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Extended Clip - Why The Serie A Title Race Is A Milanese Affair But Watch Out For Roma & Napoli
463 Plays3 years ago
From why the Serie A title race is primarily a Milanese affair between city rivals Inter and AC Milan but look out for dark horses Roma as well as Napoli.
This is an extended preview of this weeks Thurday episode of The Italian Football Podcast. To listen to this & all other full episodes of The Italian Football Podcast, go to Patreon.com/TIFP to become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
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Transcript
Milan's Scudetto Prospects
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast. So team by team Milan, first Scudetto last season since 2011, 11 year wait is over. What do we think? Can they retain the Scudetto?
00:00:17
Speaker
I absolutely think they can. I think they are, together with Inter, the favourites. I can't tell you who's the bigger favourite, but I do have them really high up, neck and neck with Inter.
Transfer Window Success
00:00:30
Speaker
I really like what they've done to the transfer window. They started off slow, and it was dreadful, and Milan fans were rightfully really angry.
00:00:39
Speaker
But once they sorted it out, and me and Ricky Massar and Maldini extended, they just, you know, went flying. They sorted out Florenzi, they sorted out Messias, Origi, and then above all, the Kettler, who we did an excellent, you know, deep dive on with Christophe Terreur, the most famous Belgian football journalist around. So make sure to check that out.
00:01:05
Speaker
But no, it was I really like what they've done. I think they're looking for a fourth central defender.
Youth Strategy & de Kettler
00:01:12
Speaker
I'd rather they keep Gabja. I really like Gabja. And I really like this youth project. I still think I am lacking a little bit of a I'm lacking a right winger. But, you know, they have the money they have and they decided to spend it on de Kettler. And I think that was wise. I think Florencie will do a job for them as a backup.
00:01:35
Speaker
On right wing and as a fullback, Macias, maybe he can take the next step. He's actually looked really, really good in preseason. So maybe he can turn out to be one of these, you know, he can build on this, you know, you know, this dream career that he, you know, the narrative that he's had, I mean, with, you know, delivering parcels and from going to that, to winning the scoretto in just a few years. It is an extraordinary story.
00:02:02
Speaker
But yeah, no, I really like Milan. I think Stefano Pioli, you know, I don't want to read too much out of what happens in preseason, but Milan do look like they're in a good place. Hell, in terms of where they are mentally, where they are physically and the confidence level, they look good.
Predicting the League Champion
00:02:21
Speaker
Let's finish off then with our predictions. We'll go one by one through each categories for teams and for players and titles. So we'll start off with the champions. What is your prediction, Nemo? That's the thing, I'm not... The Mercatos, like, you know, I don't like doing these things without the Mercatos going to be closed. So I don't want to say anything yet, because if Inter end up selling Milan Screna, that's a game changer. We always put the caveat. So I'm going to give a proper prediction by then, but as things stand today,
00:02:50
Speaker
I have Inter winning a league and I have Milan second. I have Napoli and you. Let's do this category. Okay.
Serie A Competition
00:03:00
Speaker
Just start Inter to win the title. I'm going to go Inter as well. But I do think that it's out of Inter in Milan. It's a battle between those two teams. My heart says I would love to see Roma do it. And my heart says that if things all fall into place,
00:03:18
Speaker
Roma get a bit of luck, maybe Milan get a bad injury to one of their key players. Same thing for Inter, maybe Inter lose a player before the end of the market, which makes it even tighter. I think what the beauty of Serie A is
00:03:31
Speaker
is how tight it is at the top. You know, there are seven or eight teams that can take points and will take points off each other, which will always keep the title race open. I don't see anybody running away with it. Now, I still insist now, I think Inter should have run away with it last season. I still insist that now, even after watching them lose the skeleton. I still, my feeling was at various points in the season,
00:03:54
Speaker
Inter have got the team to run away with it. I don't feel that this season that there's any team that can run away with it this season. I think position one to four is going to be separated by six, seven points and that's the tightest it's been in a long time.
Top Four Predictions
00:04:14
Speaker
I think within 10 points you have
00:04:16
Speaker
The top seven ten to eleven points. I think it's gonna be tight as hell Yeah, I do I do think it's gonna be tight from say three to eight But then it was quite tight last season for a long way until until the end the last few weeks Let's go to Champions League position. So give me your top four. I
00:04:34
Speaker
I have Inter winning, I have Milan one point behind, I have Juventus two points behind, and I have Napoli four points behind. It's tight. It's very specific there. At least that's how it is today. I mean, again, like I said, by the end of it, I'm going to give a proper one at the end of the Mercato. But as things are today, I'm going to go in Milan, bring in Zia, I think Milan win by five points.
00:05:00
Speaker
I'm going to go into first, Milan second. I'm going to go Juventus third purely because I'm assuming they will surely do more work on the transfer market between now and the end. And they might even go big and buy big in January again like they did last season. So I've got the financial power to do that. So I'm going to go Juventus third and I'm going to go Roma fourth. I think Roma in the top four this season. But again, it's going to be tight. I have Roma fifth.
00:05:29
Speaker
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