Italian Serie A - Back to its Competitive Best

First and foremost I would like to congratulate AC Milan for their Scudetto win. The league win was sweeter than ever before not only because it ended Milan’s 7year long wait of lifting the coveted trophy but more so because it ended their city rivals Inter Milan’s six year long domestic dominance.

It’s party time as San Siro side win their first Serie A title crown in seven years.

Yes, you’ve heard that right; Inter Milan had won the Scudetto consecutively for the past six years. Although there is still controversy surrounding Inter’s first two Scudetto triumph during that period, as it was awarded to Inter after the Calciopoli Scandal took place after Juventus was stripped of the Scudetto win, Inter Milan fans feel justice was done and they were rightly awarded the title.

Not too long ago, Serie A was considered to be one of the best leagues in the world. Foreign players would happily swap their local clubs in order to ply their trade in the Italian League. Although it was criticized as being a very defensive league, top foreign players wouldn’t hesitate wee bit for playing in Italy.

But as the saying goes “Every good thing must come to an end”, Italian football’s dominance came to an abrupt end too. Italian football reached to its lowest point when the news about Match-Fixing rocked the country and the whole footballing world alike. News spread like wild fire that league champions Juventus, and other major teams including AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina were rigging games by selecting favorable referees. In the aftermath of this scandal, Juventus were relegated to Serie B while AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina were docked points. Juventus were also stripped of their Scudetto triumphs of 2005 and 2006 and Inter Milan was awarded the Scudetto on the basis of their league position.

Match-Fixing spoiled the image of Serie A

This tainted the image of Serie A as a whole and many top players left the guilty clubs to seek new pastures. Inter Milan, unaffected by all this, took advantage of other clubs’ misery and made the most of it by signing major top players. Following year, Juventus acquired promotion but the likes of AC Milan, Juventus, and Lazio had never been the same as before and have struggled to challenge for top honors although AC Milan on the other hand emerged victorious in the Champions League in 2007. This saw Inter Milan dominate the league and win titles year after year. AS Roma did come close a couple of seasons back in stopping the Inter train but in the end the Champions eventually proved their worth and comfortably sealed another domestic title.

Failure to land the UEFA Champions League trophy resulted in Roberto Mancini’s departure and the arrival of the self proclaimed “Special One” Jose Mourinho. Under Mourinho, Inter were able to get their hands on the trophy which owner Massimo Moratti dreamed of. Inter were crowned Champions of Europe after a gap of 45 years.

This season saw a change in the managerial seat at both Milan clubs and also at Juventus. AC Milan, desperate for the Scudetto, brought in Massimiliano Allegri from Cagliari while Inter Milan, fresh from their Champions League triumph, had to end their relationship with Jose Mourinho as Real Madrid came calling for the Portuguese tactician. They appointed former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez as his successor. Juventus, who were desperate to return back to their glory days, turned their attention to Sampdoria manager Luigi Del Neri.

Other Italian clubs were desperate to break Inter's dominance

This season also saw the likes of Lazio and Napoli on the rise as they made shrewd business in the transfer market and were hell bent along with the above mentioned clubs to break Inter Milan’s dominance on the domestic front.

Lazio, the surprise package who just survived relegation last season, started off the season on a high note and made the most of Inter’s stuttering to the season to top the table till November. Napoli too looked a confident side with the addition of Uruguayan Edinson Cavani from Palermo and along with the likes of Marek Hamsik, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Walter Gargano looked like knocking Inter Milan of their perch and handling the Milan club title ambitions a huge blow.

But the biggest challenger and worry for Inter was the team from the red half of Milan, city rivals AC Milan. Milan, desperate for the Scudetto, bolstered their squad with the signings of Robinho, former Inter man Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ghana’s World Cup star Kevin Prince Boateng. And with Thiago Silva and Alessandro Nesta at the helm (probably the best centre back pairing in world football at the moment), Milan looked unbeatable and had a next to perfect start to the season.

Inter, meanwhile, were struggling to come to terms under Rafa Benitez and started losing ground on the leaders. The derby defeat against Milan also did not do any good for their title chances. It seemed that the Scudetto would soon be out of their grasp. Their sloppy start to the season cost Benitez his job. Even winning the Club World Cup did no good to his reputation and he was ultimately replaced by former AC Milan manager Leonardo.

Under Leonardo, Inter looked like a team and started to grind out results. They had a mountain to climb to reclaim the Scudetto as Lazio and Napoli along with Milan were the contenders. The Scudetto race, which was only a one-horse race for the past 4-5 years, suddenly looked like a four-horse race and all teams looked equally good to claim the bragging rights on the domestic front.

As the season progressed, the demands of the long season proved too much for Lazio and it started to show on the players as they duly surrendered their quest for Scudetto mid-season. But AC Milan and Napoli were hell bent to not give up the chase easily and were ready to challenge Inter Milan, who under Leonardo slowly crawled back in the Scudetto race.

Napoli were in blistering form and it looked like the glory days will be back again in the city of Naples but recent slip-ups saw them lose ground on leaders AC Milan and that also resulted in Inter Milan overtaking Napoli in second spot.

As for Inter Milan, the final nail in the coffin was hatched when AC Milan deservedly ran out 3-0 winners in the derby and extended their lead at the top to 5 points. It was a devastating blow to Inter’s Scudetto hopes but a step in the right direction for city rivals Milan.

Pato's brace all but ended Inter Milan's Scudetto hopes

In the end, AC Milan did wrap up the Scudetto with a draw against Roma with two games to spare and brought an abrupt end to the dominance of the team from the blue side of Milan. It was a well-deserved win for the Milanese club. This season also proved to be a very good advert for Serie A as it looks to regain its lost identity and age old competitive nature.

The rise of clubs like Napoli, Lazio, and Udinese is a good thing for Serie A and it will surely serve as an occasion to garner more eye balls towards the league which had lost its integrity and fans alike during the Calciopoli scandal.