UEFA Champions League 2010/11: Serie A Outlook | Thebigtip

With the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League season to get underway early this morning, Serie A pundit Sparky_Hughes takes a look at how the three Italian Clubs (Inter Milan, AC Milan and Roma) will fare.

What a massive off-season it’s been in the Serie A. Firstly, Inter Milan coming off a famous treble after winning the Italian League and Cup double, then following it up with an historic 2-0 win over German side and superpower Bayern Munich.

The Azzurri (Italian national team) followed it up with an horrific showing at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. After winning the World Cup in 2006 (their fourth World Cup), the Azzurri ended the 2010 campaign in last place with two draws and a loss and coming last in their Group behind the might of teams like New Zealand. It was a disastrous campaign, and one which ultimately saw the end of Marcello Lippi as the national manager. Relying on experience and not selecting any youth (namely Mario Balotelli and Giuseppe Rossi) ended up being part of the reason behind the downfall.

But aside from the national team, the Serie A is on the up. Inter come into the new European season and the European champions who took all before them last season, Roma come in with the bulk of the squad from last season, which saw them come runner-up in both the League and Cup to Inter while AC Milan has strengthened more than anyone, with a couple of big-name signings.

Probably the most pleasing thing during the off-season was the ability of the Italian Clubs to hold onto their star players. Inter held onto Maicon and Sneijder. AC Milan held onto Ronaldinho. Then you’ve got teams like Fiorentina that held onto Jovetic, Vargas and Montolivo. Napoli held onto Lavezzi and Hamsik whilst also signing Edison Cavani from Palermo. Palermo themselves lost Simon Kjaer to Wolfsburg and Cavani to Napoli (as said above) but did manage to hold onto guy midfielder Javier Pastore, who will be hoping for a big season. There’s plenty more too.

Here’s my look at how the three Italian teams shape up against the rest of the competition, and how I think they will fare:

Inter Milan: 2009/10 - 1st in Serie A, Won - Coppa Italia & UEFA Champions League.

European champions Inter Milan come into this season knowing the chances of repeating their famous treble are very slim. The lost star young striker Mario Balotelli to Manchester City, but were able to keep a hold of star-RB Maicon. Also making his debut for the Nerazzurri is 18 years old Brazilian star midfielder Phillipe Coutinho, whom they picked up a couple of years ago as a 16 year old, but had to wait until he was 18 to play in Italy. They also picked up young French forward Jonathon Biabiany and midfielder MacDonald Mariga, both taking the other 50% of their ownership from Parma. The most notable losses for Inter were manager (now ex-manager) Jose Mourinho who took the helm at Real Madrid and was replace by ex-Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez. Other losses were Ricardo Quaresma (Besiktas), Nicolas Burdisso (Roma) and Victor Obinna (West Ham).

Roma: 2009/10 - 2nd in Serie A, Runner-Up in Coppa Italia.

This is a massive season for the Capital-Club. The want to try and not fall into a rather familiar pattern over the past 10 years. Since 2001 they’ve finished 1st, 2nd, 8th, 2nd, 8th, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 6th and 2nd. One would hope that with four major signings this season, they would be pushing for not only domestic honours, but pushing other top European teams in Europe. Those signings being former Inter hit man and Brazilian striker Adriano, ex-Palermo midfielder Fabio Simplicio and the Burdisso brothers, Guillermo and Nicolas. The only loss was Marco Motta to Udinese. Although Roma didn’t play in the Champions League last season, in their previous three entries, they’ve made the Quarter Finals twice, and the 2nd Round in the other year.