In Italy, this time of the season is known as ‘calcio d’Agosto.’ While the literal translation is straightforward—August soccer—there is an important sentiment behind it: remember what month it is.
No trophies are handed out for a league season which has only just begun. Fast starts don’t necessarily correlate to strong finishes for teams that are still being reconfigured in the transfer market. As the former Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri likes to say: “When I was little, all the old managers used to tell me that soccer played in August was a liar.”
