When the final whistle blew at the Stadio Olimpico, Gennaro Gattuso slumped to the ground and kissed the turf of his once sworn enemies. His Lazio, a side he despised in his playing days as AC Milan’s snarling enforcer, clung on to an 83rd-minute goal against a persevering Cagliari and continued their redemption song. After his doomed stint with the national side that bottled World Cup qualification for the third time, Gattuso says he sees every victory as a “salvation.”
Lazio’s renaissance came out of nowhere, but was in tune with the frenetic nature of the league, stuffed with drama, goals and free-flowing football, a label that is becoming anachronistic in a contemporary game strangled by structural fixations. Elsewhere in a blockbuster week, AC Milan stunned holders and derby rivals Inter and Juventus defeated Napoli. The title race is already heating up. Just five points separate the top four teams.
The glory days have long receded into a blur of forgetfulness, but Serie A has rediscovered its licence to thrill.
Ten rounds in, only two games have ended in goalless draws. It took 54 games for the first, the longest such streak in 80 years. Neither of those stalemates, Como against Roma and Parma against Udinese, was short on chances or drama. Stands have been packed and running wild, except at the Stadio Olimpico, where a feud between the club’s owners and the ultra groups has intensified. Lazio’s fans, though, stack the arenas for away games, no matter if they fall on weekdays or are far from Rome, to revel in the team’s finest start in two decades. The show of defiance could be a lesson to fans elsewhere disgruntled at their owners’ apathy.
Games between the traditional superpowers have been engrossing. Juventus and Milan played out a 1-1 draw; Lazio and Milan ended 2-2, as did Roma and Inter. Napoli and Roma blazed to a rope-a-dope 3-3 thriller. The average goals per game has been 3.02. The EPL’s is 2.74, La Liga’s 2.98.
A disclaimer: its watchability does not amount to a revival. The game is slower than in England and Spain, and the star quotient is non-existent. The most expensive player is Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez at €80 million. The most expensively assembled squad in Serie A is champions Inter’s, costing roughly €750 million. Manchester City’s is almost twice as pricey (€1.361 billion). The last Italian side to feel the shower of confetti on the Champions League stage were Jose Mourinho’s treble-winning Inter in 2010.
The players on average cover less ground than those in England and Spain. Hence Italian sides fail to match the intensity of even Bournemouth, in their first European season, who hammered ten-man AC Milan 3-0 in the Europa League last week. “I’m going to repeat myself, but I insist, in Serie A we play at too slow a pace,” Fabio Capello said last season. “It is no coincidence that when we cross the borders of our league, we often get into trouble.” The country is largely the refuge of rejects, discards and semi-retirees. No home-grown talent has yet taken wings into global consciousness; no transfer has hoarded headlines. Martinez was the lone Serie A player on the Ballon d’Or shortlist. The Saudi league had more nominees. It is a parody of the past.
The Champions League table captures the fall from grace. The best-placed Italian side is dynamic Como, ninth after three rounds, coached by Cesc Fabregas, protege of Pep Guardiola and Arsene Wenger. Roma are 15th. Inter, the holders, and Napoli have three points each.
Nonetheless, as a genuine spectacle, it is the most exciting and enjoyable league. It is free of the rigid tactics that were once its face. Most games are fun and open, often end to end, teams matching each other’s systems. It is perhaps the only league in Europe with multiple teams tuned to a 3-5-2 formation. Teams have greater tactical flexibility, even though the core of the managers, in a merry go-round, remains much the same. There is a young pool of exciting talents sprouting, like Como’s playmaking virtuoso Nico Paz, touted as Lionel Messi’s spiritual successor. He furnished a full account of his talents in the thrashing of Manchester United. Juventus’s Kenan Yıldız and Inter’s Francesco Pio Esposito are keenly scouted by Europe’s prevailing powerhouses.
The financial health is a paradox, but not as grim as it was half a decade ago. Total Serie A revenue reached €2.773 billion last season. The league is nearly €430 million in the red this summer, as opposed to just under €300 million in La Liga. But Inter have halved their losses compared with 2022/23, and AC Milan posted a profit (€4.1m) for the second consecutive year.
It might take years, perhaps a decade, of sustained planning and progress for Serie A to recreate its halcyon days, the quality and star quotient that once shone. Until then, it will draw solace from entertaining the audience.
