Serie A Season Long Thread 2012-2013

I agree that Juve is the clear favorite for the scudetto. Only a Pirlo injury would likely make it interesting.
Signing Jovetic would be huge. I like him as much as any other young attacking player that's moved this summer.


However, I don't see AC Milan and Inter dropping too far this year or in the near future. Both of their shedding of payroll for aging players in general is a good move. Inter were paying a fortune to guys like Maicon and Julio Cesar who simply haven't been all that good for almost 2 years.

AC Milan selling Silva hurts them but they're still really strong and will spend more money this summer (even if not the amount they made from PSG.

It will take both a little while to realistically challenge for, say, a CL final but they'll not fall too far behind Europe's elite.


Roma will hopefully take advantage to capture a CL spot this year but realistically are probably still a year away from all of the youth coming into their own.


I'd guess this year the table, based on strength on paper, should look something like this unless there's some surprise transfers:

1. Juve

2. AC Milan

Then 3-6 being pretty close:

3. Roma
4. Inter
5. Napoli (if they can work out the contract negotiations to keep Cavani)
6. Lazio

with these having some hope of a Europa League spot:

7. Palermo
8. Atalanta
9. Fiorentina (if they keep Jovetic)
10. Catania

Inter will never be midtable as long as they have those sweet arse jerseys

I remember when Inter and Milan finished 5th and 6th respectively a little over a decade ago (I'm sure wm72 remembers that season too). Those sides were crap compared to now and still weren't midtable bad.

Milan might have unloaded some of their big names, but they know what they're doing. This is something that probably should've begun a few years ago, but they wanted to hold on to the aging stars and paper over the cracks with flashy signings (Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Beckham, Ibra, etc.) to get this recent generation one last CL title. Now they've shed massive payrolls and have money to reinvest.

As far as Abate, I really like him, but he was underrated two seasons ago. Not anymore. In fact, he was kind of dodgy at times last season. Milan still aren't going to let Juve poach him though.

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Heathy Pato is worth 3 league places. Obviously Milan won't sell him lol.

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So if they win the title this season and he misses the entire year through injury, where would they have finished had he been healthy?

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j1897

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I certainly agree with you about Milan taking a step back but I still see them as the team to beat to finish second in the Campionato.

I think they'll buy another pacier, ball playing CB like you mention to pair (even if not on Silva's level) with Mexes, who's solid if not great, and also have the younger Italian CB Francesco Acerbi they bought from Chievo/Genoa.

I see them trying to buy Rolando from Porto or bidding against Roma for a younger CB like Angelo Ogbonna, German CB Serdar Tasci or Bruno Uvini from Sao Paolo.


However, I completely agree that Milan's success the past 2 years in Serie A has been that they've so consistently punished mid to lower table sides (which is probably harder to do in Serie A than anywhere). Ibra, say what you will about him against elite defenders, was the biggest reason for this as he's just a wrecking machine against lower tier teams.

So true about Ibra, I can't be sure, but i'm almost certain even after all his years at Inter and ACM, he never scored a goal against Juve.


Juve's biggest advantage last year was conditioning, Conte beat them into the ground last year to get ready for the season, and it showed. As the games drug on, you saw a considerably less potent Juve side, and if ACM wasn't battle Barca at the end of the year, they might have won the title. Rest was key to Juve's playing style. This year it will be depth... hopefully. I still don't think we have the depth to play Conte's style in 3 competitions... maybe Napoli, maybe Roma... somebody might put up a fight for the league.

We(as Juve) need a Bobo Vieri, we could dominate and make a decent run in the CL with a finisher like him. Tough to find another like that dude though.

Any news on how Al Jazeera Sports Network plans on broadcasting Serie A games this season?

Appreciate the response

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just requested beIN via their website. hopefully it's picked up, even though i dont really follow those leagues that closely. better to have than not

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Yeah, I watch Serie A a lot but would hate to lose coverage of any of the big 4 and Ligue 1 as well -- which I actually really enjoy.

I'd guess that in the future BeIn will be as accessible as FSC but I worry that it may not be right away.

That the website right now is so geared to subscribers requesting coverage must mean that they're still negotiating price with everyone even with the season about to start.

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i'm hoping that since goltv lost their other rights, they will load up on bundesliga matches. i dont know if they have a limit on how many they can show or what. i'm afraid they may be becoming obsolete in the near future.

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I hope they will too. Losing El Classico is probably half their audience for an entire year (especially since they show repeats of it about every other program). Not sure what South American rights they still have. BeIN has Brasil as well now.

It seems like the best case scenario would be FOX making a bid for Bundesliga to replace losing Serie A, or maybe down the road BeIN getting a second channel like FS+ and bidding on them.

Not sure how long the Bundesliga contract with GolTV is?