Inter Milan favourites again, challenges for Juve, Conte being Conte - Serie A 2024-25 preview (2024)

One normal season of Serie A. That’s all I ask for…

If normal means more unpredictability, more infrastructure-defying competitiveness, more “only in Italy, eh?”

As we’ll discover in this preview of the upcoming season, a coach has already rescued his sporting director from a burning building, Drake has bailed a club out of bankruptcy on the condition he can design their shirts, and Antonio Conte wants more signings, more, more, more.

Just when you thought you were out, this league pulls you back in…

Who do you think will win the title and why?

No one has retained the title since Juventus at the end of their nine-year streak in 2020, but Inter Milan have been stealthily dynastic.

Think about it. They ended Juventus’ dominance in 2021, took the title to the final day in 2022, and won the league in 2024. They’ve also been to Europa League and Champions League finals and pulled off the Coppa-Super Coppa double, twice.

Unlike Napoli a year ago, Inter have continuity of coaching and the eviction of Suning brings stability at the ownership level.

For the first time in four summers, Inter have not sold a big name. They’ve added (Piotr Zielinski and Mehdi Taremi) without subtracting and, for that reason, appear primed to add a 21st Scudetto to their collection.

And who will make up the rest of the top four?

Top four is so passee. Isn’t this the league that earned five Champions League places through coefficient-leading performances in Europe? OK, I’m stalling and trying to buy myself an extra place here because, credit to Serie A, it is so tough to call.

One of the reasons for that is six of last year’s top 10 have changed their coach; seven if we include Daniele De Rossi, who is beginning his first full season at Roma. My instinct is to reward continuity and to back holders and favourites Inter, as well as Atalanta. Gian Piero Gasperini has made the top four on five occasions. If anyone slips up, Atalanta are there to take advantage.

Elsewhere, Antonio Conte is a guarantee and whether it’s Victor Osimhen or Romelu Lukaku up front, I expect Napoli to push hard. Conte’s teams in Italy always challenge for the title (unless they’re called Arezzo or Atalanta).

It’s the Bergamaschi who are the variables here.

By winning the Europa League, they showed the depth and resilience necessary to cope with eight Champions League games. But the injuries to Giorgio Scalvini and Gianluca Scamacca, and a stand-off between the club and Teun Koopmeiners, who wants to force a move to Juventus, throw a spanner in the works.

The test for Atalanta will be similar to what Napoli experienced last year: can they keep a group of players hungry, motivated and willing to stay at the club after finally winning a coveted trophy?

AC Milan should be fine. More than fine. They’ve beaten Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona in pre-season. They’ve won the Trofeo Berlusconi. Surely an eighth Champions League will follow? Am I right?

This summer’s strategy seems to have as its working title “Sceptics Busters”. New coach Paulo Fonseca and Milan’s incoming striker Alvaro Morata will always have their doubters. But the Portuguese raises the ceiling of this current group of players while the Spaniard has the European pedigree that goes straight to the very core of Milan’s DNA. Both know the league.

Juventus, meanwhile, showed in each of the last two seasons they can underperform and still contend for the title for four- or five-month stretches. They’ve appointed the hottest coaching mind in Serie A in Thiago Motta, whose style is, in many ways, countercultural to Juventus’ traditions. If it meshes — and that’s a big if — then my top four, in no particular order, are: Inter, Napoli, Milan and Juve.

Which team will surprise us most?

Try not to pay too much attention to their sweaty tussle with Modena in the Coppa Italia — which was ultimately decided by a penalty shootout — Napoli will experience the biggest upswing in points. That’s a consequence and a combination of the anticipated Conte effect and the worst title defence since Torino in 1950 without the mitigating circ*mstances of the Superga air disaster.

Como are a top-half team disguised as a newly promoted club a la Monza two years ago. Now Cesc Fabregas has his coaching badges, it’ll be interesting to see how he performs in the dugout, where he replaces Osian Roberts. This is no longer Osian’s XI.

The arrivals of Pepe Reina, Alberto Moreno, Raphael Varane and Andrea Belotti make Como glitter like the waters of the lake.

Question is: do Napoli and Como constitute surprises in the way Bologna did last season? Probably not. I think the surprise will be Bologna again on the basis they won’t fade as badly as people expect after losing Motta, Joshua Zirkzee and Riccardo Calafiori.

Who will be the biggest underperformers?

The risk is that it’s Juventus.

This is Motta’s first big job. It’s his first time coaching in four competitions. They’re making a lot of (overdue) changes, particularly in midfield, but the squad, for now, looks incomplete. The more seasoned Juventus fans can hear echoes of 1990 when the club spent lavishly on an up-and-coming new-wave coach from Bologna, Luigi Maifredi. Juventus then finished seventh.

I don’t foresee a repeat of that. Motta theoretically has a soft start against Como and Verona and has always got his teams punching above their weight. But they have a lot of work to do this month to optimise the team and move out players such as Federico Chiesa.

League-wise, Roma have been the biggest underperformers of the past six years. It’s a big ask for De Rossi, as a young coach, to get this team out of the rut of sixth place, which is where they’ve finished three seasons in a row.

Staying in Rome, Lazio’s new boss Marco Baroni staked a claim to be considered coach of the season at Verona, but he takes over a team that has now fully transitioned away from the Ciro Immobile/Sergej Milinkovic-Savic/Luis Alberto era.

Fiorentina should give us the measure of Raffaele Palladino, too. He kept Monza up comfortably but benefited from the biggest net spend in the league in his first year. His replacement at Monza, Alessandro Nesta, needs to show he can cut it at this level and that he didn’t get the job because of his past with Adriano Galliani, his chief executive from his playing days at Milan.

Keep an eye on 777-owned Genoa. It remains to be seen if their owners’ troubles destabilise the club. Alberto Gilardino lost Radu Dragusin in January and has since bid farewell to Mateo Retegui. If Albert Gudmundsson follows, they could be in a spot of bother.

How do you expect the promoted clubs to do?

All the teams graduating from Serie B are foreign-owned and should, if run correctly, be able to capitalise on the dysfunctional (Verona) or stale (Udinese) teams that have been circling the drain of relegation for some time.

Parma have settled down since owner Kyle Krause did a mini-Chelsea upon taking the keys to the Tardini three years ago. Their manager, Fabio Pecchia, is a promotion specialist, but it remains to be seen if he can keep them there.

Venezia reportedly risked going out of business until Drake got involved and joined the ownership group. No doubt, this was all part of God’s Plan. The Lagooners will be hoping their return to Serie A lasts longer than One Dance.

Last year’s top scorer in Serie B, Finnish striker Joel Pohjanpalo (22 goals), should be the player whose jersey you buy this season. Why? Venezia are Italy’s most fashion-first football team and Pohjanpalo has been known to go straight to the sideline bar for a pint after sinking four goals.

Who will be the best young player this season?

Milan copped a lot of flak for not sending any Italian players to the Euros, but the core of the Under-17 team that won the same competition over the summer is founded in their academy. Let’s see if Fonseca finds time to blood youngsters Mattia Liberali and Francesco Camarda.

In Turin, there’s already a lot of hype surrounding Vasilije Adzic at Juventus but, as with the Milan boys, it’s probably too soon for him to make a sustained impact.

The pick that immediately comes to mind is Matias Soule, now of Roma. He was a contender to win this award last year (the league gave it to Zirkzee) while on loan at Frosinone from Juventus and the prospect of him duetting with Paulo Dybala at Roma this season is too much to handle. Motta wished to keep the Argentine playmaker at Juventus. Soule’s sale was a freak in the balance sheets — heaps of pure profit — but will Juventus come to regret it on the pitch?

Which under-the-radar player have big clubs been sleeping on?

For two years, it was Monza goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio. Then, this summer, Juventus ruthlessly demoted and released Wojciech Szczesny in order to sign him. Di Gregorio should be in the Italy setup at least as one of Gigio Donnarumma’s understudies after shining in analytics such as goals saved above average for the past two seasons.

If we rule out players who are expected to move, such as Fiorentina’s Nico Gonzalez, Udinese’s Lazar Samardzic or Genoa’s Gudmundsson, let’s settle on Morten Frendrup, a Pac-Man midfielder who gobbles up everything. Every team needs a player like the Dane.

Which team has had the best transfer window?

At times, Italian coaches sound like accountants. You do the books at the end of the year. A fortnight of the transfer window remains, so judgements are premature. Let’s put it this way: Juventus and Bologna have been the best sellers, although Zirkzee’s buyout clause and the sell-on percentage Basel were due for Calafiori needs to be taken into consideration.

In terms of retention, for all the people who say Milan have diverged from Moneyball this summer, this disciplined approach has got the team in such a strong financial position that they can keep Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao. In a vulnerable league where top talents tend to hang around for two years, it’s pretty cool that Hernandez and Leao are beginning their sixth seasons at San Siro.

Roma have been the most aggressive, investing almost €100million (£86m, $11om). Look out for their new centre-forward Artem Dovbyk. He was the Pichichi in Spain with Girona last season (24 goals). It’s the first time an Italian club has bought the holder of that award since Christian Vieri returned to Italy (Lazio) after one season at Atletico Madrid in 1997-98.

For all you romantics out there, Alexis Sanchez has returned to Udinese, swayed no doubt by the most random coaching appointment of the summer: Kosta Runjaic.

Which team has had the worst transfer window?

One swallow doesn’t make a summer. One bad signing doesn’t ruin a transfer window.

But Milan are paying Tottenham more for Emerson Royal than they paid Lille for Mike Maignan; €18million is a big price to keep captain Davide Calabria as first choice right-back. Milan fans must hope Royal suddenly transfigures into Cafu. He, on the other hand, has taken the No 22 jersey — a number that once belonged to Ballon d’Or winner Kaka. Whatever you make of Royal, you have to respect his confidence.

Lazio have let Ciro Immobile, Felipe Anderson and Luis Alberto go. Dainty playmaker Daichi Kamada, the replacement for Milinkovic-Savic last summer, left for Crystal Palace after a single season.

A strategy of signing players from Verona and Salernitana (who their president Claudio Lotito used to own) risks catching up with them. It’s a year since their sporting director Igli Tare departed. Angelo Fabiani has stepped into the breach, but it still doesn’t feel like Tare has been replaced.

What did you miss most about Serie A?

Aside from Conte telling his new club they need to make more signings, it’s got to be Gottismo.

Lecce’s coach Luca Gotti already had a cult following. He looks like a matinee idol from the 1960s. He rides Ducatis, reads biographies of Ernest Shackleton and attended his daughter’s graduation in a Lecce polo. But then he saved his sporting director from a burning building. (I know, right?) Pantaleo Corvino had booked a hotel to talk about Gotti’s contract extension.

“It was owned by a friend of mine and at the time only used for weddings.”

Gotti bought Corvino dinner, but what sealed the deal was a knock on the door at 4:30 in the morning.

“It was Gotti. He’d come to warn me that a fire had broken out in the hotel.” Corvino had been fast asleep and would have slept through it. “I went outside but was hit by the fumes and smoke. In the meantime, I could no longer see Gotti, I tried to go down the stairs but was blocked by the flames.

“At that point, I returned to my room. I tore the curtain, went out onto the balcony and that’s when I found Gotti. I saw that the fire was heading in our direction and we started thinking about jumping from the first floor. Luckily, the fire brigade arrived and helped us down.

“After we got down, (and) when it was safe, I turned to Gotti and said: ‘Luca, how much did you want in your contract extension? That’s fine…'”

What’s the one match we should really look out for in the opening few weeks of the season?

Juventus-Roma on September 1. It’s an early chance for Soule (and Dybala) to show their old club what they’re missing.

Then the Milan derby on September 22. Inter have won a record six in a row. One of the criteria for judging Fonseca will be whether he can invert this trend.

Tell us one great storyline involving Serie A we might have missed over the summer…

Zlatan Ibrahimovic as Zoolander. Milan’s recruitment has been less Moneyball and more hair-brained, so to speak.

When announcing Fonseca, he said: “There’ll be a different energy on the sideline, a different face: one was bald (Stefano Pioli), the other has more hair. But still elegant.” At Morata’s unveiling, Zlatan commented on his striker’s looks. “We’re a good-looking team. Alvaro’s a handsome guy. We could do to make (Strahinja) Pavlovic (Milan’s new buzzcut centre-back) grow his hair.”

Give us your boldest prediction for the season…

Napoli are a year removed from winning the league. Who have they lost in the meantime? Zielinski, Kim Min-jae and Hirving Lozano. They have hired Conte. Apart from Paris Saint-Germain, I don’t see anyone signing Osimhen — and if someone does cut Aurelio De Laurentiis a cheque, Napoli will buy Romelu Lukaku.

In a season in which Napoli only have Serie A and the Coppa Italia to focus on, it is not inconceivable that Conte does what Conte does and wins the league. Last of all, don’t be surprised if Vincenzo Italiano takes Bologna to the Coppa Italia final.

(Top photos: Getty Images)