorentina finishing in front of them, I assume?
Yeah.
Okay.
It's not that wild a statement to make. Lazio in eighth. It's such a Lazio thing to do, finishing eighth.
You finished eighth, you did a Lazio like, no?
I would say finishing eighth. Fair enough, yes. It could be a Lazio historically.
I feel like you're pulling a Lazio on in finishing eighth.
Shall we move on to maybe the wildest of the wilds? Roma.
Roma. Excuse me, I spilled water on my laptop.
Nice one.
And it's refusing to respond. Okay, so we are talking about Jose Mourinho's Roma.
Yup. The man on the three-year plan is on his second year.
Yes, they're going to restart with last season's 3-4-2-1.
They have many new options, as you know. Of course, Matthew will let you know them.
Actually, you can go for it now, man, because I need to explain using the players.
Sure. So Debala on a three from Juve. We all know who Debala is.
There's no need to give you any introduction on the man.
Jorginho Vijnaldum from PSG on a loan. 31-year-old central midfielder. Very good player.
Nemanja Matic, Jose Mourinho player. 33-years-old central defensive midfielder.
Signed for a free from Man United. It's the third time Mourinho has signed Matic.
Signed him with Chelsea from Benfica, United from Chelsea, and now Roma from United.
They've also signed Zeki Celic, 25-year-old right back, 7 million from Lille.
Will he replace Karstor? Out, there's Paulo Lopez, who left for 12 million to Marseille.
Listen to this. Three players have moved to Marseille. Paulo Lopez for 12 million.
Verre 2 for 11 million. Genghis Under for 8 million. All to Marseille.
They have made around 21 million from Marseille. Just from Marseille.
And the rest of them, Mkhitaryan on a free to Inter.
Carl Spears on a loan to Celta Vigo. Oliveira has returned to Porto due to end of his loan.
Niles same, returned to Arsenal. Mayoral returned to Real Madrid.
So they've only made money from Marseille, which is hilarious.
But aha. So yes, now we take a look at the 3-4-2-1.
We look at Wijnaldum and Matij in the middle. That's a very good double pivot over there.
Debala behind Abraham. Zaniolo stays and will be playing out wide.
They'll basically be lining up with Rui Patricio on goal. Mancini, sorry, smalling on the bunnies.
Karsdorp, Wijnaldum, Matij, Spinazzola, Debala, Zaniolo, Abraham. And that team is a significantly improved team.
I would go as far as saying that this is the most improved team in the league.
I agree. Most improved.
Putting aside Monza.
You're so right. You're so right. Monza are way better than you were last time.
But anyway. This is Mourinho's second season.
Mourinho's second season. Something is won.
Be it the Coppa Italia, be it the Europa League, be it the league as we already teased.
Where do you have them finishing, bro?
I have them finishing in fourth. Just above Napoli. Fair enough.
I have them in third just above Juve.
And I was considering like, honestly, they have all the pieces to win the league, man.
I don't think they're there yet, man.
I think Serie A is so competitive, man.
You signed Debala and Wijnaldum, Matij and Celic.
That does not mean you're going to win the league.
I know you might say, yeah, but they've got Tammy, they've got Pellegrini, they've got Zaniolo,
they've got that back three of Bagnas, Smalling and Mancini.
They had them all last year. They had them all last year.
And they weren't the greatest last year.
They are going to be improved. They're going to be so good, man.
They're going to be so good. They're going to break into the top four.
I don't think yet that they can win the league.
I think it's just why.
I mean, of course, the odds are against them.
And it would be a shock if they do win the league.
But I'm just saying that tools-wise, they have the squad for it, they have the manager for it,
they have the stats for it. You look at Mourinho's stats.
He's already won something with them last year against all odds, you know, for example.
They have a trophy in them for sure. I see them winning the Coppa.
The Coppa is really something I see them winning over two legs, you know what I mean?
It's a Mourinho-esque competition.
The league is a bit of a stretch.
It's a stretch, for sure.
Rob, I've only spent 7 million and they've made 40.25.
That is fucking crazy.
They've only spent money on Trellick.
I also want to make a point about Zaniolo,
which apparently I saw today on IFTV that Zaniolo has reached...
I think that's the end of them. I genuinely think that's the end of them.
I don't, bro, they're going to keep going till 11.
They're not going to keep going till the fucking 11.
Bro, these guys, their parents are siblings.
Their grandparents are fucking cousins.
They don't get tired of this.
They can look at the fucking fireworks with their mouths open, clapping all night,
as if they're going to stop now.
These are the ones with no colour. These are just dumb.
Yeah, there's bright white lights in the air.
Zaniolo has been offered 5 million to renew with Roma, 5 million a year,
and apparently he really believes in the system and he wants to stay there.
Spurs had triggered, not triggered his release clause,
but they had agreed terms with Spurs, but it was then blocked.
The transfer was blocked.
The Zaniolo deal, right, you're talking about?
No, Zaniolo.
Oh, the Zaniolo deal.
Apparently it was close to signing for Spurs, but it got blocked.
Weird.
And apparently Zaniolo wants to sign the contract.
I mean, if he looks around him, there's a good vibe, no good atmosphere.
The fans really believe.
In pre-season they were smashing it, you know what I mean?
The fans have songs for all the new players.
Literally.
It's looking good for them, and Zaniolo, you know,
this could be his year after a very, very difficult period in his life.
Yeah, agreed.
But I think that's enough in covering Roma,
obviously a significantly improved side.
Next is Fiorentina.
Can you tell us about the name?
Vicenzo Italiano's Fiorentina contract bound until 2023-2024
with an option to extend to the 2024-2025 season.
He plays his 4-3-3, the classic Italiano.
You know, he had Fiorentina looking like Spezio on steroids last year.
They looked amazing.
They were so good most of the time, let's just say that.
A few new faces over here, bro, do you want to...?
Sure, Lukaj Jović.
Oh, yes.
Great, great signing.
24-year-old Serbian striker signed from Real Madrid on a free.
They'd f*** all for Real Madrid, only started one game.
Obviously because they're carrying Benzema over there.
But before that, I mean, he was at Frankfurt and there was unstoppable...
He played along with Rebeć.
There was that very famous goal where Jović gets the ball, he turns,
he's one among the keeper and Rebeć already has his hands up in celebration.
Ah, yes, yes, yes.
Like before he even shoots.
So, Jović is fantastic signing.
We've disagreed before on the amount of goals within his score.
You think it's high figures, I think it's on the lower side.
How many do you think?
I think around 10.
I think he'll get 15, you know.
OK, interesting.
Yeah.
Big difference between 10 and 15 goals.
Yeah.
They've signed Dodo from Shakhtar, a 23-year-old right back for 14.5 million.
He has the same name as you.
Good one, good one.
They've signed Mandra, Goraz, who've already been through from Juve for 8.5 million.
25-year-old...
Fantastic signing, my opinion.
I agree.
And they've got Gollini on loan from Atalanta.
And now we just found out as well that Dragovski on that note has gone off to Spezia.
Now out, Pjantec and Ondřej Ozilas loans ended.
And they returned to Real Madrid and Hertha Berlin respectively.
Lucas Torreira as well, he ended up going back to Arsenal and from Arsenal he went to Galatasaray to join...
Who went?
Dries Mertens.
To join Dries Mertens.
Jose Callejon was sold on a free to Granada, he's 35 now.
And Eric Pulgar has gone off to Flamengo for 2.8 million.
Quiridina have spent 22.7 million.
World Tour.
Literally.
Quiridina have spent 22.7 million and have made 43.3 million.
They'll be lining up next season, the 4-3-3 with Gollini and Goal, of course, Dodo, Milinkovic, Igor and Baragi.
Of course, this is a Milinkovic state, he's been linked to every single team and their mother.
Bonaventura, Mandragora and Duncan in the middle, of course there's Amrabat as well as an option.
Ikone, Jovic and Gonzalez, of course.
Not to mention the super sub wild card extravaganza, Ricardo Sapunara.
Serie A spotlight favourite over here.
The best player in the league.
I would go so far to say that.
I look at this team, bro, and I see a much improved team.
Highly improved team.
And the biggest stun they could have made, obviously, aside from signing players like Jovic and Dodo,
is keeping their hands on the brilliant Vincenzo Italiano.
Yes, for sure.
The man has a huge, huge pair of balls, man.
He does.
A young manager as well.
I see him becoming one of the great Italian managers.
True, and one potentially for the national team.
I can see that.
Italiano.
Italiano, man.
He has to be there.
That would be cool.
Where do they finish, bro?
Let me pull off my smart tele device.
And seventh.
Okay, same as last year.
I have them in sixth.
I see them improving a place.
Obviously with lots, you're dropping so significantly.
It does leave place for Fiorentina to improve.
So I would say sixth, and I'm actually pretty confident with that.
I think we're starting to see, if they manage to keep everything as it is,
Fiorentina returning to their old ways, man, back to fighting for Europe.
I think they'll go quite far in the conference league.
They'll play around with that.
They'll have a good run in the Coppa Italia maybe,
but I don't see their position in the league standing improving significantly.
I just think that they'll want to make Europe again, get some momentum, get some continuity.
Maybe this time they will aim for Europa League.
That was my thought process going into it.
I said they're going to want Europa League.
But yeah, we'll wait and see.
Hopefully we really don't need to wait that long.
How fucking good, man.
I can't wait.
Atalanta.
Next is Atalanta.
Once I need to say the new signings, let me know because I have a question for you.
Okay, sure.
Atalanta, Gian Piero, Gasperini's men.
He has been there since 2016, the longest serving manager.
Fucking hell!
He's been there for a while, man.
Yes, he's contracted down until 2024.
There were some question marks over whether he would be staying or not
after a lost season when they failed to make Europe for the first time in five years.
But no, apparently he'll be remaining there.
He will remain on the Atalanta bench, said the CEO, Luca Percassi.
Very strong statement.
I'm just enjoying having Gasperini there because year by year I just see him transforming closer and closer to becoming an Anarita.
As the days go by, he's getting more and more similar to an Anarita.
How so, bro? What do you mean? He's getting smaller and smaller.
He's getting smaller and smaller and the features I would go so far to say are quite similar.
I think he looks exactly like Jeffrey Epstein, who by the way is a terrible person.
And he did not kill himself.
What? Like breaking news like right now?
No, it's a conspiracy theory, but of course it's less of a conspiracy than a fact.
You have to be a bit of a neanderthal to actually think he killed himself.
No, it's crazy.
The cameras, they stopped working, man.
Yeah, we just found him like that.
We just found him like that, his ribs are broken, I don't know how that happened.
Hanging himself and elbowing himself in the ribs.
But anyway, Gasperini, yes. Yes, you have to say the...
Where's what's like we mentioned a while ago that Muriel is fucking off.
He hasn't left yet. He hasn't left yet.
No, he's still there. He's still there.
He's there. OK, so there's something I don't know about. Cool.
So Atalanta signings, very interesting to say the least.
So they've redeemed Demiral.
It's the best thing they could have done.
Demiral is their best defender.
Demiral, yes.
It used to be Romero, but now he's Tottenham's best defender.
But you know, you know, Palomino had a fucking good season.
Palomino had a very good season.
But you know what happened to him, right? You heard?
Remind me, bro, I worked so much.
Doping.
Ah, yes, that's what...
Doping.
Is he banned?
Probably.
Probably for an entire year. That's what happened to Onana.
Yeah.
Let's figure that out. Let me say exactly what happened.
Let's figure out how long I can't have Palomino.
Palomino is a genetic colour in horses consisting of a gold coat and white mane and tail.
The people who found out he was doping are just freaking out
because they accidentally read the description on the custom of doping.
They're like, what? I took him on fun.
So Atalanta, they've redeemed Demiral from Juve for 20 million.
Demiral is a Turkish 24-year-old centre back.
They've signed Ederson from Salernitana for 21 million.
You know what I mean?
He's really good, though.
Like...
Aha. I just want to see more of him.
I'm sure Gasparini has something.
He was, to be honest, the main reason Salernitana could actually create opportunities last year.
I think that was Nicola.
But joking aside, Ederson is quite a bright player.
He's still 22 years old. He has some serious experience now.
Maybe a good addition to their team.
I mean, you see them signing people like Coupe Miners and stuff like that,
and it always seems to work out for them.
So I'm very confident about Ederson.
I have heard very good things about Adamola Luckman.
He's half Jamaican, half English.
I've heard some fantastic things about him.
He was playing with Liebzig.
He's a left-winger, 24 years old.
He was signed for 9 million.
Apparently he can really get him behind the side.
He played for Leicester as well.
Look, man...
You actually played for him.
That was crazy.
By the way, I was meant to tell you, Palomino is suspended, but it's indefinite.
He's appealing, apparently.
He's appealing?
He claims to be innocent.
But how can you be innocent if...
Tainted substances.
Like if he has asthma and there was something in his inhaler or something like that,
it could go into his system.
Whatever.
So I thought I've spent 50 million on those players.
Out with Lovato, who I have here, has left for Atalanta.
Really good, man.
Nice one.
No, he's left for one of the bottom dwellers.
Lovato...
My God, man.
Has he gone to Hellas?
No, he was with Hellas originally.
Matteo Lovato...
Salernitana, exactly.
Ah, there you go.
Yes, yes, I remember.
I remember.
He's off to Salernitana for seven million.
Gollini has left on loan to Fiorentina after returning from Spurs.
Pesina has left on loan to Monza.
And Piccoli has left on loan to Hellas Verona.
So they've made 21.72 million and they've spent 50 million.
They really...
They have what to show for it.
And Atalanta, financially, they've been just winning every season
with the sales that they've been making from the beginning.
They have the new best sales as well.
Yeah, exactly.
So I don't think that making money is their biggest priority right now.
I still look at their team and I wonder how Jérôme Boga fits into it, man.
He doesn't.
You know, three, four, two, one.
Where the hell are you going to...
He doesn't fit in.
He's not a left-wing back and he's nowhere near an attacking with Vildora strike.
He's a left-winger, pure.
Purely a left-winger.
He'd fit into Sassuolo perfectly.
He would fit into Milan perfectly.
He'd fit into Juve perfectly.
Lazio.
You know what I mean?
Atalanta's not a team.
Four, two, three, one.
Not three, four, two, one.
But anyway, thankfully, because Spreng is very versatile,
with the straight at the back formations, can change to a three, four, three,
and maybe pop him in there.
And during the game, you know, it's never just three, four, two, one.
He's one of those kind of like...
Yeah.
But anyway, Mousseau and Goal.
Toloi, Demiral and Palomino at the back.
Palomino, of course, indefinitely.
Zappa Costa, Derun, Freuler and Meili.
Malinowski, Boga and Zapata, with the options of Luqman and Muriel of the bench
and Ederson of the bench as well.
Do you think they're better or worse than last season?
I think it's very difficult for them to be worse than last season.
I think individually, they've improved ever so slightly
with the signings of Ederson and Luqman,
only because they haven't lost anyone significant apart from Pessina and Piccoli,
who are loaned out.
Lovato never really played for Atalanta.
It's funny, Lovato never played for Atalanta, in my opinion.
Demiral was redeemed by them, so it's not like they have something new over there.
I think they improved ever so slightly, they've kind of stabilised.
Mirant Chuktu Torino as well, so to interrupt.
Mirant Chuktu Torino.
What a signing for Torino.
Ooh, they fucking do this.
What a signing for Fennec Bajra and Iassam, my friend.
What a signing for Fennkouzé.
That's a signing for Fennec Bajra and Iassam.
Where are Atalanta for you, bro?
Atalanta for me are eighth.
Seventh.
Seventh, so exactly, you have them ahead of Lazio.
Exactly.
I have them just behind Fiorentina.
Exactly.
I have them just behind Fiorentina as well.
I was thinking of putting them higher up.
Atalanta.
They can have a good season, if they have a good season and everything starts working for them,
they're going to be a force to be reckoned with.
They can fucking do it.
And they have some good pieces in here, man.
Like even, like I gave you the starting eleven right there.
And I didn't even mention Kouk Miners, Pasalic, Ederson, Muriel.
Like those guys are all on the bench, just frothing to come on.
Recently at work, Sean asked me who is the one player, he asked for two players,
but I gave him one just to make it more significant.
That Milan lost to Werdum.
I told him 100%, Pasalic.
He would have been good, man.
Yeah, but I have a better answer than Pasalic in that case.
A player that Milan lost to Werdum.
Too early.
I can't, nothing's coming to mind right now.
I think it's a Pasalic no-brainer, man.
I mean, yes, in recent history, yes.
I can't really think of another option, man.
I think, for example, Dalhau could have been useful.
Nowhere on the scale of Pasalic.
But now Pasalic will have scored the winning penalty in the Super Cup,
but he was the fucking man.
Yeah, I love them.
Number 88.
But anyway, up next.
Hellas, Verona. HV, baby.
HV.
Verona.
Gabriele Cioffi's men, who was at Odinese last year, do not get confused.
He's there on a two-year contract, taking over Igor Tudor, who has gone to Marseille, I believe.
That might explain the Serie A signings.
Yeah, fair enough.
Verona are currently a work in progress.
Of course, their team, there are still many pieces that need to be filled.
Do you want to run us through their market so far?
So they've confirmed the signing of Giovanni Simeone for 10.7 million from Caliari.
But he's most likely off to Napoli, according to the latest room.
Exactly. He's very, very close to Napoli, apparently.
But we'll see what happens there.
They'll probably make a decent markup of that.
They're selling for 25 to 30 million.
I doubt they'll make 30 million for it.
But they'll make 10. They'll return.
They'll profit 10 million from the sale.
They've signed Thomas Andri from Venezia for 5 million.
So Venezia made a 1 million loss from it.
They signed him for 6 million. It was famous.
Exactly.
27-year-old French striker.
Their all-time most expensive signing, I believe.
Yeah. And second is Cuisance, I believe.
They've confirmed the signing of Martin Ongla, who was there on loan from Antwerp.
They kept him. I like Ongla.
24-year-old center back. They signed him for 3.7 million.
They've confirmed Monte-Po for Benevento.
You have no idea how happy this makes me.
I fucking love Monte-Po. I think he's great.
They've confirmed some dude named Daniele Ghilardi from Fiorentina for 500k.
He's a 19-year-old center back.
They've also signed Milan Juric from Salernetana on a free 32-year-old striker.
And also, last but not least, Piccoli on loan from Atalanta.
So, they've just onboarded four strikers.
I'm telling you right now, their attack is so much better than last year's.
Simeone is off.
Yes. Simeone is probably leaving.
They start Piccoli, they bench Henri and coach...
I say Henri starts, probably.
Ahead of Piccoli.
I think so.
Ahead of Piccoli starts.
It depends on how he does. Piccoli is still very young.
I don't think they'll put that much pressure on his shoulders,
especially when they have two senior players.
And to be honest, this style that Hellas Verona play,
Juric can be very serviceable.
You know, crossing balls to his massive forehead.
They might want to play with two up front.
I don't know if Shofi enjoys doing that.
He does the 3-4-2-1.
Okay. Remind me, Shofi was at Odinese.
Yes, Odinese.
Odinese play with two up front.
No, Beto and De La Feu.
Beto and De La Feu was kind of off the shoulder of Beto.
Fair enough.
So they'd look like this, bro.
Most likely.
Montepo.
Can I just tell you who has left?
So there won't be any confusion.
So, Nicolas Chazalle, he's at 4.7 million to Lazio.
Udodji has left for 19 million to Odinese.
He was already at Odinese, but contractually he's now an Odinese player.
Caprari has been loaned out to Monza.
Massive, massive, massive.
Monza paid 3 million for that loan.
Bessa has been sold to Calba.
Final Calba.
You know what I mean.
Prabotta has returned to Juve after his loan,
and Kanchi Leri has been loaned out to Lazio.
I thought players were supposed to be loaned out to worse teams, not to better teams.
But there you go, we learn something new every day.
Go on. Sorry for interrupting.
No problem at all. Sorry for shooting prematurely.
I can hear all these explosions.
See, bro, they're just going to keep going till 11.
It's currently 10.06.
You're fucking right, man.
They're just mouth open, just salivating onto the floor.
Noise, noise, bright lights.
But anyway, 3.41, Montepo, Davidovic, Gunther and Cecherini.
Faroni, Tameze, Veloso, Lazovic, Barak, Ilic and Henri.
The second you said they're three man defence, I fucking cringed.
I forgot how bad they're three man defence is.
And I'm just looking at this team.
Actually, I don't think they got better, bro, at all.
I think they got worse.
They lost a very good coach and Igor Tudor.
They lost Kaprari.
Simeone popped off last year.
Granted, I think he's very moody, but still, you know, Henri was also very moody.
The jury couldn't really see what he could do, could sell in a time.
He was so poor for the majority of the season.
So I think they have dipped.
Yes, they're not as good as they were last season and especially the season before.
So they lost Kaprari, who was by far their best player last season.
For a fact, their signings, as much as they're very good, they're a little bit messy.
Four strikers, just like that.
Now, let's bar Simeone because they were always going to redeem Simeone.
They signed Henri from Venezia and Juric from Salernitana.
You want someone else that struggled to fucking survive last year?
They signed Venezias, not even Venezias leading man because he struggled for Venezia.
They signed Salernitana as Juric.
You know what I mean?
Piccoli is the signing that gives me, OK, kind of some young blood coming in.
All right, he's on loan.
Maybe they have an option to redeem him or something of the sort.
But yeah, I definitely agree with you, man.
I think they did get worse.
They got...
Fuck me.
They got worse.
They definitely got messier as a team.
They focused, how can you sign four strikers and not pay any attention to that bullshit fucking trio that you have in defence?
And you just signed Ghilardi from Fiorentina for 500k, a 19 year old.
I think they got worse.
They have, haven't they?
Yes, but it's as simple as that.
There's nothing else to say.
What do you think they finished for you, man?
I am going to pop them in 12th.
12th, wow.
I have them in 10th.
OK.
Yep.
So where did they finish?
So last season they finished exactly 9th.
So you have them finishing one spot lower.
Exactly.
I have them finishing exactly quite a few.
Slots lower in 12th.
But anyway, up next we have Torino, right?
Yes, Torino.
No.
Yes, Torino.
You're right.
Sorry.
I was looking at my predictions.
So these are Ivan Juric's men contract bound till 2024.
They finished 10th last year, which was a massive improvement,
considering they had been fighting relegation the seasons prior.
He's lost a few important players from Bellotti to Bremer.
We could see him have like this massive fight with the sporting director
in the middle of a parking lot somewhere.
Why?
Crazy, to be honest.
Crazy times.
But apparently they're working together.
They're bringing in some pieces.
And bro, the pieces they've brought in.
So the pieces they've brought in are Ilkan from Besiktas.
He's an 18-year-old central midfielder.
They signed for 4.5 million.
They've signed Brian Baieye, 22-year-old.
Baieye.
For 750k from Cantanzaro.
They've signed Berisha, 33-year-old goalkeeper from Spal for 300k.
And they've got Radon...
Jesus.
I believe Radon Jic.
Radon Jic is a 26-year-old left winger.
He's on loan from Marseille.
And Valentino Lazaro, 26-year-old,
dried back on loan from Inter.
However, they have lost some important pieces.
They've lost Bremer for 41 million and Bellotti on a free.
They lost Rincon on a free.
And Piagos' loan ended.
So he returns to Juve.
Ansaldi, his contract expired and he was released from the club.
Mandragora, end of his loan, he returns to Juve.
Brekalo, end of his loan, returns to Wolfsburg.
Pobega, end of his loan, returns to Milan.
Dennis Pratt, end of his loan, returns to Leicester.
It's fucked, bro.
They lost a lot of players.
Poor Euro.
And out of those, they've only made 41 million.
All from Bremer.
But it's something to work with.
You know, Jurij has never had anything to work with in his career.
You know, he left Verona for that reason.
I'm always saying this.
I'm always singing this song.
Vlasic song.
Vlasic as well.
They're bringing in Vlasic, apparently, from West Ham.
I believe he's an offensive player, could be useful.
And Mirancuk.
Ah, yeah, you said Mirancuk already.
So, to be honest, not too bad.
They have a few options.
They just need now a striker, is what I feel.
They need a proper...
The only reason I'm hopeful is because of their manager.
Yes, that's it.
That's the only reason I'm hopeful.
And I really rate the manager.
Jurij.
Jurij is fantastic.
Jurij could manage.
I was going to say something crazy.
I was going to say he could manage any of the top seven, but not any.
You know what I mean?
But he's there, man.
He's there.
He's a seriously underrated manager.
So we seem to be on the fence about whether or not these guys improved or if they got worse.
No, for now they got worse, yeah.
You can't lose your captain and striker and your MVP of the season.
Brejkalov, Obejgan, Prat.
Ah, that's painful.
They've worsened so far.
I would hate to be rich.
I'd love it because it definitely has more money than me.
But...
That's it.
That's the only reason.
I mean, I'm young.
So I'd like...
So you'd love to be Stephen Hawking in the last few years of his life?
Bro.
He's going to have more money than you.
I mean, I'd take health over wealth.
OK, that rhymes.
Yes, sir.
Health over wealth.
And I'll take the cards that I was deaf.
Oh.
Deaf.
Fabian deaf.
Anyway, 3, 4, 2, 1.
Berisha in goal, Gigi, Zima and Rodriguez at the back.
Single, Lukic, Ricci, Aina, Linetti in the midfield four.
I'm sorry, Telaena in the midfield four.
Then Linetti and Radonjic behind the striker and Sanabria will play up front for now.
I do think they need another striker though, quite badly.
And another defender because Gigi, Zima, Rodriguez is a really cool dance move.
But not yet.
But probably not a solid defensive three.
I've never even attempted that.
It's so fucking crazy.
Where do you have them finishing?
Torino, these men.
I have Torino finishing in 10th.
I have Torino finishing in 11th.
11th?
11th.
OK.
So.
Ah.
I'd stick by that actually.
11th.
OK.
Let's see.
Now we see.
I'm curious to revisit this.
I mean, bro, it'll change after a match they fucking won.
That I shat myself.
I thought a lot of fucking guys were running and fucking someone.
Bro, I shat myself.
I had a fucking firework.
This is just our luck.
Trying to fucking record.
I'm so lying.
That was so scary, man.
But.
Our door just started shaking like.
Anyway.
Sasuolo up next.
Sasuolo.
Yes.
Go for it.
Kill it.
So of course we're talking about Alessio Dionisi's Sasuolo, whose contract expires in 2023.
Let's start with him next season.
The owner said that he proved to be up to Serie A standard.
It's a starting point and it's the only 100% sure element to remain in Sasuolo.
So basically saying the entire squad is a massive question.
Mogli Dionisi is the only one that's staying for sure.
To be honest, damage control.
Frattesi is still there.
Raspadori for now is still there.
Granted the heavy links to Napoli.
Berardi is still there.
That's a crazy.
I was sure he'd go.
Yeah, same.
I thought it was time for him to leave.
I was sure, man.
But yeah, let's see what they've lost because obviously everyone was talking about them losing
Traures, Skamaka, Berardi, Frattesi and Raspadori.
That's what everyone was saying.
But in actuality, they lost Skamaka for 36 million from West Ham.
They lost Filip Juricic.
He joined Sampdoria on a three to 30 year old attacking with Fielder.
They lost Borabja, who was sold for 1.5 million to Spezia.
They lost Vlad Kirikis.
They must be really upset about that one.
He went on three to Cremonaise.
And the great Francesco Maniagnelli has retired at 37.
You can see I'm smiling when you say Kirikis because I finally get to watch Kirikis get relegated.
Brilliant.
Some players have signed some good moves by Saswal.
I always trust that the moves they make are good because they literally get players and develop them.
So Agustin Alvarez, 21 year old striker, 20 million from Pena Road.
Mintov rates him.
Yes, and many people rate him.
Apparently he's a good player and he has apparently already proven that he can be a prolific goal scorer.
Amazing.
Next up is Christian Thorsvedt,
23 year old attacking midfielder for 10 million from Genk.
Mintov rates him.
That's all I have on these guys to be honest.
Mateusz Henrik has been redeemed for 8 million from Grêmio.
They've signed Emil Konradsen-Szede.
He's a 20 year old left winger. They signed him from Rosenborg for 3 million.
They've redeemed Harui as well for 3 million from Sparta, the 24 year old centre back.
And they've also signed Ricardo Cervo from Roma for 2 million.
He's a left winger, 20 years old.
So yeah, they ended up spending 38 million and they made 68.6 million.
Which is crazy.
Nice.
Let me read you the line up and then we'll discuss whether we think they've improved or not.
4-2-3-1, Concelli, Engole, Muldur, Erlich, Ferrari and Rogério at the back.
Lopez and Frattesi in that double pivot.
Berardi on the right, Trauer on the left, Raspadori in the middle and Alvarez up front.
Jürgen Bittorz but instead of Raspadori, I'm quite sure that's something that'll happen in Raspadori.
He's like the exact equivalent of where he is.
He can play out wide, he can play behind the striker, he can play as a striker.
This is actually the end of the fireworks.
Yeah, because you can hear the whistlers.
Exactly.
And I believe some people just clapped.
Well done. Well done to all you inbred people.
So, Sassuolo, do you think they've improved or do you think they've gotten worse?
So, give me just one second.
I'd like to check.
Okay, so last season Sassuolo finished 11th.
This season, I don't know if I'm being audacious here, but I have them finishing in 9th, bro.
In 9th.
Simply because the teams around them in mid table have failed to make some big moves.
They've lost players and they haven't replaced them yet.
Sassuolo seem like they're keeping some key pieces and they're adding some exciting prospects as well.
So, Dionisi is still there. They lost last year, they terrorized the top teams.
So, what they have to do is improve against the weaker teams and maybe they'll climb.
I have them in 9th.
I also have them in 9th, which was behind.
They're in a Lazio Verona sandwich in 9th.
A Lazio Verona sandwich in 9th.
That sounds like a delicious sandwich.
It does. Very region.
Okay.
So, yeah, I think high hopes for Sassuolo.
They made some good money off of Skamaka and I think they've improved a little bit.
They have. They have.
Of course, it's to see. These guys might flop, but at least there's a plan.
That's always a possibility. We're here to say what we see.
I wonder if you'll be more accurate with these predictions than you've been with when these fireworks are about to end.
Bro, I literally heard the whistle.
What's this?
Fucking football game.
It's 20 past 10. Stop, man. Stop.
Anyway.
Udinese.
Udinese. Andrea Sotil's Udinese.
Yes, he is the father of Fiorentina Sotil.
They parted ways with Cioffi, who, of course, has replaced Tudor at Verona, as we've just said.
And this guy, Andrea Sotil, has joined from Ascoli, who had a pretty good season last year.
They had one too many giveaways.
Yeah.
He played with them. Andrea Sotil played with Udinese between 1999 and 2003.
OK.
That's interesting as well. He plays 3-5-2, bro.
And the transfers?
So they've confirmed the signing of Beto from Portimone. Jesus. Portimone and Sepp.
So obviously he was unknown, but they've redeemed him for 7 million.
They've signed Adam Mazina, who is a left-back from Watford, for 5 million. Obviously they have to have a Watford person in there.
They've signed Enzo Ebosse from Angers. He's a 23-year-old left-back. They've signed him for 4 million.
They've signed Yanka Bijol. He's a 23-year-old centre-back. They've signed him for 4 million from Moscow.
They've redeemed Udojji for 19 million for form. Sorry. He's a 19-year-old. They redeemed him for 4 million.
And he was previously at El Asverona.
They've signed Leonardo Buta. He's a 20-year-old left-back. They signed him for 2 million from Prague.
They've signed Neu in Pérez. Redeemed Neu in Pérez rather on a free from Atletico Madrid. 22-year-old centre-back.
Sandy Lovbridge, a 25-year-old central attacking midfielder for free from Lugano.
And Festi Ebossele, a 19-year-old right-back on a free from Derby.
Now the biggest loss for Udinese was the loss of Nachoel Molina, who they lost for 20 million to Atletico Madrid.
For sure. What a massive loss it is. Massive loss for Seya.
They've lost Mamadou Koulibaly, who was redeemed by Salah Enetana for 3 million. They've lost Stryger Larsson on a free to Tresnos sport.
They've lost Ziggler, who was released and is now without a club.
They lost Puseto, end of loan, so he returned to Watford, classic.
And Pablo Mari's loan ended and he returned to Arsenal.
And he's been sold to Monza. Pablo Mari.
Yes, he's been sold to Monza. Crazy.
Anyway, they play a 3-5-2. Sylvester Yngole, Bacow, Nui Tink and Perez at the back.
Sopi, Pereira, Wallace, Mekengo and Udodji in midfield.
Udodji, of course, has been sought after by many a team, including Tottenham.
Deo Lafeo and Beto up front in a duo. What do you think?
So it's difficult to say whether they've improved or fallen off a little bit.
I don't think they've fallen off. I think they've removed some of the French players like Ziggler, Larsson, Koulibaly, Puseto and Mari.
Very French players, you know what I mean? Yes.
And I don't know too much about the players that have signed, like Bijole, Bosse, Mazina.
But the fact that they spent money on them makes me believe that they see something.
So if I had to say… Wow!
Udoneza aren't a team that's flash, you know what I mean?
I think they've improved ever so slightly. Udoneza, I think so.
I think… Look, they've stayed the same. They've lost Molina.
And their manager is probably worse.
So I would say that they're not as good technically on paper. But Udoneza always make it work.
I have them in… let's see… 11th.
You have them in 11th, I have them in 13th.
13th, okay. It will be interesting to see them for sure.
They're a very physical team. They're always so big compared to the other teams.
No matter where their manager is, they seem to go for 6-foot-tall players all around, you know, on the board.
Yeah.
Their first game of the season is against Milan.
That is a draw.
I'm afraid Milan are off to a bad start this time, guys.
Next up is Bologna, the land of Sinisea Mihailovic.
Now, Bologna.
Mihailovic will be their manager up until 2023.
He has been on the bench since 2019, not because he's been doing particularly well as of late.
Of course, he has his illness. That makes things a little bit more complicated.
We thought, I thought to be honest, that Parthways…
I thought that Parthways is…
But apparently they're going to keep going.
I think when Mihailovic does leave Bologna, it will come from Mihailovic.
It will be Mihailovic's decision.
I really hope it won't be because of his health or anything of the sort,
but I think it will be Mihailovic saying, look, guys, we're not getting the results that we want.
Or, look, guys, I need to prioritise my health.
I can't be going to training every day, attending matches every week,
and maybe I want to spend more time with my family, blah, blah, blah.
So, yeah, I think the second day, the part that will be Sinisa's decision.
Yes.
They will play their 3-5-2.
They've lost Hickeys, Vanberg and Theat.
OK?
I'm stealing your job. I'm going to fuck.
I can't…
I'm sorry, I'm laughing. I'm like, what the hell is going on?
Go for it.
So, OK.
Yes, they've lost Theat to René for 19 million.
Good money, but massive loss in Theat, and I was hoping to see him in Serie A next year.
Same with Hickeys, 16.5 million to Brentford, a 20-year-old Scottish left-back.
Vanberg, they've lost as well to Wolfsburg for 9 million.
They're making some good money here.
Bologna, they've lost Santander on a free to Regina.
They've lost Falcinelli for free to Modena.
They've lost Viola, that didn't last long, 33-year-old Central midfielder on a free to Caliari.
Back down to Serie A.
They've also lost Binks, the 20-year-old center back.
He's on loan to Como.
He joins us in Fabregas.
Bologna have signed Michele Arbisher from Young Boys, 25-year-old Central midfielder for 4 million.
They've signed highly rated Lewis Ferguson.
He's a Scottish Central midfielder with Aberdeen 22 years old.
What songs does he have?
They signed him for 3.5 million. You're a joke.
Matteo Angeli, he's a 19-year-old center back.
They signed him for 300k from Limolese.
Charlam Pasliko Giannis has joined them on a free from Caliari, which is a 28-year-old left-back.
Andrea Cambiasso joined them on loan from Juve, who just signed him.
One thing I'll say about Bologna is that they may not have made stellar signings, even though these signings are quite decent.
But their Primavera team have certainly made a lot of signings, which shows me that they're invested quite heavily in youth.
There is a project and they like to buy players from all over the world.
I don't know if that's a coincidence or it's something that they actually try to do for their brand exposure or something.
But it's true, they do have quite a lot of versatility and nationality.
They play a 3-5-2, as per usual, Skorupski, Engol, Saumauro, Medel and Bonifazi at the back.
Medel will be playing that kind of regista, deep line, playmaker as a center back role again.
Desilvestri, Dominguez, Schouten, Soriano and Cambiasso.
Barrow and Arnautovic up front.
Standard Bologna team.
Worse Bologna team.
It's a worse Bologna team.
Teatiki, Svahnberg.
And if they lose Arnautovic, there's no way they replace him.
No, they've gotten worse, Bologna.
To be honest, I feel like they've been heading downwards for a while now.
Bro, there was a point that they improved when Sinisa's health got a bit worse.
When he was readmitted to hospital.
That was when Bologna won Milla on the league.
Yeah, that's when their human side came out.
And they were finally fucking performing.
I have Bologna finishing in 14th.
I have them in 13th.
Not too far off.
So you have Empoli ahead of them?
No.
We'll discuss, we'll discuss.
Don't you worry, we're gonna get there, bello.
Next up is Empoli.
Let's do it.
Next up, we've got Paolo Zanetti's Empoli taking over from Aurelio Andreazzoli.
He was formerly with Venezia.
He had the famous falling out with Henri in public.
They have suffered a few losses.
We'll get to that with Mati very soon.
But Empoli play a very adventurous kind of game.
They play a 4-3-2-1.
That's very dynamic, very offensive.
They don't shy away from attacking.
Yeah.
Obviously that was Andreazzoli's system.
Andreazzoli's system was enough.
They did enough work in the first half of the season to keep them alive.
Because in the second season, they were shambolic.
They were probably the worst team in the league.
Apart from that, they randomly beat Napoli.
I think they beat Napoli twice last year.
But now they have Zanetti. To be honest, it was a bit of a head-scratcher for me that they got Zanetti on board.
Because he literally got relegated with Venezia.
But whatever.
But they were playing some good football with them.
That has to be said.
Yeah.
No, they were playing.
They just didn't have enough experience.
Exactly. That's it mainly.
We'll get into that because there are a couple of teams that have the same problem for next year.
This year, rather.
So, Empoli, they've managed to keep their hands on Ficarrio, who they signed from Caliari for 8.5 million.
They've done the same with Libby Kakace, our favourite defender back in the league, for 3 million from St. Triden.
They've actually kept their hands on Stojanovic as well from Dinamo Zagreb.
They got Marin on loan from Caliari for 1 million.
Lovely.
And as well as Luperto on loan from Napoli for 500k.
They've also got their hands on Ebuhe, the right back from Benfica.
He joined on a free.
Wasn't he with Venezia last year? Ebuhe?
Probably on loan.
Yeah.
Just Benfica B.
So, this is him probably getting another stint in Serie A.
Very, very good for him.
Biggest signing for Empoli is probably Mattia Destro, the striker for Genoa.
They signed him for free.
He's been in Serie A for a while now.
He always gets goals.
He's a bit of a character as well.
He scored holding a bottle last year, sprayed it into the fans.
He's a very passionate guy.
I think he'll do well for Empoli.
They certainly need a man like him up front.
And then there are a couple of guys such as Samuel Perrizan, who they signed from Prodonone on an undisclosed fee.
They managed to get their hands on Inter's Satriano on loan transfer.
They didn't pay a cent for that.
They also loaned in Lammers, Campiaggi and De Winter.
They've brought in Lammers too, from Atalanta?
Yes, I said.
No, I'm reacting in a surprised way.
You're correcting me.
Holy shit.
Yeah.
So, Empoli have had some good signings.
They've been keeping plans on Vicario Kakace, Stojanovic and getting Marin as well.
Luperto, Destro, these are all very good signings.
Yes.
In fact, they're starting 11, it's looking pretty decent.
It's a 4-3-2-1.
Can I say who they lost?
Oh, yes, of course.
They've lost Simone Romagnoli on a free-2-par mod.
They've lost Damiani for 300k to Palermo.
They lost Mancuso to Monza for 3 million.
Aslani has been... Aslani?
They've lost.
Loan to Inter with an option.
Exactly, loan to Inter with an option to buy, but they've got 4 million from that.
Their biggest signing was Viti, who is a 20-year-old center back from Nice, for 13 million.
They've loaned out Lamantia.
Cutrone has returned to Wolves after his loan.
Di Francesco has returned to Spal after his loan.
Pina Monti has returned to Inter after his loan.
And Zurikovski has returned to Fiorentina after his loan.
A lot of losses, but they do have some firepower that they're bringing in to make up for that.
We forgot to address when we did Sassuolo.
Sassuolo are getting Pina Monti, most likely.
Most likely getting Pina Monti.
It hasn't been confirmed yet.
It hasn't been confirmed, but that is hot.
That is hot.
Now, Vicario on goal, Stojanovic, Ismael Luperto Parisi at the back, Henderson, Marin and Bandinelli in the midfield 3,
and then Bayrami and Satriano playing behind Destro.
That's a decent team, and I would go as far as saying this team is better than the Empoli we saw last year.
I think simply because they have some more Serie A experience in the team now that they're a little bit of an improved side.
It sucks losing people.
But for example, Cutrone isn't a massive loss because he wasn't great with them.
Di Francesco was not a starter.
Pina Monti is quite a loss in him returning to Inter, and Zurkowski is a bit of a loss as well in him returning to Fiorentina.
Where do you have them finishing?
14th.
I have Empoli in 16th.
16th.
I just don't have that much confidence in Zanetti, man.
Fair enough.
I don't have that much confidence.
Fair enough. I think the style matches the team.
Fair enough. We'll wait and see.
They might be pretty good. I like Marin as well.
I like Marin as a very direct playmaker kind of in the midfield.
Destro of course scores wherever he goes.
So this would, except at Milan, this would be a pretty good team, I think.
Up next.
Up next is Sampdoria.
So Sampdoria.
By the way, if you're noticing I'm typing aggressively, it's because I spilled water on my keyboard and it's not working properly.
This has been a really good episode, guys.
It's been great.
But thankfully, you see, the chaos has stopped.
Yeah, the chaos has stopped.
Hopefully our background noise killer will kill the fucking fireworks.
But I doubt it will do that great a job.
If not, you can view this episode as a kind of a celebration with fireworks that the season is about to start.
Literally.
But anyway, Sampdoria. Marco Giampaolo's men.
After they earned the salvation last year, they decided to proceed with Giampaolo.
Not much has happened in the transfer market.
Matti will take you to that. Giampaolo plays his classic 4-3-1-2 formation with a trecoartista.
In fact, leaving Candreva kind of obsolete and he's been rumored to leave.
I don't think you have a note on that because it's not official yet.
I don't have a note on that.
That he's been heavily rumored to sell her in a town.
Exactly. He's probably off to sell her in a town.
And that would be very good for both parties.
Yeah, it's a very cool move.
And Candreva is a bit older now, but still has enough in his pocket to contribute to a team like Salernitana.
So the biggest moves Sampdoria have made are basically the redemptions of Caputo and Sabiri.
They spent just 3.5 million on Caputo, just a million on Sabiri.
And he's our intro scoring from half pitch.
They've signed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 players on a free, including a goalkeeper, an 18-year-old goalkeeper called Tan Locchi.
They got him from Fermanha.
They got a defensive midfielder from Virtus Verona called Metlica for 20k.
Thomas Rincon on a free from Torino.
Filip Juricic on a free from Sassuolo and Villar on loan from Roma.
So they just spent 4.5 million essentially on Caputo and Sabiri.
Not essentially, but totally on Caputo and Sabiri.
Out on the other hand, they lost Caprari who was on loan to Verona.
So they lost him by selling him to Monza upon his return, while loaning him out to Monza on his return.
I don't know why they don't like Caprari.
They lost Bonazzoli who joined Salernitana for 5 million.
They lost Toresby to Union Berlin for 3 million.
They lost Egdal on a free and Joschida on a free to Schalke, Egdal joining Spezia.
They've also lost Askielsen to Lecce on loan.
They've lost Vladi Miro Falcone, the goalkeeper, to Lecce on loan, as well as Maniani to Hellas Verona, his loan ended.
Obviously, Sebastian Jovinko, I think it comes as no surprise, has been released from the club.
Out of all those players, they just collected 13 million, but they've made some good profit.
So, Audero will remain in goal.
Berezinski, Ferrari, Colli and Augelo at the back.
Now, of course, as it stands, Kandreva is still there, so I'm putting him here for now.
Kandreva, Rincon and Viera.
In the Czechoslovakian role, there's Juricic, who you just said they brought in on a free.
He was previously playing with Sasvalov.
We've seen him do some nice things, so it'll be interesting to see how he fits here.
And then Sabiria and Caputo up front.
I think it's decent, and I think that they...
Improved.
I'd say they got worse, man.
You lose Joschida, Egdal, Toresby, Ponozoli, Caprari put him aside, Askielsen.
Ponozoli wasn't there anyway last year.
Fair enough. Ponozoli's another example.
Dammesgaard's leaving, but he didn't play either.
Kandreva would be a massive loss.
Kandreva, Egdal, Joschida and Toresby are all very big losses, in my opinion.
Even Maniani is quite a big loss, but obviously he was only on loan to them.
But I do think they got worse.
Now, just because their individuals have gotten worse, it doesn't mean that the team got worse.
The players are simply better suited for their system.
Where do you have them finishing? It'll be interesting to see.
I have Somp finishing in 16th.
I have 15th.
They've remained very similar to last season.
The only thing I'm banking on is that maybe they've adapted to Gianpaolo a little bit more.
I really like Sabiri, and I think Juri, Sabiria and Caputo can be very entertaining.
We'll see what they can do.
It's everything around that gives me anxiety.
So, after Sampdoria, what's your favourite team in the league?
Spezia.
Oh yes.
Spezia.
I feel like I'm a little bit misunderstood when it comes to Spezia.
It's not that I hate them.
It's just that they...
They're unambitious, they had that whole transfer ban thing going on.
They sack their manager every other week.
They brought in Tiago Motta, as a manager who's kind of a footballing terrorist.
He did.
But now they have Luca Gotti, who's a man I respect.
And I think we need to have more mafia surnames and say,
Gotti is a good one.
Gotti is a very good surname.
We need Soprano now.
Managing Cremonaise or something.
But anyway, yes, the club from Liguria has confirmed Luca Gotti,
who was previously managing Udinese.
He will be at Spezia for the next two seasons.
And he will play his 3-5-2 formation.
You can see here they tried to bring in Nui Teng, but he didn't manage to do so.
What did they manage to do?
So, Kevin Agudelo, the right winger from Genoa for 2.7 million.
Reca, the left back from Atalanta for 2 million.
That's a redemption.
Same with Agudelo.
Burabia, the centre-betweener from Sassuolo for 1.5 million.
Ektal on a free transfer from Sampdoria.
Serpe, who is a centre-back from Genoa.
They signed him on this close fee.
And then they've also loaned in Daniel Maldini, Mattia Caldara and Victor Kovalenko.
So, it's really the loan signings that are there.
The loan signings and the redemptions that are there.
Massive moves.
They've lost a couple of players, including Koli, Manay, they lost Erlik, Senna, Salcedo, Colomby, Boschanay and Figolli.
OK, so they haven't really lost anything crazy.
No.
Because most of the players that are listed here have actually been re-signed by them.
Exactly.
So, they have in goal, Kudelo, Kovalenko.
They have lost Koli.
Reka as well, you said?
Reka.
They've lost Koli, yes.
They've lost Koli, however.
They've lost Koli.
It was the end of his loan and he's returned to Atalanta.
So, they have in goal, Dragovski.
No.
3-5-2, OK.
Amian, Caldara and Nicolau at the back.
It's OK.
It's not the worst.
Jazi, Maggiore, Ekdal, Bastoni and Reka.
Not bad again.
And then Verde and Nzola up front.
And of course, they've got Kovalenko and Maldini to help with the firepower as well.
Their team is full of losers.
Inconsistency is the theme of this team.
I mean, I don't like Nzola up front at all.
They're not scoring with Nzola up front.
Nzola, Jazi.
I wouldn't say Jazi is a loser.
He is a bit inconsistent.
He is extremely wildly inconsistent.
There's Ekdal who's fallen off a while ago.
I know he said, I said, the only reason he's a big loss for Sampdoria is because he's been there a while.
So, he knows the system and he's a good squad player.
But he does not improve their team in the slightest, Ekdal.
Their defense seems leaky as hell.
I think Spetser got a little bit worse here, man.
Their manager brings some more stereo experience.
That's as good as it gets.
Look, I don't look at this team and I think that it's absolutely terrible.
You know what I mean?
Like, they have decent pieces everywhere.
For me, I'm just going to straight up and say it like, for me, it's between them and Salah and Netano who gets relegated.
As the third team that gets relegated.
So who is out of both of them?
Who's in 18th place for you?
As it stands right now, I have Spetsia in 18th place.
I have them as well.
But I've had Spetsia to get relegated in the last three seasons and they've survived each time.
No, I mean, no, I haven't.
I have banked on their survival last year and the year before.
But they might be the year now.
If you look at their players, these guys have been through it the entire time.
Giozzi, Maggiore, Bastoni, for example.
That's the core of this team and Verde, of course.
Reca is a decent player.
I remember Reca at Crotone.
He was doing some good things as well.
Ammian is a bit moody.
Inzallah is extremely moody.
He had right before the January transfer market two seasons ago, he exploded.
He scored like six goals, he was scoring in every game.
The January Ustah came on fantasy football and I took him.
I was like, all right, he's probably one of the best options right now.
He didn't score another goal, not even another one, bro.
And then there was the whole thing where they wanted to sub him on, but he couldn't take off his earrings,
which was extremely embarrassing and humiliating.
I can't take him seriously anymore.
Can you imagine that?
And then...
Sorry, I can't play, why earrings are jammed?
There was another case that very same week.
A player couldn't take off his necklace.
But then he managed.
No, it was in Serie A as well.
What the hell?
But anyway, I'm going to go.
If Kandreva joins Salernitana, I'm going to say...
No, fuck it. I'm just going to say Salernitana, 18th.
Oh, you think Spezia survived Salernitana?
I think Spezia survived.
OK, cool.
You?
No, no, no, I think Spezia go down.
You think Spezia go down?
I think Spezia go down.
A kid?
Absolutely not.
But next up is that team that you think are in 18th,
so there's no bother asking you there.
Salernitana.
So they had Nicola last year who turned things around,
and suddenly they were forced to be reckoned with.
Who do they have now?
Now they have Nicola.
He's remained, of course, he is the architect of the miraculous salvation
that they endured last year, and it's his second feat in doing so.
He did it with Crotone a while back too.
It's a pity he's only good when he's under severe pressure.
Exactly. Now, in fact, they've restarted the full preseason.
He's probably going to get sacked within two months.
Two-year contract he has. There's an option for a third.
He plays a 3-5-2 formation, very organised, very meticulous.
We saw towards the end of the season Salernitana looked like a unit.
They looked like a team.
I agree.
What have they done, bro?
So they got Lovato from Atalanta.
We all know Lovato, 22-year-old centre-back, local.
He's very, very good. They got him for 7 million.
They got Bonazzoli, some firepower up front to replace Juric for 5 million.
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
They signed the left back from Lille.
His name is Braderic for 5 million.
He's 22 years old.
They've signed Bohinen from CSKA Moscow for 3.25 million.
Mamadou Koulibaly has been redeemed from Odinese.
Mikael is a Brazilian centre-forward. He's 23 years old.
He was signed from the Brazilian league from a team called Sport Retrieve for 2.73 million.
That is incredibly particular.
Diego Valencia, another centre-forward from Católica in Chile for 2.5 million.
Pasquale Mazzocchi right back from Valencia for a million.
All redemptions.
Jarzonski from Genoa for 1 million.
These are mainly redemptions, it's true.
And then there was a loan from Inter, a gentleman named Pirola.
He's a 20-year-old centre-back.
They paid 900k to get him on board.
Costanos from Juve's under-23 team for 300k.
And then some free transfers in Serpe, Botham, Sambia and Matok from Sallerno-Tajanas under-19s.
Now that Mathews don't speak in Greek, we can...
Well, they actually have the players that left as well, which are Ederson for 21 million,
so they made some very good money over there.
Strandberg to Valeranga on a free, Juric to Ferona on a free,
Krishly to Taranto on a free and Obie to Regina on a free.
Obie's gone down to Regina.
So, they play a 3-5-2, as we said.
Serpe in goal, Lovato, Fazio and Pirola at the back.
Shaky defence.
Madzocki on the flank, both Koulibaly's in the middle along with Bohinen and Brotherich on the right.
Bonazzoli and Ribery up front.
Ribery, of course, for three games only.
Yeah, seven actually.
Seven games.
Seven minutes.
Totally.
Yeah, yeah, hit us with it.
Do the thing, do the thing.
Ribery has the number seven, shaved into his head.
I feel like I'm a one-hit-one-hit.
I'm going to get a severe alcohol and cocaine addiction now.
You've peaked.
It's all getting better than that.
I was feeling so naughty then.
Ah, their squad is worse than Spezia's.
Straight up.
It is worse, it is worse.
Upon further inspection, it's as clear as daybreak.
But they get Contreva on board, they have Dove de Nicola on board,
they ended the season very well apart from obviously their devastating loss on the last day.
I have them in 17th.
OK, I've got them in 18th.
Very good.
Jolly well.
Jolly good.
Monza.
And plus, they've got the fans.
The fans.
They've got the fans.
Salernitani.
Ooh, Monza.
Giovanni Strappa's men.
Historic promotion.
They had never been in Serie A before.
But here they are now.
They have arrived and boom, they have transformed the ugly duckling into the beautiful, beautiful, beautiful...
What was it?
That beautiful duck?
What?
Ugly duckling is there?
OK, let's change the analogy.
From the caterpillar to the butterfly.
Incredibly smart.
Thank you very much.
Really, really intelligent.
But yes, they are a fucking transformed team.
It's crazy.
They will continue playing their 3-5-2.
I think we have 20 minutes for you to tell us who they've brought in.
So I didn't do the players that went out because no one knows who they are.
OK, sure, fair enough.
From Serie A.
So the important ones essentially are...
I'm going to skip the bullshit.
So they've got Caprari on board on a loan from Hellas Barona for 3 million.
Mancuso sent it forward from Empoli for 3 million.
He's been signed.
They've got Andrea Ranocchia from Inter on a free transfer.
They've got Sensi from Inter on a loan.
Pessina from Atalanta on a loan.
So those are the main ones.
Then they've also got people like Carboni, who is a centre-back from Caliari.
So some experience in Serie A over there.
Michele Di Gregorio from Inter for 4 million.
He's a goalkeeper.
He'll be on the bench to Craniot probably.
Brindelli from Pisa for 1.5 million.
Valentin Antov, a centre-back from Sofia for 2 million.
Pedro Palloni.
Was he?
Pedro Pereira, Portuguese right midfielder from Benfica for 2.5 million.
You know, bro.
And then the list goes on and on.
They also got Mari from Odinés.
They've also got Petania from Napoli.
Oh, that's been confirmed.
So it's a 3-5-2, bro.
Craniot on goal, Carboni on knock-in and Mari at the back.
There's also Marlon who can put in a shift over there.
Brindelli, Sensi, Barberis, Pessina and Carlos Augusto on midfield.
Along with Gitkiere and Caprari up front.
Most likely Petania will be taking Gitkiere's place.
But do not underestimate Gitkiere because he's a fucking legend over there.
Every time there's a fucking important moment or a goal that needs to be scored, it's always him.
One kiss is all it takes.
Falling in love with the man.
That's all I'll say.
Did you say who their manager is?
Yes, their manager is Giovanni Stroppa.
Ah, yes, yes, yes.
And is he the guy that got them promotions?
He is. He is. He is. He is.
He's the guy who took over from Brocchi.
I mean, what else is there left to say about Manzai?
You know, they've got the two main men in Gagliani and Berlusconi.
And they've invested significant amounts.
Well, significant amounts.
They've spent 21.4 million for a total market value of arrivals of 80.3 million.
So they've really outdone themselves with the business.
OK, a lot of loans here and there.
I do believe that Manzai are on the brink of becoming a staple Serie A team,
if everything remains the same as this.
Yes, for sure.
They've shown to be very ambitious, unlike many other teams in Serie A.
Where are they out there finishing?
15th.
I have them in 12th.
12th?
I have them in 12th.
This is me being a bit romantic as well.
I'm not going to lie, but I have them in 12th and I really hope that happens.
OK, nice. 12th would be extremely wild.
That means they would have some amazing games.
Which, to be honest, I see happening.
You look at their team, bro. They're simply...
They've got the experience.
Is their team better than Udinese? Is their team better than Bologna?
Is their team better than Sampdoria?
Are they better than Empoli Salli in Etana, Spetsia Cremona and Zellecce?
I mean, there are a few teams over that have been playing together at the highest level for a while.
Like Bologna and Bologna.
Those are the ones.
Those were the main ones, I noticed.
But anyway, shall we move away?
Yep. Let's share or Cremona has an axe?
Let's do let's share.
OK.
So let's share. We'll resume with Marco Barone, who was the man who led them to Serie A.
They won Serie B together.
They play a 4-3-3 formation.
They have lost their best player in Coda, who has gone to Genoa and is playing in Serie B.
But they have brought in a few interesting pieces.
I still think that they're an open construction site right now.
A lot of work needs to be done.
Do you have any info about who's been brought in?
Yes, bro, but I'm afraid there's nothing really to write home about when it comes to the signing.
So they have T. Francesco from SPAL for 500k, which is a decent signing.
They've got Samek from SLAFIA Prague. He's a defensive midfielder, 18 years old, for 2 million.
Lamkek Banda, he's a right winger from Petah Tikva for 1.8 million.
And Persson, he's a Swedish center forward.
They signed him from Roma's under 19s for 800k.
Basquirotto, he's an Italian right back, 25 years old, from Ascoli.
They loaned in a guy from CSKA. Moscow is a central midfielder.
His name is Bistrovic.
They've got Falcone, the goalkeeper that was with Sampdoria. He's quite good.
Askelsson is quite good from Sampdoria as well.
Cetin from Verona on loan.
Colombo on loan from Milan.
Frabotta on loan from Juve.
A lot of loanies, but nothing really significant.
Nothing to write home about. Bits and pieces.
They'll be lining up with Falcone and goal.
Falcone is good.
Calabrese, Tuia, Dermacu and Frabotta at the back.
Tuia has a bit of a serious experience.
Frabotta as a Juve player.
Calabrese as well has been in Serie A.
Dermacu I don't know much about.
Helgassen, Hülmend and Blinn are the midfield three.
And then Streffetza, Di Francesco and most likely Colombo up front.
But there's also Cisse.
So again, a team that's not great to be honest with you.
Lost, I would say one before the loss.
So we have 19th and 20th so we can move on to Cremonezza.
Right into Cremonezza. Who is their manager?
So Cremonezza are lining up.
So okay, their manager is Massimiliano Alvini.
He was managing Perugia last year.
The man who led Cremonezza to Serie A is actually Fabio Pecchia.
Now, once again another open construction site.
They play 3-5-2.
Do you want to go for it bro?
If not second in Serie A, but last year.
They signed a gentleman named Pickle.
He's a defensive midfielder, 25 years old.
They signed him from Familcao.
He is, well the team is from Portugal.
He is half from what it seems to be Switzerland and the Republic of Congo.
That's a combination.
They've signed Aiwu from Rapid Vienna for 3.5 million.
He's a 21 year old Austrian centre back.
Qualiata, he's a left back from Heracles Almelo for 2 million.
He's 22 years old.
Zajou from Milan, it's quite a good signing, 850k.
Yeah, that's a good signing.
Milanese from Roma for 750k.
There's a loan fee on Johan Vasquez who they signed from Genoa.
And they paid 500k for that.
That's a good signing actually.
Johan Vasquez.
Yes, Vasquez was amazing at Genoa in my opinion.
Decent one.
This is where it gets bad.
Vlad Kirikas.
32 year old centre back from Sassuolo.
Putting jokes aside.
Unlike the other guys this guy has Serie A experience.
Which is obviously key.
Otherwise, other than that, there's nothing really to write on.
Except for Ocareke.
Ocareke is a good signing.
Undisclosed fee from Club Bruges.
And Radu is a terrible loan from Inter.
Hopefully Radu can really recover a man from what happened to him.
That must be so tough.
Jokes aside, I hope so.
You see so many people struggling from like one moment.
One mistake.
One literal moment in an entire lifetime.
Just one second.
And that's what probably kills him.
The fact that it was one second.
But dude, Chin up.
Crémoners.
One second that fucked an entire season.
But anyway, Radu in goal.
Bianchetti, Vasquez and Kirikas at the back.
Made in Serie A.
Of course a lot of Serie A experience over there.
But Kirikas is not quite good enough.
There's Gilione, another Serie A player.
Valzania, Castagnetti, Ascaki Bar and Valeri in the midfield.
Like who the fuck are these guys?
I've been to Ascaki Bar before.
You've been there before?
Ascaki Bar?
How was it?
Really nice bathrooms.
Good food, you know?
Cute bathrooms.
Ocareke up front with Schofani.
They also, as you mentioned, have Sajud.
Now Sajud actually scored a fantastic goal in the Coppa Italia last week.
Okay.
But yeah, I can't see this team surviving.
No, not at all.
You know, I said 19th, you say last.
I think.
There's a reason.
Who is?
So we've covered.
Let's go through our tables together.
Okay.
So my table is Inter in first place, followed by Milan, Juve and Roma to form the top four,
followed by Napoli and Fiorentina getting Europe and Atalanta just getting Conference League,
followed by Lazio, whom is out, followed by Sassuolo and Verona to form the top ten.
The rest are Torino, Monza, Udinese, Bologna, Sampdoria, Empoli, Salernitana, Spezia, Cremonese,
let's say in that order.
Yourself?
So I've got the very hopeful prediction of Milan winning the league, of course.
I've already explained it.
Inter in second, Roma in third and Juve in fourth.
I've got Napoli and Lazio occupying those Europa League spots and Fiorentina once again qualifying
for the Conference League in seventh, followed by Atalanta who just missed out, Sassuolo, Torino.
And those are my top ten.
Udinese, Hellas, Bologna, Empoli and Monza.
And then the bottom five are Sampdoria, Spezia and Salernitana, Lecce and Cremonese.
Salernitana, Lecce and Cremonese, of course, facing relegation.
Let us know who you think's predictions were more accurate and stay tuned, obviously,
for the next episode where we'll be covering the first matchday of Serie A.
How fucking exciting is that?
We'll be uploading, I'll need to find some nice artwork when it comes to the bet slip.
Obviously, we can't do any branding of 365 or any of the sort, but we'll do something Serie A spotlight related.
I'll come up with something.
We can, for sure.
So that's going to be quite exciting.
Capo Canoniere.
Who's it going to be for you?
Victor Ozzyman.
Victor Ozzyman for Capo Canoniere 2022-2023 Serie A.
Now, it's audacious because I didn't even put them on my top four.
But then again, Immobile, like you said, lots of your A-Thas fuck and he stops scoring every single one.
So yes, I think Victor Ozzyman, if he stays fit, is an unplayable man.
It was between him, Chira and Tammy, in my opinion, those three.
Mine was between...
I wouldn't wish to show any disrespect to Chira because I'm confident in what he's capable of.
But I had to narrow it down between Tammy and Vlachovic.
The reason is, so I wanted to choose a team that I would rank at least in the top four to become top scorer.
I know that isn't always the case.
We've had the season of Pjantek, we've had last season.
It wasn't Mopelers, he wasn't in the top four.
But I would say Vlachovic, even though he didn't end up being an essential target man for Juventus, rather someone they played off,
I think with the supply that he's going to be getting this time around and the amount of penalties that you get,
and he has an entire season to take them, I think Vlachovic will be the top scorer.
Second, and very close to him, will be Tammy Abraham.
Same argument about the penalties, more in those teams do get a few penalties here and there,
and he does have some fantastic supply around him as well with Debala.
But yeah, I wouldn't say that Milan have a striker that can get top scorer.
And Inter have Lautaro, who always scores many goals.
They have Lukaku re-entering the season, but I don't think Lukaku's season will be as smooth as it was the first time around.
We'll wait and see.
I don't know, I think he'll have a lot of pressure on him.
He'll put a lot of pressure on himself.
Now if things start off well for Lukaku, he'll go flying.
If things don't, he'll struggle.
But we'll see, we'll see.
We will see.
Guys, we literally forgot to post if you guys have any questions for us.
But anyway, this podcast is long enough as is.
I'm going to take ages editing it now trying to remove the fireworks.
So I hope you guys can listen to it with your headphones in your car.
Hopefully you're wondering to yourself, what the hell are these guys talking about fireworks?
I don't hear anything.
That's the best case scenario you think we're not.
So we spent five minutes complaining for nothing.
Don't forget, guys, we're on TikTok and Instagram.
We're going to be introducing a bit of video over there as well.
Don't forget to follow us over there, engage with us,
and give us a nice little rating on Spotify, Google Play, Apple Podcasts, wherever you're listening.
If you're asking for too much, unfollow us and rate us one star.
Thank you guys and we'll see you this weekend for the first fixture of Seria 2020.
Woooooo!
Let's go!