Despite their revolving door this summer, Napoli have the distinction of being the only team of last season’s top eight in Italy not to have switched manager since March.
Antonio Conte thinks the reigning champions are a work in progress but their relative managerial stability could help his bid to earn successive titles for the first time since winning three in a row with Juventus between 2012 and 2014.
Inter are second-favourites after taking the Scudetto to the final day last season under Simone Inzaghi, who left after their Champions League final thrashing by Paris Saint-Germain.
Serie A transfers 2025/26
Victor Osimhen was the Serie A player of the season when Napoli triumphed in 2023 but the striker has now joined Galatasaray, whom he had been on loan to, for £65 million.
Last season’s runaway top scorer, Mateo Retegui, has moved from Atalanta to Saudi side Al-Qadsiah for more than £56m, and the winner of the best midfielder award, Tijjani Reijnders, has already impressed at Manchester City after costing £46.5m from Milan, who have gone some way to replacing him by paying Brugge around £33.8m for Ardon Jashari and Torino £21.6m for Samuele Ricci.
Napoli’s major investments have included defenders Sam Beukema and Miguel Gutierrez and forward Noa Lang, with Kevin De Bruyne their most high-profile acquisition after the six-time Premier League winner left City.
What else is new in the 2025/26 Serie A?
In his first full season as a manager, Cristian Chivu will hope to repeat some of his on-pitch success with Inter, having won every major domestic trophy and the Champions League as a Nerazzurri defender.
Ivan Juric left Roma and Southampton last season and is now at Atalanta, replacing Gian Piero Gasperini, who reigned for nine years and is the new Giallorossi coach.
Igor Tudor inspired Juve to promising rather than title-challenging form at the end of 2024/25 and Stefano Pioli, who was a 2021/22 champion with Milan, is in charge of Fiorentina for a second time following a brief spell at Al-Nassr.
Fifteen months after leaving the club, Maurizio Sarri returned to Lazio in June. Sassuolo are back after a season away, joined by play-off winners Cremonese and a Pisa side in their first Serie A campaign since 1990/91.
Former Italy striker Ciro Immobile is with his fifth Serie A team, joining Bologna after a season with Besiktas that yielded 19 goals in all competitions.
At 35, Immobile has 201 goals in 353 top-flight games, needing four to match Roberto Baggio’s total and 16 more to move third among the all-time scorers in the division.
Serie A 2025/26 prediction
The last successful Scudetto defence was by Juve in 2019/20. Napoli and Inter have traded top spots in four of the last five seasons, although it would be unsurprising to see an initial outsider challenge this time because of all those changes.
Conte’s track record and the inexperienced Chivu’s rebuilding job make the Azzurri justifiable narrow favourites, but goals must be a concern for the holders, who scored 20 fewer times than Inter last season and will be without Romelu Lukaku for at least three months through injury.
Lukaku produced 14 league goals and 10 assists last season, and Conte had voiced his belief that the Belgium striker would improve upon that with a full pre-season.
Scott McTominay was the only other Napoli player to score more than six, with Lukaku setting up six more goals than any of his teammates.
