Friday August 22 is the day when Serie B returns and another thrilling campaign is on the cards in calcio’s second tier.

Sassuolo ran away with the league last year before Pisa made second place their own and joined them on the way up to Serie A.

That left Spezia as the third-best team over a 38-game marathon but they fell at the final play-off hurdle and will be back for another tilt as one of the teams fancied to get it right this time.

But they will have their work cut out. Empoli, Venezia and Monza will be looking to bounce straight back after falling through the trapdoor while Palermo are installed as ante-post favourites to be celebrating come the end of May.

The Rosanero have been boosted by Filippo Inzaghi’s decision to stay in Serie B and lead them after he guided Pisa back to the top flight.

Here, we take a look at how the promotion hopefuls are shaping up after a busy summer. All fees according to Transfermarkt.

Empoli

Relegation last term was Empoli’s fifth since 2004 and happened despite an impressive start to the campaign – a six-game unbeaten run that included a victory at Roma and draws against Bologna, Juventus and Fiorentina.

But after September 20 they did not win another league game until May and the damage had been done as they ended the season in 18th place.

They will look to bounce back under new boss Guido Pagliuca. The 49-year-old won Serie C with Juve Stabia in 2023-24 and then pulled off a quite miraculous fifth-place finish in Serie B just a few months ago, before beating Palermo in the play-offs and then losing to eventual winners Cremonese in the semi-finals.

That run was proof he can over-achieve with a young squad and the same impact at his new club would surely mean promotion, even with various changes at the core of this team.

Expected starting XI (3-4-1-2): Fulignati, Guarino, Curto, Tosto, Carboni, Belardinelli, Ignacchiti, Ebuehi, Ilie, Shpendi, Pellegri.

Notable Arrivals: Stiven Shpendi (Cesena, £1.9m) Marco Curto (Como, £650,000) Edoardo Saporiti (Lucchese, free transfer) Joseph Ceesay (Malmo, undisclosed) Rares Ilie (Nice, loan) Franco Carboni (Inter, loan)

Notable Departures: Jacopo Fazzini (Fiorentina, £1.7m) Luca Marianucci (Napoli, £7.75m) Seba Goglichidze (Udinese, £3.45m) Liberato Cacace (Wrexham, £2m) Giuseppe Pezzella (Cremonese, £1.7m) Francesco Vallarelli (Reggiana, £300,000)

Venezia

Venezia have been a yo-yo club as of late. They were promoted two seasons ago but relegated straight back to Serie B by finishing in 19th place in the top flight last year.

A lot of the team will be unchanged from last year, however there have been two big arrivals in the form of the coach and a new No 9.

Giovanni Stroppa is the boss. He was in charge of Cremonese when they lost the Serie B play-off against Venezia 2024 before going one better the following season with victory over Spezia in the final.

Andrea Adorante will be Stroppa’s new centre forward. The striker scored 17 goals for Juve Stabia in 2024-25 and joined for £2.5million this summer.

Expected Starting XI (3-4-2-1): Stankovic, Korac, Idzes, Svoboda, Bjarkason, Busio, Nicolussi, Candela, Yeboah, Pérez, Adorante.

Notable arrivals: Andrea Adorante (Juve Stabia, £2.5m) Hans Nicolussi Caviglia (Juventus, £3m) Fali Candé (Metz, £1.6m) Seid Korac (Vojvodina, £1.2m) Antonio Casas (free transfer, Córdoba CF)

Notable departures: Ionuț Radu (Celta Vigo, free transfer) Francesco Zampano (Modena, free transfer) Lorenzo Da Pozzo (Ravenna, free transfer) Christian Gytkjaer (Bari, free transfer)

Monza

Like the other two relegated sides, Monza have a new man at the helm and have seen plenty of movement in the squad.

Pablo Bianco, who has been on the staff at Sassuolo, Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk as well as taking charge of Modena and Frosinone, is the man tasked with taking Monza back up at the first attempt.

Monza are back in the second division after three years in the top flight – the only time they have played in Serie A in their history. The club has since passed hands in light of their relegation, with the Berlusconi family relinquishing control to a US consortium and thus ending their 40-year association with football.

A raft of signings have been made by the new owners, with the likes of Luca Ravanelli and Valentin Antov signed from Cremonese, bringing Serie B experience, as does Nicolas Galazzi, who was signed after Brescia’s demise.

Pedro Obiang has also arrived from Sassuolo and is an experienced campaigner in the division.

Many expensive players have also been shown the door in the wake of their relegation, with the likes of Stefano Sensi, Roberto Gagliardini, Gaetano Castrovilli and Danilo D’Ambrosio all shown the exit.

However, Matteo Pessina remains, and he will add a touch of class to the midfield, as will Dany Mota in attack.

Expected starting XI (4-3-1-2): Thiam, Brindelli, Lucchesi, Izzo, Carboni, Obiang, Pessina, Galazzi, Colpani, Mota, Baldé

Notable arrivals: Adam Bakoune (AC Milan U20, free transfer) Jacopo Sardo (Saarbrücken, £300,000) Lorenzo Lucchesi (Fiorentina, £215,000 loan fee) Demba Thiam (SPAL, free transfer) Nicolas Galazzi (Brescia, free transfer) Pedro Obiang (Sassuolo, free transfer), Luca Ravanelli (Cremonese, undisclosed), Valentin Antov (Cremonese, end of loan).

Notable departures: Michele Di Gregorio (Juventus, £12m) Georgios Kyriakopoulos (Panathinaikos, £1.7m) Pedro Pereira (Genclerbirligi, free transfer), Stefano Sensi, Roberto Gagliardini, Danilo D’Ambrosio, Gaetano Castrovilli (Lazio, end of loan).

Palermo

The City Football Group’s grand Italian project might be ready to take the next step with Inzaghi at the helm. Inzaghi helped Pisa to promotion from Serie B just a few months ago and that was his third promotion to Serie B after successes with Venezia and Benevento.

The Rosanero faithful have endured eight seasons outside of the Serie A now, after getting used to the top flight in the 21st century. Since then they have spent time in the depths of Serie B, C and even D. The fabulous Renzo Barbera deserves better.

Palermo look well placed to build on last year’s eighth-place finish with some exciting signings brought in. Antonio Palumbo, Mattia Bani and Tommaso Augello should all slot into Inzaghi’s starting XI.

Finnish forward Joel Pohjanpalo will be crucial for the team’s success. He joined from Venezia in January of this year and provided nine goals and three assists in just 15 appearances despite hitting a dry spell late in the campaign.

Expected starting XI (3-4-1-2): Bardi, Bani, Magnani, Ceccaroni, Gyasi, Ranocchia, Gomes, Augello, Palumbo, Brunoni, Pohjanpalo

Notable arrivals: Antonio Palumbo (Modena, £170,000), Francesco Bardi (Reggiana, free transfer), Mattia Bani (Genoa, £1.3m) Tommaso Augello (Cagliari, free transfer) Emmanuel Gyasi (Empoli, loan) 

Notable departures: Simone Graves (Zwolle, £520,000) Francesco Di Mariano (Modena, £390,000) Giuseppe Aurelio (Spezia, £345,000) Samuele Damiani (Ternana, £155,000) Roberto Insigne (Avellino, free transfer), Sebastiano Desplanches (Pescara, loan).

Spezia

After the crushing defeat by Cremonese in the Serie B play-off final, can Spezia bounce back and push for an automatic spot once again?

Their last spell in the top flight ended in 2023, and the chances of a return have been helped by welcoming a new strike partnership.

Francesco Pio Esposito has returned to parent club Inter, and the Italian striker’s 19 goals will be hard to replace. But in Vanja Vlahovic and Gabriele Artistico there is hope.

Vlahovic, no relation to Juventus forward Dusan, has arrived from the Atalanta U23s and Artistico will join him from Lazio as the pair look to paint a pretty picture up front.

Vlahovic is just 21 years old and scored a goal every two games at Serie C level. The 23-year-old Artistico spent last season in Serie B with Cosenza, scoring seven goals and finishing the campaign with a strike against none other than Spezia themselves.

Spezia have kept the nucleus of the side that went so close to promotion last season, and Andrea Cistana has arrived from Brescia to add further solidity to the back line.

Meanwhile in goal, Mouhamadou Sarr has arrived from Cremonese.

Expected starting XI (3-4-1-2): Sarr, Mateju, Hristov, Cistana, Vignali, Bandinelli, Esposito, Aurelio, Zurkowski, Artistico, Vlahovic

Notable arrivals: Andrea Cistana (Brescia, free transfer) Vanja Vlahovic (Atalanta U23, loan) Gabriele Artistico (Lazio, loan) Christian Comotto (Milan U20, loan).

Loans made permanent: Giuseppe Aurelio (Palermo, £345,000), Mouhamadou Sarr (Cremonese, £172,000)

Notable departures: João Moutinho (Lech Poznan, £430,000) Nicolò Bertola (Udinese, free transfer) Arkadiusz Reca (Legia Warszawa, free transfer) Leandro Chichizola (Modena, free transfer) Diego Falcinelli (free agent)