Igor POROSHIN
 | TORINO + 60% |  |
Tangible acquisitions: Cristiano Abyati (Juventus), Stefano Fiore (Fiorentina), Simone Barone (Palermo), Axel Conan (Lecce), Ivan Franceschini (Regina).
Tangible losses: no.
Place last season: victory in the playoffs of series B.
Ambition: a place in the UEFA Cup - a must, the revival of the fame of “Torino”.
Summary: The torpedo in summer was watched at the Torino by the eyes of a convict who had just stepped out of the prison gates and was now watching with a tired smile how a new consignment was falling out of the barred van. Torino, Italy's 7-time champion, was due to return to Serie A a year ago. Fiscals found a hole in the club’s financial statements and asked Turintsev to play Serie B for another year. Having returned to Serie A, Torino was also in the status of the city’s first team. What happened the last time 30 years ago when Torino won the Scudetto and became higher in the standings than Juventus. In the summer, 10.5 million euros were spent on transfers, which, in current Italian times, is chic. Plus two status rentals: goalkeeper Abyati and the recently famous playmaker Fiore, formally assigned to Valencia. The managers of Torino were so carried away by shopping that at some point they themselves were surprised that the composition of the team had changed almost completely. How, if not by the suddenness of this discovery, can one interpret that the seasoned director of the game Alberto Zaccheroni (Udinese, Milan, Inter) was called up to Torino three (!) Days before the start of the championship? And the vocation of Zaccheroni, and the selection of players themselves - experienced, but hardly capable of great achievements of the master, does not promise that Torino will play fiery football. Just yesterday, he would have been called the classic middle peasant, but today, given the heavy penalties of Fiorentina and Lazio, the long-suffering and very beloved Turin (unlike Juve) team looks like a clear contender for a place in the top six. It is clear that in its lower half.
 | ATALANTA + 40% | |
Tangible acquisitions: Christian Vieri (Monaco), Cristiano Doni (Mallorca), Nelson Abeyhon (Cagliari).
Tangible losses: no.
Place last season: 1st in Serie B.
Ambition: the club’s leadership, which has never been eccentric, speaks of a place in the UEFA Cup. And why not, if in series A today there are at least a dozen of the same atalants?
Summary: The summer curiosity is the alliance of Atlanta with Christian Vieri. When news agencies unveiled the details of Vieri’s agreement with a club from Bergamo, it seemed like a joke of a drunk telegraph operator. But the telegraph operator was sober and told the world the truth. Until recently, the world's most expensive striker, whose transfer from Lazio to Inter is still holding the top ten largest deals in the history of football (Inter paid for Vieri an amount in lira equivalent to $ 48 million), is unilateral He broke off the contract just concluded with Sampdoria and paid a penalty of 575 thousand euros, and immediately signed an agreement with Atalanta, according to which he would receive 1,500 euros per month. Minimum required by law. This wildness, however, has a simple explanation. Vieri is so rich and so tired of what is called “working out a contract” that he decided to turn into an amateur on the side of his career. First time to play for pure pleasure. It is not clear in what mode he will now train, how many games he will play in a season, but there is no doubt that Vieri will seriously prepare for meetings with Milan and Inter, having forgotten his novels and business in Milan.
Atalanta-2006/07 is a fun project. Bergamo gathered under his banners a few more old men, albeit not so famous. After disgraceful years in “Mallorca”, Doni (33 years old), who had once been regularly called up to the national team, returned home. A seasoned Uruguayan Abeykhon (33 years old) pulled himself out of Cagliari, and if you recall also that after a period of dull wanderings in England, Nikola Ventola woke up - a person with a face, article and career path that closely resembles Dmitry Bulykin, then you can safely bet on this season in in relation to Atalanta. This trust of famous old men is unlikely to break into the UEFA Cup, but they can just pull themselves up and beat Milan or Inter in Bergamo.
 | INTER + 35% | |
Tangible acquisitions: Patrick Vieira (Juventus), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juventus), Hernan Crespo (Chelsea, England), Micon (Monaco), Fabio Grosso (Palermo), Maxwell (Empoli) , Olivier Dacour ("Roma"), Mariano Gonzalez ("Palermo").
Tangible losses: Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes, Argentina), Olafebe Martins (Newcastle, England), David Pizarro (Roma), Keely Gonzalez (Rosario Central, Argentina), Sinisa Mikhailovich (ended his career) .
Place last season: 3rd.
Ambition: perhaps no team in the world wants to achieve as much as Inter this season. Namely - to win the Champions League and Scudetto; shut up several million mouths, from which ridicule rages over the scudetto “Inter”, won in the courtroom; and, finally, do it all with taste, in a recognizable and attractive style, which means wedging yourself in the fight for the global consumer.
Summary: For many years before the start of the season from the camp of “Inter” one can hear the same thing: today we are stronger than ever! Now we will show ourselves to the world! Now we will turn the neck to Juventus and Milan! Italian justice has turned Juventus' neck, “Milan” begins the season with an 8-point hole, and “Inter” today is really staffed so that it could have entered the Italian championship with two teams, and it is not clear which one would be quoted higher. During the hype around the transitions of Ibrahimovic, Vieille and Crespo, other details of the unprecedented elevation of Inter were almost lost. For example, now the club has a double set of extra-class flanking defenders. In the classification of right-wing defenders of Brazil, Micon now firmly holds the third position - after Kafu and Sicinho. Maxwell’s place is more difficult to determine. But it was Maxwell who appeared on Inter, who had only recently lit up defense or Ajax attacks on the left flank. Then a mysterious departure of this player to Empoli took place, where he did not play a single match. And now Maxwell has appeared in Milan.
In general, it is completely unclear what could prevent Inter from winning a scudetto this season. However, such an obstacle was invented by Italian justice. The adequacy of judicial penalties for football clubs can be argued for a long time, but the decision to award Inter to last season's championship is undeniably absurd. Thus, the title, which for 17 years has been so passionately, sometimes inspired, but for the most part stupidly sought by Turintsy, was presented to them in the courtroom. The club management did not begin to arrange a fiesta on this occasion, but also did not dare to reject this Danai gift, as if it had emerged from the stable of some ardent anti-character. In the conditions when Juventus were overthrown in Serie B and Milan were fined 8 points, Inter would predictably become Italy's most booed team. Now, after presenting the amusing scudetto, it’s hard to even imagine what kind of lava of poisonous ridicule will erupt at him in connection with any draw. Of course, quite refractory men gathered at Inter. However, the administration of the club remained the same. And she is very inclined to panic in the slightest tournament fire. If the team suddenly loses the second game in the Champions League, Roberto Mancini will be demoted and Massimo Moratti will have to kneel in front of the Marcello Lippi mansion in Viareggio. There are no other free coaches capable of holding such a host of characters and ambitions in check today in the world.
 | "SKATING" + 30% | |
Tangible acquisitions: Lorenzo Stovini (Lecce), Giuseppe Colucci (Bologna).
Tangible Losses: De Derby (Napoli).
Place last season: 2nd in Serie B.
Ambition: to win both matches against Palermo. And to repeat what Palermo managed in the first season after returning to Serie A - 6th place.
Summary: The third Sicilian club in Serie A - this has never happened. A brisk sale of seasonal passes. An almost complete reconstruction of the composition - 14 newcomers. But, if you face the truth, they are all people either little-known or known as mediocrity. All hope for the law of turning quantity into quality. Say, suddenly one of the three Latin American acquisitions will work. But if it doesn’t work, then “Catania”, feeding on the energy of the fans, should still occupy a place in Serie A on bare enthusiasm.
 | FIORENTINA + 20% | |
Tangible acquisitions: Adrian Mutu (Juventus), Fabio Liverani (Lazio), Manuel Blazi (Juventus), Mario Alberto Santana (Palermo), Alessandro Potenza (Mallorca, Spain), Massimo Gobby ( "Cagliari").
Tangible losses: Valery Bozhinov (Juventus), Stefano Fiore (Torino).
Place last season: 4th.
Ambitions: bring the litigation to an end and remove the unbearable burden - minus 19 points at the start. Otherwise, Fiorentina is doomed to get stuck in the middle of the table. And this is not the worst option.
Summary: With such a roster and already quite mature game, delivered by coach Cesare Prandelli in a year, Fiorentina could well have been a surprise for the Champions League. However, according to court decisions, the rickety Chievo set off to storm the European peaks, and Fiorentina is doomed to hang on the edge of the abyss with the yoke of a 19-point deficit. Even if the “violets” surpass their last year’s completely brilliant result - 74 points, then this is unlikely to be enough even for a place in the UEFA Cup. And knowing that you are sentenced to Sisyphean torment, it is all the more difficult to give such a result. Nevertheless, Fiorentina should not fall into the series B. Diego Della Valle's patron of the team persuaded the “forward of the nation” Luca Toni to reject the Inter offer and made Fiorentina even stronger than last season. An amazing figure that embodies the president’s faith in the bright future of Fiorentina: the ratio of costs to revenues from transfer operations following the results of this summer for violets is higher than for Inter - minus 25 million euros.
 | ROMA + 15% | |
Tangible acquisitions: David Pizarro (Inter), Mirco Vucinic (Lecce), Marco Cassetti (Lecce), Gilberto Martinez (Brescia), Riccardo Faty (Strasbourg, France).
Tangible losses: Leandro Kufre (Monaco), Olivier Dacour (Inter), Cesare Bovo (Palermo).
Place last season: 5th.
Ambition: teams of the Eternal City that are eternal for fans - they believe that this “Roma” can be put on Inter’s shoulder blades. But there is a new, pragmatic, course of the Roma leadership: the second or third place and entering the playoffs of the Champions League is a completely sober look at the state of things.
Summary: Roma is slowly getting out of the financial hole into which it was driven by the ambitions and excitement of the former club patron Franco Sensi. Now his daughter Rosella Sensi is in charge of everything - the lady is so cautious in spending that you involuntarily begin to doubt her consanguinity with the former president. The quality of Roma's acquisitions for the first time in three years outweighed the quality of the losses. But at the same time, in the summer transfer market, Roma lost only 2.3 million euros. The middle peasants of the Russian Premier League spend more. Regarding the Chilean David Pizarro, whom the coach of the Romans Luciano Spalletti so well knew and wanted to work with again, the leadership of Roma traded with Inter so violently that at some point Pizarro announced to the press that he hadn’t "Will not work. Only then Signora Sensi gave the go-ahead. The caution with which Roma approached the conclusion of a contract with Mirko Vucinic is also indicative. This very gifted Montenegrin striker is known for his ebullient disposition. Therefore, the Romans took it from Lecce for an annual rental test with further repurchase rights.
In terms of the ideology of the game, Spalletti’s actions are quite synchronous with the Roma economic course - stabilization, reliability. Those who loved Roma as an island of savagery in the ocean of grandeur of modern commercial football can be very depressed. Totti became a father, settled down. Cassano is now studying royal manners at Real Madrid. Obviously, Roma will spit and kick less and less, but at the same time it will remain the most dashing, the most sincere team in Italian football.
 | ASKOLI + 10% | |
Tangible acquisitions: Gianluca Palyuka (Bologna), Fabio Pekya (Bologna), Alexander Lukovic (Crvena Zvezda, Serbia), Erwin Skela (Kaiserslautern, Germany). Marco Delvecio (Parma).
Tangible losses: Maurizio Domizzi (Napoli), Pasquale Foggia (Lazio).
Place last season: 12th.
Ambition: improve last year.
Summary: Ascoli is called the opening of last season. The team, accidentally falling into Serie A (the courts then blocked the way to the upper class of “Torino” and “Genoa”) and sentenced by all analysts to take off, evenly, confidently, even with dignity, went the distance and sailed long before the end of the season to the quiet tournament bay tables. Summer personnel operations show that Ascoli can even improve last year’s result. One of the most interesting transitions of the Italian off-season is the arrival in Ascoli Piceno of Gianluca Paliuca with a historical mission. If there is no force majeure, then Palyuk this season should reach the first position in the number of matches in Serie A and, moreover, cross the line of 600 matches. On Sunday, Paliuca caught up with Dino Zoff (570 games) and, given Paolo Maldini's health problems (583 games in Serie A), he should get around him by the end of the season. However, a dramatic improvement in last year's Ascoli result is unlikely to happen. Palyuka at 39 years old, of course, remains a great goalkeeper. But a place in the top ten of Serie A, even with its current state of illness, should also be won by the efforts of attackers. And this in Ascoli is either completely unknown young men, or veterans deducted from all important accounts.
 | "MILAN" 0% |  |
Tangible acquisitions: Ricardo Oliveira (Betis, Spain), Daniele Bonera (Parma), Joanne Gourcuff (Rennes, France).
Tangible losses: Andrey Shevchenko (Chelsea, England), Jaap Stam (Ajax, Holland), Rui Costa (Benfica, Portugal), Johan Vogel (Betis).
Place last season: 2nd.
Ambition: the main bet is a victory in the Champions League. The tactics in the championship, which “Milan”, by the court’s decision, begins with an 8-point penalty, are to keep behind Inter and hope that an accident will happen to him due to engine overheating.
Summary: For the third summer in a row, Milan fans have grumbled quietly. The administration of the 6-time winner of the Champions Cup demonstrate amazing calm in the transfer market. Now this calm looked even somehow defiant. Almost immediately after the end of last season, “Milan” dryly and in a businesslike goodbye to Andriy Shevchenko, who, in truth, had long been eager to London to “friend Roman”. Having taken a fantastic ransom of € 45 million from Chelsea (fantastic - since it is a 30-year-old player), Milan went to court, which, however, cannot serve as a satisfactory explanation for the blatant passivity of the personnel department. The verdict was announced at the end of July (recall that among all the defendants in the Milan process, he received the mildest punishment - “minus 8”), and the contract with the Brazilian striker Ricardo Oliveira was signed only a month later, a few hours before the closing of the transfer fair. All the talk, as well as the sentences about whether Oliveira could become a replacement for Shevchenko, is absolutely premature. It is clear that today these are players of different statuses. But in the case of Oliveira, one should remember the circumstances of his career. First: he was never considered a child prodigy. Second: his first year in Europe (Valencia) went into adaptation. Third: after an outstanding season in Betis (22 goals and the first time in the history of the club in the Champions League), he was seriously injured and was recovering for more than six months. In “Milan” believe that Oliveira is still unknown to the world as a great striker only in view of the extremely unfortunate combination of circumstances for the Brazilian. Managers of Milan absolutely trust the intuition of the coaching and scout teams. And this is a well-deserved trust - after all, all the big bets of recent years have brought Milan instant gains (Pirlo - 2001, Seedorf - 2002, Kaka - 2003, Gilardino - 2005). So Oliveira took 8 minutes to open an account for goals in Serie A.
However, even with its acquisition, among all the first contenders for the victory in the Champions League, Milan looks the most vulnerable. The loss of any player in the attack group can drastically weaken the power of the team. In the calm with which Milan realizes its weakness and accepts risks, there is something out of a love of rock. Or is it just a disguise, as those who say they are “initiated” say? And under the guise of this imaginary fatalism - "whatever happens" - Berlusconi crank up the transfer of all times and peoples and lure Ronaldinho? Already in several interviews, the former prime minister of Italy, with the appearance of a dreamy senator, admitted that there is only one player in the world that Milan is missing.