How Napoli can profit from Serie A’s new identity after Inter Milan’s gamble | OneFootball

The league that used to be determined by Marco van Basten or Michel Platini, Diego Maradona or John Charles had a new capo last season. Serie A’s MVP award went to the player who scored in the game when his side clinched the title: Scott McTominay. And if all that felt incongruous, it highlighted how what was the world’s most glamorous division has found a new identity, its unpredictability featuring some improbable plotlines. McTominay is proof. So are his team.

Napoli’s three-season arc has seen them double their tally of Scudetti to four, finishing first, 10th and then first again. Their surge last year under Antonio Conte is further evidence that Serie A can be the home of the ritorno, a place for comebacks from those deemed in decline. Which, some would say, the league as a whole is. It is 15 years since Italy has supplied a Champions League winner; indeed, three of its clubs were eliminated by Dutch and Belgian rivals last season. Others have supplanted it as the richest: the summer’s departures saw it stripped of its top scorer, Mateo Retegui, and its finest manager (at least as far as the Champions League is concerned), Simone Inzaghi, both by Saudi Arabia.

Inzaghi and Inter Milan threatened to win everything last season, ended up with nothing and their parting forms the backdrop to the 2025-26 Serie A. Al-Hilal may have may tempted Inzaghi with a colossal sum but Inter’s 5-0 evisceration by Paris Saint-Germain in Munich was an undignified end; undeserved, too, given his achievements at San Siro.

But if summer managerial changes are a theme, Inzaghi’s departure reshapes the landscape. Even as Napoli won Serie A by a point, Inter had the strongest squad; their efforts spread across various competitions. But an ageing group meant they may have had short-termism. Now, with the Club World Cup meaning Inter had to rush into replacing Inzaghi and Cesc Fabregas’ status as a co-owner of Como perhaps rendering him unattainable, Cristian Chivu is a newcomer who looks short on stardust. The same may be said of Inter’s signings, which have a youthful focus.

Meanwhile, the division features managers with 12 Serie A titles between them: when it appeared Conte and Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis may have been too combustible to work together for a second season, a five-time champion stayed. A six-time winner is at San Siro, but with Massimiliano Allegri back at AC Milan. The Rossoneri’s last Scudetto winner, Stefano Pioli, has returned from his lucrative sojourn in Saudi Arabia to take over Fiorentina.

It may be a leveller, but perhaps the two biggest clubs seem to have underwhelming choices, though Chivu kept Parma up last season and Igor Tudor steered Juventus into the Champions League to earn an extended deal. There are intriguing choices elsewhere: Gian Piero Gasperini, whose bold 3-4-3 propelled Atalanta to unforeseen heights but whose previous taste of a giant was brief and unhappy at Inter, takes over from Claudio Ranieri at Roma. Atalanta’s eclectic choice to succeed him was Ivan Juric, fresh from a disastrous year at Roma and Southampton. Maurizio Sarri is back at Lazio, 15 months after resigning. Serie A is shorn of managerial Inzaghis: Filippo led Pisa to promotion, left to join Palermo in Serie B, and his former Milan strike partner Alberto Gilardino has taken over.

The turnover of players could suggest Serie A is a selling league, even if the biggest deal, taking Victor Osimhen to Galatasaray, comes after a year’s loan. It also indicates that some clubs are weaker. Allegri has a Serie A-winning past, but Milan only came eighth last year and have sold Tijjani Reijnders, Theo Hernandez and Malick Thiaw while loaning Alvaro Morata to Como. If much of their funds have been spent on younger midfielders, in Samuele Ricci and Ardon Jashari, a more eye-catching arrival is a rather older one: Luka Modric turns 40 soon. In attack, Darwin Nunez was a target, but became another indication Serie A cannot match Saudi Arabia’s financial muscle. Now sights are set on Rasmus Hojlund.

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Scott Mctominay of Napoli in action during the pre-season friendly (Getty Images)

Another title tilt from Atalanta, meanwhile, seems implausible after Retegui left and with Ademola Lookman pushing to follow him. The seeming breakdown of the Nigerian’s move to Inter, however, leaves both clubs in limbo.

Roma will presumably play Gasperini’s 3-4-3; they will do so with Evan Ferguson, loaned in as Tammy Abraham was loaned out; borrowing can form part of the Serie A recruitment strategy, increasing amounts of it from the Premier League, with Leon Bailey seeming set to follow.

Juventus may have a stronger squad after picking up Jonathan David on a free transfer and paying for wingers Francisco Conceicao and Nico Gonzalez.

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Napoli coach Antonio Conte coach arrives at training (REUTERS)

Napoli perhaps do, too. They were one of Europe’s biggest spenders last summer, but the 2025 sales of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen have redressed some of the balance. Conte forever wants more players and some of his recruitment has been concentrated in the Low Countries, with the Dutch duo of winger Noa Lang and defender Sam Beukema. Most dramatically, there is Kevin De Bruyne, with a point to prove after Manchester City did not renew his contract, with a man who has profited from his supply line in Belgium’s colours, in Romelu Lukaku; and yet with the striker sidelined for months, much could rest on new recruit Lorenzo Lucca.

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Inter Milan coach Cristian Chivu before the match against Fluminense (REUTERS)

De Bruyne, it is safe to say, could have earned more elsewhere; so, too, surely Modric. But if Serie A’s more sedate pace may suit the veterans, so could the challenge; getting them on free transfers suits Italian clubs. There are others in their peer group in Ciro Immobile, the four-time Capocannoniere, joining Bologna at 35 and Edin Dzeko, back in Serie A at 39, each after time in Turkey.

The Bosnian could be Moise Kean’s strike partner or understudy at Fiorentina. Certainly, Immobile, Dzeko, De Bruyne and Modric give the division an appeal to the nostalgic. But the competitiveness offers another attraction. Fabregas’ upstarts from Como have outspent most of them, but every team that finished in the top half last season could start with hopes of Champions League qualification, perhaps only Inter and Napoli with the expectation of it.

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AC Milan's Luka Modric celebrates against Bari in the Coppa Italia (REUTERS)

But Serie A can specialise in reinventing itself. A division that used to be the best in the world has now become the league of second chances and last chances, where the flaws in the fallen giants can add volatility. McTominay appearing on the Ballon d’Or shortlist may not be its last surprise.