Juventus’ most high profile piece of transfer market business was the signing of Fiorentina’s Italian sensation Federico Bernadeshi for €40m which was shrouded in controversy with the Fiorentina faithful labelling him a traitor, making his return to the Artemio Franchi an unmissable fixture. They also secured the signing of PSG’s experienced midfielder Blaise Matuidi in a €20m deal. Arsenal’s Wojech Szczesny and Milan’s Matia De Sciglio also joined on permanent bases.
There were also ‘loan with an option to buy’ deals for versatile defender Benedict Howedes and Brazilian forward Douglas Costa. Juan Cuadrado and Mehdi Benatia were also signed permanent deals after spending last season on loan with the Old Lady. 20 year old Rodrigo Bentacur signed from Boca juniors will also be one to keep an eye on.
Atalanta look to consolidate their strong performance from last season by making some key signings to make up for the loss of Conti and Kessie to Milan by signing Dutch midfielder Martin de Roon for €10m as well as Genk defender Tim Casagne for €3m. The signings of Juventus winger Ricardo Orsolini and Andreas Corlineus are also sure to excite fans.
The most popular names on Cagliari’s incoming roster would be those of Marco Andreoli, Luca Cigarini, Filipo Romagna formerly of Juventus and 2010 world cup finalist Gregory Van der Wiel.
Genoa took advantage of AC Milan’s transfer splurge by securing the services of Gianluca Lapadula and Andrea Bertolacci who were declared surplus to requirements even if only on loan deals. They shelled out the most cash in the €5m deal that brought Ricardo Centurion from Sao Paulo.
Roma had a satisfactory summer as regards in bound traffic and managed to bring in Alex Kolarov, Bruno Perez, Lorenzo Pellegrini, Juan Jesus, Federico Fazio, Maxime Gonalons, Cengiz Under, Rick Karsdorp, Hector Moreno but most important was he loan signing of exciting Czech forward Parick Schick in a loan to buy deal from Sampdoria.
Hellas Verona looked to bring in some literal fresh faces with a €1.5m move for 19 year old La Masia graduate Seung-Woo Lee as well as Juventus’ 17 year old Moise Kean on loan.
Inter Milan signed 6 players for the first team including former Fiorentina midfielders Borja Valero and Matias Vecino, as well as defenders Dalbert, Milan Skriniar and Joao Cancelo from OGC Nice, Sampdoria and Valencia respectively and finally goal keeper Daniele Padelli.
Bologna also conducted some shrewd business bringing in Saphir Taider and Rodrido Palacio form Inter as well as Andrea Poli from AC Milan.
Lazio signed Portuguese prodigy Pedro Neto from Braga on loan as well as experienced legs, Luis Nani and Lucas Leiva from Valencia and Liverpool respectively in an attempt to soften the blow of losing Keita Balde to Monaco and Lucas Biglia to AC Milan. They have also acquired the services of Felipe Caicedo to bolster their attacking options.
Napoli were happy to keep it simple, their most expensive signing was €20m centre back Nikola Maskimovic from Torino, they also got 21 year old Croat Marko Rog in the door along with 20 year old Algerian winger Adam Ounas, Portuguese defender Mario Rui and Italian forward Roberto Inglese.
Sampdoria’s stand out signing would be Uruguayan Midfielder Gaston Ramirez who they signed from Middlesbough for €9m. The signing of Gianluca Caprari is also likey to titillate fans as would the signing of Bruno Fernandez from Udinese.
New boys SPAL former AC Milan Parma and Swansea forward Alberto Paloschi as well as Marco Borriello as they try to stay up.
Torino were careful with their spending and made a number of wheeler dealer signings including the Loan signings of Thomas Rincon, Nicolas N’Koulou, Cristian Ansaldi, Mbaye Niang and Umar Sadiq as well as the free transfer signings of Nicolas Burdisso and Salvatore Sirigu.
After losing 5 first team players, Fiorentina needed to make a statement signing and their €15m capture of Gio Simeone was quite a statement after the forward scored 11 goals on 30 appearances in his maiden Serie A season. They also lured Jordan Veretout and Carlos Sanchez from Aston Villa and Marco Benassi from Torino.
Udinese scored two players with vast Serie A experience in Maxi Lopez and Valon Behrami.
The most exciting of times in the red half of Milan in recent times has seen the acquisition of more than a few new signings and perhaps none bigger than Leonardo Bonucci who they signed from league winners and UCL finalists Juventus in a €40m deal. Other new faces include Frank Kessie (loan) and Andrea Conti both from Atalanta, Andre Silva from Porto, Fabio Borini (loan) from Sunderland, Lucas Biglia from Lazio, Nikola Kalinic (loan) from Fiorentina, Ricardo Rodriguez from Wolfsburg, Mateo Mussachio form Villareal and Hakan Calhanoglu from Bayer Leverkusen all for a combined total of around €194m, making them the top spenders of the Serie A.
Which signing do you think will excite the most this season?
Article By: Ayoola Kelechi, @ayoola_kelechi
