"With Chivu it is something different — he cares more about the person, not about the football." Hakan Çalhanoğlu said that about his manager, and it might be the most telling line of Inter Milan's entire summer.
Cristian Chivu arrived last year as one of the more eyebrow-raising appointments in recent Serie A memory — 13 games of top-flight coaching experience, stepping into the shoes of Simone Inzaghi after a 5-0 Champions League final demolition by PSG. The most lopsided final in the competition's history. Inter looked broken. Instead, Chivu steered them to the league and cup double in his first full season, and the players clearly adore the man.
"He's like a brother or a friend," Çalhanoğlu added. "You can talk to him about whatever you want." That kind of environment doesn't guarantee trophies, but it does guarantee effort. And right now, Inter have the talent to back it up.
English invasion at the San Siro
Inter's offseason has taken a distinctly Three Lions flavor. Djed Spence and John Stones are already through the door, with Curtis Jones looking likely to follow. Three England internationals added to a squad that already won the double. The depth picture at Inter is becoming uncomfortable for the rest of Serie A.
Their title defense opens at home to newly-promoted Monza on Saturday. That's a favorable opener, and the early-season title odds will reflect it.
Napoli are the clearest threat on paper — they pushed Inter hardest last season before injuries derailed them — but they're on their sixth coach in three years. Massimiliano Allegri taking over after being sacked by Milan for what was called "an unequivocal failure" of a season is either a bold recalibration or a desperate one. Probably somewhere in between.
Milan themselves have brought in Rúben Amorim, whose reputation took a battering at Manchester United. They've also smashed their transfer record to sign Gonçalo Ramos from PSG for over €70 million, so there's genuine ambition there. But a new coach, a club-record signing, and high expectations is a volatile combination. Milan finished fifth last season. Anything below fourth this time will be a crisis.
Como: the story that won't stay quiet
Then there's Como. A club playing fourth-division football seven years ago. A club that had never once qualified for European competition in 119 years of existence. Last season, under Cesc Fàbregas, they finished fourth — pipping both Juventus and Milan to the final Champions League spot.
It wasn't a fluke. They conceded the fewest goals in the league while playing genuinely entertaining football. That combination is hard to fake over 38 games. Fàbregas has now added Trevoh Chalobah from Chelsea for €30 million and, critically, kept Nico Paz for another season. That last point matters more than any transfer — Paz was the creative engine of everything good Como did.
The question hanging over them is simple: can a squad of players who have almost no Champions League experience handle two competitions simultaneously? Fatigue and inexperience in European knockout football have derailed bigger clubs than Como. Their title odds will be long, and perhaps rightly so — but anyone who dismissed them last season lost money.
- Inter Milan — Double winners, English reinforcements, emotionally unified squad. Start favorites and look the part.
- Napoli — Runner-up last year but on their sixth coach since 2022. Allegri is a gamble.
- AC Milan — Amorim in, Ramos signed, but fifth place last season was alarming. Upside exists, consistency is unproven.
- Roma — Champions League football returns for the first time since 2018. Gasperini adding Castro and Mora. A title push in 25+ years? Not impossible.
- Como — The wildcard. Best defense in the league last season, kept their best player, added quality. European distraction is the real unknown.
At Juventus, Luciano Spalletti enters his first full season after taking over in October, having earned a new two-year deal despite ultimately finishing sixth. Lazio and Atalanta have both switched coaches too — Maurizio Sarri making the switch from Lazio to Atalanta, with Gennaro Gattuso coming the other way. There's a lot of moving parts across the division.
Inter start as they finished — as the team to beat. But Como already proved once that that phrase means very little come May.
