Kosovare Asllani at Milan AC is now official. A big market hit for sure, but not enough to catch up with Juventus and Roma in my opinion. At least Milan is making bold moves to close the gap: other top teams in the league (Sassuolo, understandably given their limited budget, and Inter) are having quite a flat market so far; they're maybe waiting for the end of Euro 2022 to have a bigger picture, but couldn't it be a little late by then?
Yesterday, Italy U-19 had a 2-2 draw vs France at the Euro Championship (Nicole Arcangeli scored a brace, both goals from PK, as the one she had scored vs Spain ). Italy could happen to advance to semifinals anyway, but it's not in their hands anymore; they have to win and to shore up their goal difference vs Czech Republic on Sunday while hoping that Spain beat France at the same time (a draw between Spain and France would be enough to eliminate Italy and it looks like the most likely result). Highlights of the match:
Italy Senior NT manage to keep a 1-1 draw vs Spain in the last friendly match before Euro 2022. Spain dominated most of the game, but it was actually Italy who went ahead early in 2nf Half, with a goal by Valentina Bergamaschi from CK action (the first CK Italy took, after Spain had already taken 7 or such in 1st Half). Later, Spain hit the crossbar with Patri Guijarro and finally managed to equalize with Alexia Putellas; but their performance was anyway less dominant in 2nd Half, maybe also because of the 6 substituions per team along that half, and Italy even had some occasional counter-attack chances. All in all, it was sure a good result for #14 Italy vs #7 Spain and a very good preparation for the debut Match of the tournament vs #3 France, who could look quite similar in terms of opponent's superiority. Later, I'll post highlights as soon as available, but I want to point out that, after this game, I am quite sure I figured out why Milena Bertolini finally decided to keep in the roster an arguably fringe-player as Martina Piemonte, who replaced Cristiana Girelli in the middle of 2nd Half: with her massive 1,80 cm x 70 Kg, Piemonte is the kind of physical presence in the forward-line that teams like Italy tend to sorely miss; it's very difficult to take away the ball from her and she wins most of her tackles by just muscling the opponent out. Of course she poses no particular problems to teams who traditionally have a lot of big and tall DFs, but she can be a key-weapon against others and otherwise help us reach some vague kind of physical parity.
Highlights now available : In the post-match interviews, Milena Bertolini said that it's playing vs stronger opponents as Spain that can make a team better: let's hope it works, because I see us easy succomb vs France. As I previously said, I can feel the enthusiasm of the players (especially because this friendly match, as Elena Linari pointed out, was played on the same day when Italian Women's League officially becomes professional), but I've got the impression that there is a little too much optimism around, as if Italy could easily reach top 4 in this tournament, when there are so many teams in this Euro who are definitely better than us.
And as expected Spain and France posted a 1-1 draw, that makes Italy's win useless. Italy's dominance vs Czech Republic was more impressive than the final score suggests: there were literally dozen of shots for Italy and the Corner-Kicks' count was 16 to 0. In the end, they managed to reach that 4-0 win that would have see them advance to the semi-finals if only France had lost, even by the minimal margin. But the brace by Nicole Arcangeli (a bright future for her for sure) and the single goals by Chiara Beccari and Tori Dellaperuta weren't enough. I'll post highlights later when available because they're worth watching and I think some of these Italian players will grew into classy senior-players.
Valentina Cernoia won't be available for tonight's debut match at Euro 2022: she didn't even left Blakcburn to Rotherham, where the match will take place, stopped by some generic and unspecified "physical problems". Her absence will sting, especially because she's a set-pieces' specialist. Of course, the clash vs France will be the most difficult match for Italy at group stage: i'd be content with a draw, since I've got the impression that France is way ahead of us, not just in FIFA Women's rankings, but in general overall quality.
The highlights of the U-19 match vs Czech Republic were due; here they are: The tournament ended yesterday with Spain beating Norway by 2-1 in the final: Spain superiority had been obvious vs Italy also and I guess we were unlucky to get them and France in our group. If it can be of any consolation, Nicole Arcangeli ended up the top-scorer of the final stage of the competition with 5 goals.
Well, this is a case when I hate to have to say "I told you so", but I had repeated on multiple threads that there were too many teams in this Euro 2022 tournament that were way stronger than Italy to justify the unreasonably optimistic approach to this tournament by the team and especially by the media (in particular those who had never followed women's football at all in the past, and were only basing their predictions on the breakthrough WWC from 3 years ago, where Italy had just one sort of upset by beating Australia, but then procedeed to only win with Jamaica and with a back then poorly coached China, but lost to Brazil and crashed out against Netherlands). I guess tonight's debacle opened somene's eyes and made clear that #14 Italy can't compete yet with #3 France. Other teams I don't think Italy can't realistically compete with yet are #2Sweden, #4Netherlands and most probably #5Germany and #7Spain (despite the draw in the friendly match from one week ago). The bottom line is: Italy will probably advance from group D, then their torunament will end at quarter-finals. Anything more would be out of the realm of simple upset and there in the realm of supernatural. It looks like Italy was deluded instead by a draw vs Sweden in the final of Algarve Cup. I'll probably post highlights as soon as available, despite the fact that they would be better been hidden.
As I had promised, highlights of the match (Italian federation wasn't in a hurry to upload them ): After watching Norway vs England... well, we weren't so bad after all, were we?
Italy-Iceland 1-1. I basically said everything on the Group D thread. Iceland could have scored 2-0 and they would have been deserving winners, 2nd Half Italy, with Bonansea, was anyway better: not only they equalized, but they could have won in last half-hour of the game (Bonansea hit the post). All in all it seems like the draw was a fair result. But there were many negative signs: 1) confused line-up: Bertolini, who is normally a sound coach, should anyway stick to the obvious; everytime she feels compelled to substantial and revolutionary changes, she basically fails (see the first leg vs Switzerland in WWC 2023 qualifiers, where the covid-emergency forced her hand, but she anyway chose an unreasonable defense-line of 3 players, while moving Linari to the midfield ). This time she decided that the line-up from the 2nd half vs France could do and, while some changes were good, for instance Simonetti and Rosucci in the midfield, others were very questionable, as starting Piemonte over Girelli or Bonansea. Handicapping ourselves by not starting Bonansea, in particular, was inexplicable; 2) mental fragility: the players passed the days between the loss vs France and today claiming that "they were going to show who they really are", as if we were going to trash Iceland by 5-1; then, on the pitch, they almost had a nervous breakdown after initial Iceland's advantage. My impression is that they mentally approached the whole tournament, an every single game so far, the wrong way, and it shows on the pitch; 3) questionable physical fitness: it's not only that most teams have players who are bigger, faster, stronger than ours; it's that we keep losing 2nd balls because we're slow, losing tackles because we're soft, losing runs beacuse we're not fresh. That's worrying, at the beginning of a tournament; 4) players' selection: we have too many FWs and not enough MFs. What's the point of bringing Bonfantini, if she has Girelli, Bonansea, Giacinti, Piemonte and even Sabatino ahead of her? A winger as Serturini or a good dribbler in the midfield as Greggi would have been much more useful! Or what are our realistic options to cover all of the different roles in defense (where Gama is looking royally out of shape, giving away at least one goal per game and making unnecessary fouls?). we could anyway advance on the back of France eventually winning all of their games (beating Belgium won't be anyway trivial for us), but I guess it's honest to admit that we can't possibly go beyond the quarter-finals. I am going to try to post highlights later, although I assume they will be geo-blocked.
Although I am sure they will be geo-blocked, I posted anyway the highlights from Icaland-Italy: Everyone says Italy will advance by beating Belgium, but Iceland is a good team and I don't completely rule out that they can win vs a relaxed and already qualified France. We've seen them falter yesterday vs arguably weaker Belgium in 2nd Half and in a "must win" game to secure the first place in the group; why couldn't it happen again vs a motivated, athletic and quite well organized Iceland team?
...and in the end it turns out I hadn't been too much pessimistic at all, I had even been optimistic instead. Not only there were 4-5 teams way better than Italy at this tournament: according to the last place in our group there were way more than that. Now, I am of course sorry that the team crashed out this humiliating way and I'll admit it was a surprise even for me that it didn't manage to advance from group stage (although, unlike others, I was aware it wasn't necessarily an easy task), but probably a reality-check was needed for this group (and for the media around them). On the 8th of July, Milena Bertolini in a press conference was answering this way to a question about Italy's target: "We're going to pass the group stage and then we're going to talk about targets". On the 9th of July, the day before our debut vs France, captain Sara Gama was claiming: "The target is thinking game by game and, for a start, to advace from the group stage. If we do, there are no limits at out potential targets". Now, every team at a tournament will say that they're going to do good and that they believe in themselves and in their group, but what I perceived around Italy's team was some kind of overconfidence. Despite all the claims that we were going "game by game", everyone was already thinking at the games beyond group stage, as if it was a given that we were going to advance (and, mind, I blame the media at least as much as the team and management: the media, and the federation, were needing a "palatable" product, for a set of reason that I already explained ad nauseam, and the team basically fell to them). Now, for sure I don't claim Milena Bertolini has to be sacked, or even just discussed. We're in the middle of a qualification process for WWC 2023 and we're clearly ahead in our group, just needing two wins vs minor teams (ok, one of them not so minor, Romania) to qualify. Unless we fail winning these games, any consideration about a possible change at the helm will be pushed back to 2023, after the World Cup. And I'd like to stress that Italy's final placement in this tournament, if disappointing, is not so far from what could be reasonably expected from our country. According to FIFA's ranking, Italy was barely the top 8 team at this Euro 2022; that they finish out of top 8 is just mildly surprising (if there were any teams that you could see failing to confirm their top 8 position, it was of course the lowest ones in this lot: and in fact #7 Norway and #8 Italy were replaced by #11 Belgium and #13 Austria; I am of course extrapolating these position by the FIFA Women's Ranking, just considering Euro teams from this chart). So it's not like Italy was a potential contender for the title that criminally crashed out when they were expected to make top 4; they sure underperformed, but only slightly (unless, of course, they were unreasonably believing to be a contender for the title). For a nation that only has a base of 30.000 women players (!) , Italy was basically in line with what could be reasonably predicted. The growth of the league and of the movement in the last 4-5 years, Juventus' successful run in Champions' League, the decent advancement of the National Team from #20-something to #15-something in the world, were all welcomed, but they created an expectation of unlimited progress that, at least at the moment, doesn't match with reality. So, it's not time to tear everything down and to start from scratch: it would be, if Italy had crashed out of this tournament after entering it as a top-nation with legitimate ambitions for the title, a solid structure and league behind them, a long tradition at the high level and a huge base of women playing the sport. Basically, if Italy were Germany, it would make sense to be back at square one and rebuild everything from scratch. But we're not Germany at all. So, the only thing to do right now is to let Bertolini reflect and work on her group of players and to hope for the best. As I said above, I guess the reality-check was precious and it will change the approach of the team to the next games, where the spirit that had led the team to their recent developments will be maybe found again. Also, the urgency of integrating new young players into the group of veterans Bertolini basically relied to for this tournament is obvious: Sara Gama was totally out of shape, Barbara Bonansea, despite moments of brilliance was gassed at the end of yesterday's game (and she killed a pair of attacks in the last minutes of the game by missing a control or a cross because she apparently hadn't a clear mind anymore), Cristiana Girelli had an incredible work rate but she didn't manage to score a single goal. Unluckily, the youngest options don't seem to be at the same level of these players (or at least not yet), but there is no choice: the oldest players will need to be slowly phased out. Maybe this is not a job for 2023, but it's anyway a job that needs to be done, so better to start it right now. Also, something will need to be changed at the strategic level. I won't go into details here, but sometimes the in-game management seemed quite improvised, like some kind of wishful thinking spurred by the heat of the moment. I remember a sentence credited to Nils Liedholm: as a coach, when he absolutely had to score in a game, he was said to sub-out a forward and to replace him with a miedfielder. Yesterday, at some point, we had on the pitch at the same time 4 of the 6 players listed as Forwards in our roster: Valentina Giacinti, Barbara Bonansea, Agnese Bonfantini and Daniela Sabatino, plus other mostly offensive players as Valentina Bergamaschi and Valentina Cernoia. Of course they weren't all played on the offense-line, but anyway did this led us to score goals or did it lead to more confusion? Sorry for the very long post, and I hope it will be of some interest for someone here on these boards. As usual, I am going to post highlights of yesterday's game as soon as available.
As promised, here are the highlights of the match: The aftermatch of this debacle is hard, especially because a lot of people who had never followed women's football in the past are now weighing in their unreasonable expectations. Some of them, of course, have even started discussing Milena Bertolini, thus seamleassly traslating to women's football the ways of men's football, where, when in doubt, you sack the coach. I stand by what I wrote earlier: if Roberto Mancini remains in charge of the men's team despite losing the World Cup qualifier to North Macedonia, I don't see why Bertolini should resign. We're in the middle of the qualification process for WWC 2023 and we're ahead: it's sure not a moment for a trial to the coach and to the team; it's time to regroup and to prepare for the future step by step, not with a sudden revolution; after the World Cup, it will be time to re-evaluate everything, after a good year of pondering and studying the best solution. Those who are critical to this coach easy forget that this is basically the level of Italian women's football: it can sometimes happen that it punches above its weight, but at the moment you just can't expect from an Italian women's NT's coach that he/she can compete with movements like France, Germany, England, Sweden that are so much ahead of us in basically any department (number of players in the country, tradition at high level, quality of the league, quality of the players, physical conditioning, you name it!). Blaming the coach for not reaching top 8 at the Euro is like blaming the pilot of a sub-par racing-car for not making top 3 at a GP: give him a better car, before judging him!
Despite being in holyday, I can't seem to find much time to keep this thread updated, these days, and this will probably be a trend in the upcoming times. Not that it's happening much on the Italian scene, but I was planning to post a review of the main market hits of Serie A's team and I never find the time to sit down and give a shape to it. Anyway, a good excuse to add a new post to this thread is the fact that both Italian teams, Juventus and Roma, advanced to the final of the mini-tournament that's basically the format of the preliminary Champions' League round, having get rid, respectively, of Racing Luxembourg and of Glasgow City. Juventus' result was of course expected, Roma was a little less sure, but it was clear since the beginning that the real stumbling block was going to be Paris FC at the subsequent round, and not really Glasgow. I didn't find highlights of the Juventus' match yet; Roma's ones are available, although, as usual, it's possible that they're geo-blocked: you'll let me know, guys. Results of yestreday's matches Juventus 4 Racing FC Union Luxembourg 0 (Rosucci 11', Girelli 21', Caruso 54' Bonfantini 61') Glasgow City 1 Roma 3 (Minami (og) 20' - Glionna 12', 59', Lázaro 81') Juventus' match was of course a cakewalk, only made a little more difficult by the heavy rain. Cristiana Girelli missed a PK in 2nd Half by sending he ball crashing on the post. Valentina Cernoia is said to have rectified the referee's decision on another potential PK by denying having being fouled by Luxembourg's GK (of course it's easier to do that on a 4-0 result, as it was the case, than, let's say, on a 0-0 score ). Roma's match, despite Glasgow's history and previous Champions' League's experience, was basically one-way traffic also, the only real chance for the hosts having been Moeka Minami's awkward own-goal giving them a momentary equalizer. The women of the match sure were Benedetta Glionna (maybe this is the year when she'll finally flourish, at NT level also?) with two goals and an assist, and Paloma Lázaro, with one goal and one assist. Next round on Sunday, the 21st of August: Kiryat Gat-Jiventus Paris FC-Roma Juventus is of course expected to dispose of Israeli champions of Kiryat Gat quite easily. Roma is the clear underdog instead vs Paris FC but, hey, since they're here, they will sure give it a try anyway!
Very important wins for both the Italian teams, not only for themselves, but also for the whole Italian women's football movement, that can bounce back a little after the very disappointing performance of the NT at Euro 2022 and that, especially because of Roma's unexpected advancement to the next round, gets closer to the enticing target of getting three Champion's League spots in the seasons ahead. Juventus' task was a little harder than expected vs Israeli champions of Kiryat Gat: they had scored in 1st Half with a good lob by young Sofia Cantore (a key-player for the season ahead, in my opinion, after she came back from the loan to Sassuolo) and they had made it two early in 2nd Half with Anahita Zamanian. Just a few minutes, though, and the opponents scored also, managing to keep the score close, despite many Juventus' chances, until 90', when Arianna Caruso sealed it with an header from CK action. Newly signed Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir impressed with two assists on the two first goals. It was an unexpectedly complicated match, in this very early phase of the season, but Joe Montemurro's side kept its composure and it was some kind of a test of maturity: years ago, a similar situation could have easily turned to worse. I couldn't find actual video-highlights, but I can at least show you Juventus' goals (no trace of Kiryat Gat's one, despite the video been named: "Juventus Women vs Kiryat Gat: all of the goals" ): Roma's result was even more impressive, since Paris FC, 3rd-placed in French league last season, were the clear favourites in this match. This was a crucial test not only for the team and for coach Alessandro Spugna, but also for their market-campaign, that was specifically aimed at making the team competitive in Europe also, especially by giving more depth to it (with names like Valentina Giacinti, Moeka Minami, Carina Wenninger, Norma Cinotti and others, in addition to confirming most of the players from last season, especially the key-ones). It was a clear success: the game could have gone either way, but if the target was being competitive, Roma clearly were (and it has to be said that, although both teams had clear chances during regular and extra time and both hit their part of woodwork or forced great saves from respective Goalkeepers, it was actually Roma who looked closer to win this game from open play). The game dragged to extra-time and penalty shootout and here Roma made their masterpiece: all of the 5 penalty-takers buried their shot in, while GK Camelia Ceasar made sure to save Clara Matéo's one (intecepting it with her feet while diving). It was another sign of great, and previously unheard of, maturity for an Italian team. I already pointed this out on the WCL thread, but the third penalty-taker for Roma was Annamaria Serturini, who, last February, had missed the last penatly of Algarve Cup's final vs Sweden (you can rewatch the full Sweden-Italy game here, although it will most probably be geo-blocked from outside Italy): she broke in tears after that and it seemed like the omen of an unlucky year for her, since she wasn't even named in Italy NT's roster for Euro 2022. Now, she more than made up for that mistake, since she converted in style an equally crucial penalty in another penalty shootout: the character of a player is shown in taking this kind of responsabilities and shaking off past mistakes. Substantial highlights of the game, including the full penalty shootout (these ones shouldn't be geo-blocked, since the source is the same as the Glasgow City-Roma's ones):
The new professional league in Italy is going to start this week-end: we're going to have the first match, Como-Juventus, on Saturday the 27th and the rest of the matches on Sunday the 28th. It's a quite strange experiment, that not everyone was sold on: just 10 teams that, at some point, will divide into a "title pool" with 5 of them and a "relegation pool" with the remaining 5. Somehow reminds me of the new set up of Norwegian women's league, and I frankly hope that it's thrown out of the window soon, hopefully after just this season. Anyway, I've got an ambitious plan, probably too much ambitious for the low traffic we experience these days on BigSoccer in general and on this poor lonely thread in particular: in the days ahead of the start of the tournament I'd like to summarise the most important market moves of the 10 Serie A Femminile's teams, to get a general idea of where we're at with them. The format will be something similar to what's already been tried some years ago, if I am not wrong, by @Páll Guðmundsson on the Iceland thread (alas, with not much success, if I remember well, because it needs a strong personal emotional investment on a particular league to appreciate this kind of posts and I don't think there are enough fans of specific women's leagues on these boards to grant that; but, hey, I am in holyday, so I'll anyway give this challenge a try, as unsuccessful as it's going to be! ): I'll dedicate a single post to each of the 10 teams between today and Saturday, following a strict alphabetical order (to avoid any bias ). The teams, in alphabetical order, are: Como, Fiorentina, Inter, Juventus, Milan, Parma, Pomigliano, Roma, Sampdoria, Sassuolo. Some, of course, will be more interesting than others. Parma, as the followers of this thread should know, is a new team, who bought the sport title from Empoli (this last one disbanded instead). Some of Empoli's players were actually signed by Parma, but not as many as one could have exepected: the rest, as you will see, are scattered through the whole Serie A and make for a good number of interesting trades. I am not going to extensively cover each and every trade, this is not meant to be that kind of market review! I'll be only covering what I feel are the most relevant trades and I'll mostly avoid mentioning the moves to and from Serie B (2nd Division) and those involving young/unknown players (an exception will be the youngsters from the last cycle of U-19 NT, who had brilliantly qualified for the final phase of the Euro tournament for that age-range this summer: there are many players in that team who are surely going to make some kind of an impact on Serie A's team, so I'll make sure to mention who signed them). Since a lot of the players involved in these trades are actually internationals, I'll indicate the nationality of each of the non-Italian ones with their respective codes; for you convenience, my reference will be this Wikipedia page with the list of FIFA country codes. The format for each post dedicated to any single team will be: a list of the players "in" and a list of the players "out", each with the club they are coming from or they are going to, and a brief comment about what I personally think of their market campaign. I'll highlight in bold the names that, in my eyes, represent the most important market hits (or the most relevant losses) for each particular team. A last thing: I know it's just a dream, but what I would really like would be to encourage discussion and posting, so, if you are reading one of the post and you find the name of a player from your country that you know something more about than I do, please drop some lines here about her. I would like the contributions of the international posters to help me making this review worth reading. Of course, I excuse in advance for the many mistakes I am surely going to make, the names I'll forgot, the wrong cross-references (for instance players mentioned as "in" for one team that I forger to also mention as "out" for the team they come from). This is where I'll appreciate the contributions from the readers also. What do you say? Ready to go?
COMO In: Nina Stapelfeldt (SUI, Milan), Malin Brenn (NOR, LSK-Kvinner), Camilla Linberg (NOR, LSK-Kvinner), Joyce Borini (Bra, Roma), Darya Kravets (UKR, Fiorentina), Mária Korenčiová (SVK, Levante, Goalkeeper), Beatrice Beretta (U-19, Tavagnacco, on loan from Juventus, Goalkeeper), Chiara Beccari (U-19, Juventus), Matilde Pavan (U-19, Inter) Out: --- We start with maybe one of the less exciting market campaigns of Serie A, but it anyway it has some names worth discussing. Como is the only newly promoted team of Serie A Femminile 2022-2023 (to set up the professional league with just 10 teams, there have been 3 relegations and just 1 promotion in season 2021-2022) and it had to be particularly solid to overcome the rest of Serie B's competition last season, to the point that their chairmain Stefano Verga confirmed most of the team from last season, including strong Argentian coach Sebastián De la Fuente (who had also won a promotion for Inter some years ago): thus no names worth mentioning in the "out" box. The team is expected to valiantly fight to avoid relegation (their first game of the league will be vs Juventus! ), so they tried to shore up their weaknesses in every part of the pitch and, being on a budget (Como and Pomigliano are the only Serie A's team not supported by a men's professional team), they tried to do that by signing second-string internationals who anyway had already done well in Italian league or promising youngsters from big clubs. They tried to cover all roles: GK (with a young U-19 who already did well in Serie B with Tavagnacco, and with Slovakian Mária Korenčiová, who comes from Levante but had been Milan's GK until a pair seasons ago), defense (Ukrainian Kravets from Fiorentina), midfield (U-19 Pavan) and attack (Swiss Nina Stapelfeldt from Milan, U-19 Beccari, who will likely complement their striker from Serie B's season, Greta Di Luzio). If you missed Beccari's goal assisted by Pavan in Italy-Czech Republic 4-0 at this summer's U-19 Euro, go re-watching it (here, 2nd goal of the match), and maybe you'll see why Como's managers wanted to set up again that kind of partnership in their team also! I didn't count the Norwegian players among the most important key-hits, but maybe @Bauser will correct me about that. Given their budget, Como have made a very smart little market campaign, and I would really like to see it rewarded with some good results and maybe a tightly-contested successful fight to avoid relegation.
Hard to tell which role they'll play based on short pre-season notes. I read a short interview with Malin Brenn and Camilla Linberg the other day, and they are enjoying their time in Italy and are impressed with the professionalism at the club. Como are having their pre-camp up in the mountains. Big staff, brand new team bus and new stadium for the women's team. According to the interview, Brenn has played in central defence in Como's first two warm-up matches and Linberg is slowly returning to match fitness after her injury. Linberg scored twice and had one assist in a 5-1 win against Cesena. There is also a mention of a 2-1 win against Cittadella.
FIORENTINA In: Miriam Longo (Milan), Tecla Pettennuzzo (on loan from Roma), Milica Mijatović (SRB, Roma), Rachele Baldi (Napoli, Goalkeeper), Laura Agard (FRA, Milan), Alice Parisi (Sassuolo), Kaja Erzen (SVN, Napoli), Zsanett Kajàn (HUN, OL-Reign [USA]), Jenna Menta (USA, Wake Forest University), Alexandra Johansdóttir (ISL, Eintracht Frankfurt) out: Valentina Giacinti (Roma), Marta Mascarello (Milan, loan), Valery Vigilucci (Milan), Darya Kravets (UKR, Como), Sara Baldi (Sampdoria), Karin Lundin (SWE, Rosengård), Camilla Forcinella (Juventus, Goalkeeper) Fiorentina's market campaign looks mostly suspect. After the last disaster of a season, that saw them only avoid relegation at the last match-day, they claim aiming at being back in the top positions, but their market doesn't frankly seem to signal that. Of course, they managed to retain some key players, as Daniela Sabatino or Vero Boquete, but for the rest you could argue that the team, even just on paper, doesn't seem much stronger than its previous incarnation. Retaining Valentina Giacinti wasn't a real option: she was just on loan from Milan, but she couldn't get back there, because the coach she had clashed against, Maurizio Ganz, had been confirmed after his more than decent 3rd place. She sure needed a more competitive team than Fiorentina, so she chose Roma. The real problem seems to be that Fiorentina had most of its trades with Milan and Roma (or occasionally with Napoli), but these teams only sent there some young or marginal players, who weren't part of their strong reinforcing campaigns. I am not saying Fiorentina just received scraps (Rachele Baldi is a very interesting young GK, that had been sent on loan to Napoli from Roma; Pettennuzzo is a promising DF; Longo had scored some goals despite the limited playing time she was getting at Milan), but these don't seem the names that a team really aiming at the top would sign: they look at max good for a smooth middle-of-the-rankings placement. Another recognizable trend is the comeback of players who had already been there when Fiorentina, a few years ago, was at the top in Italy and playing the Champions' League in Europe (Laura Agard from Milan, Alice Parisi from Sassuolo), but living in the past with these well-experienced but by now over 30 players doesn't really seem like a winning choice to me. I am not sold on this campaign and, despite their declared ambitions, I frankly more easily see some "surprise-team" making the top 5 of the league than Fiorentina.
INTER In: Mana Mihashi (JPN, Sassuolo), Beatrix Fördős (HUN, Lazio), Alessia Piazza (Milan, Goalkeeper), Elena Battistini (U-19, Roma), Chiara Robustellini (U-19, Inter youth team), Stephanie Van der Gragt (NED, Ajax), Tabitha Chawinga (MWI, Wuhan Jianghan) out: Kathellen Sousa (BRA, Real Madrid), Elin Landström (SWE, Roma), Macarena Portales (ESP, Valencia) Inter's campaign has been mostly quiet: coach Rita Guarino had already mostly shaped the team to her wishes last season and she probably felt like she just needed some little adjustments. Also, they start having solid transitions from their youth teams and that's why I wanted to include DF Chiara Robustellini's promotion to the Senior Team in the "transfers" (both her and Elena Battistini, from Roma, quite impressed in U-19 NT's defense, the department where probably Inter needs more help). Inter placed a single good signing in each part of the pitch: Alessia Piazza is a good 2nd GK (the first choice keeps being Francesca Durante, most probably the immediate future of Italy's Senior NT), a role that needed to be covered when Roberta Aprile left to Juventus mid-last season; Kathellen and Landström were tough losses in defense, but that's where Inter placed what's arguably their best signing with Stephanie Van der Gragt (at 30, her Euro 2022 tournament sure still impressed); in the midfield they stole one of the best cogs of Sassuolo's mechanism in Mana Mihashi; and, although not many in Italy know how good Malawian striker Tabitha Chawinga is, those who follow international women's football are aware of her power (this trade, by the way, was made possibile by Inter's ownership, Suning Group, since Chawinga was playing in China in Wuhan Jianghan University FC ). Despite the more than decent market campaign I don't actually see Inter as competitors for the title (Juventus, Roma and most probably Milan look quite clearly ahead of them), but, based on a combination of these improvements, the progress from last season and their sound coaching leadership, I guess they should quite comfortably make top 5.
JUVENTUS In: Sofia Cantore (Sassuolo, end of loan), Evelina Duljan (U-19, SWE, Kristianstads DFF), Lineth Beerensteyn (NED, Bayern München), Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir (ISL, Olympique Lyonnais), Camilla Forcinella (Fiorentina, GK) out: Andrea Stašková (CZE, Atlético Madrid), Vanessa Panzeri (Sampdoria), Chiara Beccari (U-19, Como), Lina Hurtig (SWE, Arsenal) Despite the fact that their veterans start getting a little old, Juventus don't need particularly convoluted strategies to keep being competitive in Italy and in Europe: their fifth consecutive title on the domestic scene and the hard-fought quarter-final vs eventual winners of OL in UEFA WCL showed the power of this group, so their market campaign mostly consisted of renewing the contracts of all of their key-players. Some retouching was only needed in the offensive department, where Andrea Stašková's and especially Lina Hurtig's departures could have taken away some depth from the team. On one hand, Juventus can already count on some internal solutions, like giving more space to a player like Agnese Bonfantini or aggregating to the Senior Team some interesting U-19 like Nicole Arcangeli (who had already played some games since the end of last season). On the other hand, the few market moves Juventus made were specifically aimed at making up for the losses: Lineth Beerensteyn is at least on the same level as the lost players and I dare to say that Sofia Cantore, who ended the loan to Sassuolo and is coming back from an injury that denied her being called to the NT for Euro 2022, could even be considered an upgrade. Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir was the icing on the cake and already showcased her experience and technique in the first Champions' League's matches: she raises even more the general level of the team. Meanwhile, Juventus keep up with their wise strategy of sending young players getting experience in other teams (for instance Chiara Beccari to Como), to get them back later as all round solid players. the CB position could reveal tricky in this beginning of the season: Sara Gama is currently injured, while Cecilia Salvai is just back from an ACL, so at the moment Linda Sembrant and Martina Lenzini are the only reliable starters for that role. Maybe it was not the case to let young Vanessa Panzeri leave to Sampdoria? But actually I don't think Juventus need to be back on the market for a DF: Gama and Salvai should be back quite soon and everything should be ok when it will happen. I feel like Juventus could easy repeat their results from last season in Europe. Retaining the domestic title could ironically be a little harder, not because the team looks weaker than last year, but because I am impressed at how much improved Roma is, so I expect a tight duel at the top.
MILAN In: Noémie Carage (FRA, Dijon), Marta Mascarello (Fiorentina, on loan), Valery Vigilucci (Fiorentina), Kosovare Asllani (SWE, Real Madrid), Silvia Rubio Ávila (ESP, Real Madrid), Kamila Dubcová (CZE, Sassuolo), Michaela Dubcová (CZE, Slovacko), Małgorzata Mesjasz (POL, 1.FFC Turbine Potsdam), Angelica Soffia (Roma), Chanté Dompig (NED, Empoli) Out: Nina Stapelfeldt (SUI, Como), Refiloe Jane (RSA, Sassuolo), Alessia Piazza (Inter, Goalkeeper), Noa Selimhodzic (ISR, 1.FFC Turbine Potsdam), Laura Agard (FRA, Fiorentina) Milan AC's market campaign looks nothing short of impressive, starting with the name that raised most eyebrows, not only in Italy: Kosovare Asllani! Just the mere fact that a player of such caliber accepts to come in Italy to play (I guess anyone who followed Euro 2022 will agree with me that seeing her play was an enrapturing experience) is a testament not only to the quality of the offer Milan made, but to the potential attractive power of the new professional league in Italy. If an Asllani can be persuaded to play here, then you tend to believe that the sky is the limit. Anyway, Asllani can sure be a game-changer for Milan, but she can't be enough alone. The point is Milan seemed to be able complement her with a solid "rest of the market campaign". There have been important hits in every department: Angelica Soffia, despite having fallen from grace for unknown reasons in Milena Bertolini's eyes, to the point that she wasn't rostered for Euro 2022, is one of the best young Italian Full-Backs and can probably allow coach Maurizio Ganz to play Alia Guagni and Valentina Bergamaschi as actual offensive wingers, without losing the drive of a dynamic Full-Back supporting them from the back-line. By the way, talking about defense, do I remember well that, some years ago, Noémie Carage had been part of some successful French youth-side (asking to @shlj or someone else in the know)? Marta Mascarello and Małgorzata Mesjasz look like solid additions in the Midfield (that's losing Refiloe Jane, but it doesn't seem a reason to worry). Kamila Dubcová impressed last season in Sassuolo and looks like a powerful offensive weapon to complement the current form of Martina Piemonte (Milan decided to also sign her twin sister Michaela, that's more of a question mark, but we're going to see what she can add to the mix ). Finally, young Dutch Forward Chanté Dompig can't have an immediate impact, since she suffered an ACL injury in May, but she has anyway been given the Best Young Player Award of Serie A Femminile for the season 2021-2022, so signing her was a particularly far-sighted move by Milan's management. Apart from Valentina Giacinti, who had already left Milan mid-season in January on loan and now has been permanently lost to Roma, Milan didn't see any real key-player leave. So, after such a lavish market-campaign, can Milan be seen as a contender for the title? Yes and no. If you look at the general framework where the new signings have to be inserted, you'll see a lot of little weaknesses or uncertainties: can really Piemonte be the reliable offensive terminal this team needs to finalize the work of players like Asllani, Dubcová or Bergamaschi? Can these last ones add a solid contribution of goals too? Is the defense solid enough, or some elements are too much old? Can GK Giuliani avoid the worrying blunders she sometimes made last year? On paper, the team should have everyhing to fight for the title or for at least a Champions' League's qualifying spot, but actually I still see Juventus and Roma a little step ahead of them, for personnel, mentality, strategy (coach Maurizio Ganz have looked quite rigid at times in reacting to difficult situations). Anyway, their market campaign sure doesn't give Milan any excuses: they basically have everything to succeed, now they have to go out there and show something.