There was a pleasant surprise last week as Empoli announced their squad numbers for the new season and Libby Cacace was given a sneaky elevation. Having worn the number 21 for his first six months at the club, he’ll now be wearing the 3 jersey. Not every player cares about squad numbers but enough do that those glittering single digits are always sought after. Serious areas right there.

Although for Cacace... that number was probably a backup option. Often when a player wants the number 7 or 9 but it’s already taken they’ll settle for 17 or 19 instead so as to still at least have the preferred digit in there somewhere. Cacace always wore 13 for the Wellington Phoenix and he still wears 13 for the All Whites. But 13 is taken by starting goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario so that’s how it goes. Numero tre it is then.

Last season the 3 jersey was worn by a bloke named Riccardo Marchizza. The reason that’s relevant is that Marchizza was the top choice left-back for Empoli during the first half of last season but he tore a cruciate ligament in a 4-2 loss to Roma in mid-January. Similar to Chris Wood being signed by Newcastle in the wake of an injury to Callum Wilson, it was this season-ender for Marchizza which triggered Empoli to move for Liberato Cacace on an initial loan which would convert to a permanent deal in the likely event of them avoiding relegation (which they did and thus it has). The Cacace transfer was in the bag within two weeks of Marchizza getting hurt.

Eight months later and Marchizza is healthy again... but he’s also no longer an Empoli player. Dude was only ever there on loan from Sassuolo and would have been returning to his parent club at the end of the term regardless. Another reason to press the button on the Cacace signing. Another reason why Cacace has scooped up that #3 shirt.

Loan moves are very prevalent in Italy, especially those loan-to-buy ones such as the Cacace move (along with a few others). Yet even for a Serie A club it seems that Empoli lean on the loans more than most. In 2021-22 they had a whopping ten loan players who were all regulars in the team. Seven who played in at least half of the team’s Serie A fixtures and then three more who were signed in January who each featured at a similar rate albeit for only half the term. Cacace of course being one of the latter (10 league apps for him in season one).

On the one hand all those loans are great for getting quality players in the door. They also allow them to bring more players in at once which is what they needed after being promoted two years ago. On the other hand the best of them tend not to stick around. In particular their attacking corps have had to be rebuilt after losing Andrea Pinamonti (Inter), Federico Di Francesco (SPAL), and Patrick Cutrone (Wolverhampton Wanderers) at the conclusion of their temporary stints. Continuity is apparently a luxury they can’t afford.

Needless to say Empoli have turned to the loan market again to stock up, with 21yo Uruguayan striker Martin Satriano in from Inter and left winger Nicolò Cambiaghi and Dutch forward Sam Lammers both joining from Atalanta. Lammers is a funky one as he’s already managed to be club teammates with both Marco Rojas (Heerenveen) and Ryan Thomas (PSV) in his career. Add in a third kiwi at a third club... doubt there are too many folks who can match that.

However Empoli’s best new goal threat has gotta be free agent addition Mattia Destro. 31 years old with 8 caps for Italy. Spent the best part of his career with Bologna but has a wee bit of Champions League experience from his Roma days. Most recently scored 20 goals combined across the last two Serie A seasons with a struggling Genoa team (his nine goals were literally a third of his team’s entire haul on their way to relegation). That’s a good get. Needs to be too, given that Empoli’s attack was bang average in 21-22 with Pinamonti’s 13 goals making him the only bloke to score more than six times in the league. Granted their defence was even worse – only two teams conceded more goals than the Azzurri last season.

As already mentioned, Libby Cacace’s deal has been converted into a permanent one with a fee in the range of €3m. The same happened for the initial loans of Guglielmo Vicario (€8.5m) and Petar Stojanovic (€1.2m) while they’ve been able to bring back Napoli defender Sebastiano Luperto on a second-straight loan agreement. Fair play, they’ve actually retained four of the ten loanees from last time whilst adding a few more to the mix.

Those three loans-to-permanents are the only significant transfer fees that they’ve paid this offseason although a couple of the other loans, Luperto included, did come with six-figure fees. Keep that in mind: this team doesn’t spend a lot of money so that €3m output on Libby Cacace is a major investment that they’re not gonna want to waste. They’re not splashing that cash unless they fully believe in his ability (as they damn well should!).

Also must mention that they have actually doubled their money this transfer window. Twice as much money coming in as is going out – thanks largely to the sales/loan-to-buys of a trio of impressive defensive midfielers: Mattia Viti going to OGC Nice, Samuele Ricci to Torino, and Kristjan Asllani to Inter.

Oh yeah and another valuable slice of context pie: they’ve also changed managers. Aurelio Andreazzoli’s third stint in change of the club has come to an end with the 68yo farewelled in a short statement on Empoli’s website at the start of June. Andreazzoli had done a really commendable job in taking the Azzurri to 14th on the ladder in their first season back in the top flight but was unlikely to be a long term boss given his age and the circumstances in which he rejoined the club – replacing Alessio Dionisi who won the Serie B title with the club two seasons ago but then got head-hunted by Sassuolo immediately after that promotion.

Andreazzoli only had a one year deal but was keen to stay on. The chairman instead decided otherwise. Poor form through the middle of the season and that leaky defence were contributing factors along with the dread of second season syndrome after promotion. Aurelio Andreazzoli was swiftly replaced by Paolo Zanetti who had most recently been in charge of Venezia before getting sacked in April in a late attempt to avoid relegation (it didn’t work). Not to be confused with Javier Zanetti, the Inter Milan and Argentina legend who was one of the great fullbacks of his generation. A pity for a fullback like Cacace but oh well. Paolo Zanetti is 39 years old in his fourth job as a manager and clearly the highest profile gig yet. He’s very much a 4-3-3 kinda guy which should suit Cacace nicely.

Supposing he gets the games, of course. You never know with a new manager. The new jersey number is a good sign but then his main challenger at left back, Fabiano Parisi, wears the number 65 so it’s not like they were duking it out for jerseys. Plus Parisi kinda sorta just signed a contract extension to keep him at the club until 2025 and that’s a vote of confidence in his direction for sure. You can say that Cacace also had his move made permanent but that was an automatic trigger from a decision made back in January. Not the same thing.

Riccardo Marchizza made 19 appearances at left back and all but three of them were starts – he was injured in the 23rd game of the Serie A campaign so that tells you what you need to know there. Fabiano Parisi was there the whole time though and having barely featured over the first couple months he began to earn increasingly significant bench cameos and then even a few starting nods. He’d already been impressing when Cacace arrived and while the injury to Marchizza may have prompted that Cacace signing it also unleashed Parisi as a first team regular.

There was a convenient week off leading up to the end of the transfer window, meaning that the next game after the Roma game when Marchizza was injured was the first game that Cacace was available for. It was away to Bologna and it ended in a 0-0 draw. Fabiano Parisi started. Libby Cacace came off the bench for the last twenty minutes on debut. He was an unused sub the following week and then got a dozen minutes as a sub a week later. Parisi started all three.

But then came a new trend. Cacace made his first start in a 3-2 loss against Juventus and from that point onwards Cacace and Parisi alternated starts. Nine straight games, one on and one off. Andreazzoli making sure that both guys got a decent opportunity to strut their stuff. Parisi probably got a longer leash in there as he always at least played some part, subbed on in every game he didn’t start (though not always for Libby) other than the one game for which he was suspended, whereas Cacace was five times an unused sub across that span. Fifteen games in which he was available for five starts, five sub apps, and five unused sub days.

Fabiano Parisi broke that alternating streak after Empoli beat Napoli 3-2 in April. Important thing to know about this stretch of footy is that Empoli weren’t winning any of them. Literally went 16 league games without a victory... yet their powerful early form (and the awful form of the teams below them) meant that all the time they were in no realistic threat of relegation. It was free hit football. But after breaking that streak with that Napoli win (ironically Cacace’s boyhood club), Parisi was rewarded with consecutive starts. In fact he started four in a row before Cacace came back in for the last game of the season (a 1-0 win over Atalanta).

From Matchday 24 (Cacace’s debut) Onwards:

• Cacace – 10 games | 5 starts | 464 minutes

• Parisi – 14 games | 10 starts | 905 minutes

Both guys got heaps of chances yet Parisi had a running start. Pretty clear that he’s got the edge over Cacace for now though certainly not by any unassailable distance. It’s a smooth comparison between the two. Both are 21 years old, both obviously specialise in the same position. Both of them are owned outright by Empoli on relatively long term contracts. Probably with an idea towards selling them for a large profit down the line if all goes to plan.

If you want to get more specific, Parisi is the better attacking fullback and Cacace the better defensive fullback. Neither scored a goal last season and Parisi only had one assist but the underlying numbers are way more impressive for him in terms of shots and progressive passes and attacking touches and all that. This is an area that Cacace really hasn’t been able to translate at all from the A-League to Europe. It was the same at Sint-Truiden, he’s so far not managed to affect games on attack almost at all.

But if he does figure it out then that’d drastically change his prospects because defensively he’s all good. In fact he’s been great. Very strong in the challenge, with a high work rate, quick to close down his wingers, and with an impressive instinct for reading a pass and stepping into an interception. His early phase possession stuff is also tops. He’s an accurate passer who can dribble his way out of trouble and do things like this...

This season is all about whether Cacace can take things to the next level as an attacking threat because at the other end he’s got all the tools. Coach Andreazzoli recognised that because four of his five starts were against top-half teams including Juventus and AC Milan... yet Parisi almost always started against similar level or weaker opponents when the push for valuable goals was more practical.

It feels like Cacace is more likely to close the distance with his attacking deficiencies than Parisi is with his defensive deficiencies... although that might only be because there’s more room to improve. In that light Cacace has more potential but Parisi is further ahead right now. There’s a new coach in town now which alters the situation and we’ll find out soon enough whether Zanetti is willing to operate a tag team left-back yarn the way that Andreazzoli was. Gotta tell you that it was Fabiano Parisi who played the entirety of Empoli’s Coppa Italia defeat to SPAL last weekend though.

Zanetti picked a basically full-strength eleven for that match, albeit only incorporating one of his new loan signings. Cacace was an unused sub as Empoli took the lead through a Nicolo Cambiaghi goal in the 80th minute but conceded again almost immediately and then lost in extra time. Wouldn’t read too much into that. Empoli’s substitutes were mostly academy guys and you didn’t get the idea that they were too worried about losing that one. Cup runs are nice but the focus is on avoiding relegation.

Their Serie A season begins on the weekend with a trip to face Spezia Calcio. 6.45am on Monday to be specific. They’re home to Fiorentina after that which is a tricky game but with Lecce (A), Hellas Verona (H), and Salernitana (A) to follow it’s a pretty useful run to get underway with.

Will Cacace see much time in those games? Only time will tell. During preseason he played the first half of an 11-0 win over Castelfiorentino with a mostly second-string team before a stronger line-up took over in the second... then it went the other way in friendly #2 against Seravezza Pozzi in a 3-0 win – Cacace playing the first half amongst a stronger looking XI and Parisi playing the second half alongside a lot of new signings and younger fellas. But game three against Trabzonspor saw Parisi start and play sixty minutes before Cacace got the last half hour and then game four against Pafos saw Cacace have to wait until the 72nd minute before he took over from Parisi.

He’s the backup right now, no doubt about that. No shame about it either because Fabiano Parisi is a quality player who’ll be a familiar sight for many a scout by now. Things change fast in this sport though. There’s no way that Chris Wood is going to overtake Callum Wilson in the Newcastle United preferences but you’ve probably already read this article all about how he’s still gonna get plenty of chances throughout the season due to injuries, rotation, and even a few tactical match-ups.

The same is true of Libby Cacace vs Fabiano Parisi... except that Cacace also has a genuine chance of snatching that starting berth all for himself. It’s a fascinating little scenario that he finds himself in ahead of his first full season in the ol’ ancestral motherland. Che vinca il migliore. Can’t wait. Let’s go.

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