Serie A season preview: Who could stop Napoli and Kevin De Bruyne from reclaiming the title? Antonio Conte issues 'warning' ahead of opener
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Updated 23/08/2025 at 11:41 GMT+1
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Serie A returns this weekend when champions Napoli travel to newly-promoted Sassuolo, live on TNT Sports and discovery+. Antonio Conte’s side have been bolstered by a string of new signings over the summer, including former Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne, and kick off the year as favourites. But who could be their biggest rivals? Alasdair Mackenzie delves into a new calcio campaign.
‘Champions again!’ – Full-time scenes as Napoli seal Serie A title
Video credit: TNT Sports
Pronti, partenza, via! In what feels like the blink of an eye, the chaos and colour of calcio returns to our screens this weekend as the 2025/26 Serie A season kicks off.
Champions Napoli will get the action underway live on TNT Sports and discovery+ when Antonio Conte’s stacked squad face second-tier champs Sassuolo on Saturday at 17:30 UK time.
In Italy, the excitement is palpable. Serie A has established a well-earned reputation as Europe’s most competitive and unpredictable league in recent years, and this season looks every bit as hard to call.
Inspired by the jaw-dropping form of league MVP Scott McTominay, Conte claimed the fifth Scudetto of his coaching career at a third different club in his debut season in Naples.
It was an astonishing and unexpected feat after a lowly 10th-place finish a year earlier, but a lot can change in a year, and the Vesuviani are now widely considered the frontrunners going into 2025/26 after an eye-catching summer recruitment drive.
De Bruyne headlines transfer festival
The name that stole the headlines in Italy and beyond was Kevin De Bruyne, as the Belgian superstar headed for the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona after ending his illustrious spell with Manchester City.
The 34-year-old’s class and creativity will add yet more quality to a stacked midfield that already includes McTominay, Frank Anguissa, Stanislav Lobotka and Billy Gilmour.
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Kevin De Bruyne and Antonio Conte have teamed up at Napoli
Image credit: Getty Images
Napoli’s title win last season came despite having a thin squad, and that has been something the club have sought to strengthen from back to front in the off-season.
As well as De Bruyne, Napoli have brought in goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, centre-back Sam Beukema, left-back Miguel Gutierrez, winger Noa Lang and towering striker Lorenzo Lucca, offering Conte new options in every department.
This will, Napoli hope, help deal with one of the few doubts that persists around Conte's credentials – his ability to juggle several competitions at once.
The former Chelsea and Juventus boss showed his mastery as a domestic league coach last season, claiming Napoli’s fourth-ever title in his first season with no European football to distract him.
But with the demands of a UEFA Champions League campaign coming up – a tournament where he has only made it as far as the quarter-finals once – he faces a much greater task second time around.
Only returning Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri (six) has won more Scudetti than Conte’s five, though, and the tactician is a step ahead of almost all of his rivals in being the only coach bar Bologna’s Vincenzo Italiano and Como’s Cesc Fabregas to have spent all of last season at his current club.
- 'A breath of oxygen' - How Allegri is resuscitating AC Milan after year to forget
- ‘Unchained’ Como splash cash in bid to become big winners from turbulent summer in Serie A
However, a thigh injury in the final days of pre-season to Romelu Lukaku that could reportedly rule out the Belgian for several weeks has caused some concerns, and Conte sent a clear message to his players that reputations alone won’t take them far.
"We’ve lost an important player, but we also have the Scudetto badge on our shirt," Conte said.
"It’s inevitable then that we are favourites, but that isn’t enough to do well. The season after the 2023 Scudetto (when Napoli finished 10th) must be a warning."
Can Chivu step out of Inzaghi’s shadow?
Inter remain Napoli’s likeliest challengers.
Last season’s runners-up had a forgettable end to a promising season, losing to rivals Milan in the Coppa Italia semi-finals before seeing the Scudetto slip out of their grip in their final two games and then suffering a humbling 5-0 UEFA Champions League final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
Off went coach Simone Inzaghi to Saudi Arabia, and the choice of Cristian Chivu as his replacement raised many eyebrows. The Romanian may be a club legend as a 2010 Treble winner who enjoyed success as a coach at youth level, but a three-month spell with Parma at the end of last season is the extent of his senior managerial experience.
That said, Inter’s squad arguably remains the most stacked in the country, with the core of the side that stormed past Bayern Munich and Barcelona to reach that European final still in place and a string of intriguing youngsters coming in to join them, including Croatian playmaker Petar Sucic, striker Ange-Yoan Bonny, winger Luis Henrique and returning striker Francesco Pio Esposito.
Transfermarkt have valued Inter’s strongest XI at €496 million (£430), far ahead of Juventus (£303m), Milan (£267m) and Napoli (£244m).
Whether Chivu will be the man to harness that talent and take them back to the summit of Italian football is the big question.
Allegri eyes top four
Across town, AC Milan have undergone a summer rebuild overseen by returning coach Allegri after last season’s terrible slump to eighth place left them out of Europe.
The Rossoneri’s appointment of new sporting director Igli Tare and subsequent recruitment drive has raised hopes of a renewed push up the table, with veteran Luka Modric coming in to join Samuele Ricci and Ardon Jashari in a revamped midfield.
"There is a group of teams fighting for the top four, and we are among them," Allegri said ahead of Saturday's opener at home to Cremonese.
"The objective is for Milan to be playing in the Champions League next year."
Juventus will also hope to be in the title mix after years of underachievement. They decided against making a new coaching appointment in the off-season and instead handed the full-time reins to Igor Tudor after he steadied the ship following Thiago Motta’s sacking last season.
Jonathan David has come in to bolster the attack, with Dusan Vlahovic’s future in doubt, while right wing-back Joao Mario has arrived from Porto. There are otherwise few new faces, with the Bianconeri reportedly still looking to recruit before the end of the window.
Juve open their campaign against Parma on Sunday, live on TNT Sports and discovery+, when visiting boss Carlos Cuesta will make his Serie A coaching debut at the age of just 30. It’s quite the baptism of fire.
Coaching changes are a big theme of the season ahead, with Gian Piero Gasperini’s Roma a particularly intriguing proposition as the Atalanta legend looks to bring his swashbuckling style to the capital, where fans are desperate for a long-awaited return to the Champions League.
Ex-Southampton boss Ivan Juric has plenty of doubters to prove wrong in Bergamo after being chosen as the anointed Gasperini successor at Atalanta in a summer where Serie A top scorer Mateo Retegui was sold and star forward Ademola Lookman looks set to follow him after publicly asking to leave.
There are more familiar faces reappearing in Florence and Rome, where Stefano Pioli and Maurizio Sarri are looking to recreate former successes at Fiorentina and Lazio, although the latter’s hopes were stunted by a summer transfer ban due to financial irregularities.
Bologna will start as dark horses again after their heroic Coppa Italia success under Vincenzo Italiano last season. They have turned to experience in the market this summer, bringing in four-time capocannoniere Ciro Immobile and former Juventus winger Federico Bernardeschi.
But Como are perhaps the most interesting prospect as a potential bowling ball ready to knock over the established elite after a summer where coach Fabregas turned down the Inter job and more than €100m (£87m) has been spent on new signings including Spain star Alvaro Morata.
Familiar faces abound
There will once again be plenty of British and Irish interest in Serie A this season.
Fikayo Tomori and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are looking to return to the former heights at Milan under new boss Allegri, while Lloyd Kelly is set to begin his first full season at Juventus.
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Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Fikayo Tomori during AC Milan training
Image credit: Getty Images
England youth international Tino Anjorin joined Torino this summer following an impressive season with relegated Empoli, while Brooke Norton-Cuffy and Keinan Davis will be hoping to make their mark at Genoa and Udinese respectively.
Sadly, however, Dele Alli's spell at Como looks set for a premature conclusion after Fabregas revealed that the former Tottenham star is "training separately" ahead of the new campaign.
Evan Ferguson's move to Roma will be of interest to Irish football fans as the youngster looks to revive his form in a new country under Gasperini.
The Scottish contingent keeps on growing, too, with an all-time high of six Scots competing in Serie A this season following 18-year-old midfielder Lennon Miller's move from Motherwell to Udinese.
He joins McTominay and Gilmour at Napoli, Bologna captain Lewis Ferguson, Torino striker Che Adams and Sassuolo full-back Josh Doig in flying the Saltire flag on the peninsula this year.
Stream Serie A, the Premier League, Men’s and Women’s FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League and more on TNT Sports and discovery+
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