Italian football as a whole was not in great shape to begin with, but the Totonero scandal made this season very difficult for evaluation. It was easier to judge declining clubs and the stagnated ones, but which were improving and perhaps rising? Under the dark shadow of fixed matches, there is no certainty and clarity.
Ascoli finished 5th , a great season for the small club, but one-time wonder at the end. Ascoli had no impressive players, suggesting they could stay among the best.
Perhaps the only club emerging with promising squad at the end of the 1970s was Roma.
With Liedholm at the helm, Roma somewhat quietly was going up. Since the club was not a factor for many years, no attention was focussed on it – Lazio was the Roman news during the 1970s. Roma finished 7th this season, thus continuing to stay under the radar, but a group of strong players was already gathered: Benetti, Spinosi, Tancredi, Pruzzo, De Sisti, and especially Di Bartolomei and Bruno Conti. It was not a finished and polished team, but it had strong backbone. It all depended on what the club would do in the following years – so far, there was no reason for paying close attention: the key players were quite old and perhaps over the hill. Solidity was achieved, it was a matter of adding quality. Roma was not yet ready to concur.
Without a truly ascending team, the top of the table was occupied by familiar names – traditionally strong Milan and Inter, plus the good since 1974 Torino, and the best Italian team of the 1970s Juventus. Milan finished 3rd, but was relegated for its involvement in Totonero.
With 35 points, Torino finished 4th. Led by Graziani, Claudio and |Patrizio Sala, Pulici, Pecci, Torino was still very strong, but the leading players were familar since 1975 and no new younger names emerged since then – Torino more or less reached its peak and only maintained its position.
Juventus finished 2nd, 3 points behind the champions. They won the most matches this season – 16, but unfortunately lost too many – 8. Seven of the losses were away matches – in itself, nothing unusual in a league heavily depending on home turf, but only 2 clubs lost more away games than Juventus – Catanzaro (14th) and Pescara (16th). Juventus played a bit more open football than the typical Italian team, but such approach required stronger strikers and Juventus fell short in this department: Bettega was the key figure and he was getting a bit old.
The team sticking to tradition won the title – 14 wins, 13 ties, 3 losses. Try to win at home, get a point away – the tired conservative formula. Inter did not risk and perhaps it was wise aprroach considering what kind of players they had.
Bordon, Baresi, Altobelli, Oriali – younger players, just becoming first rate stars. A bit unfinished team, a bit short of full great team, especially if compared to Juventus. But younger and hungrier. Not very exciting on the pitch, but fighting for the point and getting it. May be lucky a bit too – except Juventus, there was no well-rounded team in the league. As a team, Inter needed quite a lot to measure up to the teams it had in the 1960s – it was largely a promising team and no more. In itself, the victory was important one – the 1970s were terrible years for Inter and the last title they won was in 1970-71. At last they added one more – their 12th. Looked like revival was starting and the victory was excellent moment to reinforce the team, to add a few more classy players. There was a problem, though – seemingly, Inter decided to go for young talent, which was right. It was just that there was not plenty of young talent in Italy, especially strikers.