Is AC Milan's spending revolution enough to wrestle Serie A from Juventus as Napoli and Roma also plot their ascent?

James Horncastle casts his eye over those pushing to knock the Italian champions off their throne

Can anyone end Juve's championship reign? (Getty)

After completing the Great Escape last season, Crotone manager Davide Nicola kept his promise and cycled the 1345km back home to Turin. This weekend sees him embark on another Giro d’Italia as Serie A returns for a new season.

It is the first in a quarter of a century without Francesco Totti and when you see him retrieve a ball from the water on holiday and send it back to its owner with a pinpoint pass from one boat to another, the nostalgia just hits you in waves.

Prepare yourselves, because just months after Totti's farewell we need to get ready for Gigi Buffon's. Unless Juventus win the Champions League in Kiev this will be the last year of his awe-inspiring career. The 2006 generation is mostly now either retired or in coaching. Buffon and his Juventus teammate Andrea Barzagli for now still rage against the dying of the light while Cristian Zaccardo has spent the summer looking for a club on LinkedIn.

Technology can lend a helping hand, as in Zaccardo's case, but it can also be hazardous. Only the arrival of an Argentine No.9 with a famous name - Simeone not Batistuta - has helped Florence get over the Whatsapp audio of captain Borja Valero revealing he was in tears as he contemplated leaving Fiorentina.

Around the same time Gigio Donnarumma claimed, not wholly convincingly, that his Instagram had been hacked, shutting down his account during his Mino Raiola-advised stand-off with Milan after he uploaded a post declaring his love for the club and wish to hold talks over a new deal. That came following one of the most amusing moments of the summer when fans threw money at the 18-year-old and unfurled a ‘Dollarumma’ banner as the Under-21s’ played Denmark in Krakow.

The perils of going online were felt when VAR was implemented at the Confederations Cup, and given the unsatisfactory results, the hope that its use in Serie A this season would put an end to the hours of TV dedicated to the scrutiny of refereeing decisions and the polemic they generate is perhaps a little too optimistic.

Enough controversy has already been caused by Donnarumma’s actions and, of course, Leonardo Bonucci’s move from Juventus to Milan. The Rossoneri seemed as surprised by it as everybody else. No sooner had €28m signing Franck Kessie been paraded in front of the media holding up his No.19 shirt than he was being politely asked to hand it over to Bonucci. Riccardo Montolivo also had to untie the captain’s armband from his bicep - trying not to get injured in the process - and bend the knee to Bonucci, who becomes the league’s highest earner and the symbol of Milan’s €240.5m revolution.

Dybala has been handed the famous No 10 shirt (Getty)

Whether or not he can “do for Milan what Pirlo did for Juventus” in 2011 and shift the balance of power back in the opposite direction remains to be seen. The Bonucci shaped hole in Juventus’ defence, abyss-like in the first half of their Super Cup defeat to Lazio last weekend, has led to talk of a seven-year itch even after big money signings of their own like Douglas Costa and Federico Bernardeschi, not to mention trademark bargains like Blaise Matuidi.

However, when you see that Paulo Dybala, now donning the No.10 shirt as worn in the past by Baggio, Platini and Del Piero, is able to score free-kicks with an entire team and a couple of fans stood on the goal-line, you are reminded of the talent the Old Lady has on her arm.

Reports of her decline is greatly exaggerated but that hasn’t stopped La Gazzetta dello Sport backing Napoli to win the title for the first time since the days of Maradona. The famous old piece of graffiti on a Naples cemetery wall - “you don’t know what you’re missing” - rings true at the moment as Maurizio Sarri not only has this team playing some of the most attractive football in Europe, he knows deep down inside that, in this six-year cycle, his side represent the biggest threat to Juventus’ crown.

A little like Tottenham in England, Napoli’s title credentials lie in their continuity. Sarri knows his best XI, this team plays with its eyes closed and unlike last season they’re not going to spend six weeks figuring out how to replace Gonzalo Higuain and the injured Arkadiusz Milik. Keeping the team’s top scorer and last season’s Player of the Year in Serie A, Dries Mertens, as well as partner in crime Lorenzo Insigne represents the best business they have done. Their approach is the exact opposite to Milan; contention via consolidation.

A team underestimated, meanwhile, could well be Inter. Quiet by last summer’s standards when new owners Suning spent €157m, sacked Roberto Mancini and appointed Frank de Boer just 12 days before the start of the season, they already had a very good talent base. Last year's 7th place finish did not reflect their true worth.

Holes have been filled this summer, notably at full-back, and there could have been more had Joao Mario not saved Eder from drowning in Portofino. Borja Valero is the sort of midfield general Inter have lacked, from a tactical point of view, since Esteban Cambiasso left. Rivalling Matuidi for steal of the window, his arrival still doesn’t change the impression that the manager Luciano Spalletti is Inter’s best signing. In fact, Christian Vieri says he’s the best signing - period - in Serie A this off-season.

​Roma will miss him. Monchi’s first transfer window hasn’t caught the imagination of a demanding fanbase. Depth has been added but the first team doesn’t look as strong now Wojciech Szczesny, Antonio Rüdiger and Mo Salah have all gone. You can't say any of their signings really excite. Of course that could change if they land Riyad Mahrez but in a market in which Philippe Coutinho could go for more than €100m, Leicester are understandably thinking they could do better than accept the €37m tabled by Roma. Spalletti set a high bar for Eusebio di Francesco, who is a big coaching talent, but the former Roma midfielder returns on the back of his most disappointing season at Sassuolo.

Roma are looking to bring in Leicester's Riyad Mahrez (Getty)

Winning the Super Cup, despite the sale of captain Lucas Biglia and absences of Keita Balde Diao and Felipe Anderson would indicate Lazio will also challenge for a place in the top four. It’s unlikely, though, that Atalanta will finish within it again and take advantage of Serie A regaining a fourth Champions League spot this season. Bergamo is still swinging its hips to the Papu Dance and neutrals are thrilled that Alejandro Gomez and Andrea ‘little bear’ Petagna will be resuming their bromance, but the team that made history last season has been broken up and must contend with the Europa League this season.

Torino can see themselves in that competition next year for two reasons: Joe Hart is no longer in goal for them and, for the moment, no one has coughed up €100m needed to activate Andrea Belotti’s buy-out clause. Addressing what il Toro need to do in the transfer window, Sinisa Mihajlovic said: "We’re like James Bond emerging from a submarine. We’ve got the Tux. Now we need some accessories: a watch, a cravat, a pocket square.” Accessorising should be no problem for the Tod's-owned Fiorentina. But at one stage this summer, they looked as if they'd been left in nothing but their underpants. Disillusioned, the Viola's best players all announced they were leaving: Bernardeschi, Borja Valero, Josip Ilicic, Nikola Kalinic and several others departed, leaving Stefano Pioli, who has grown quite the beard this summer, looking like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

Make no mistake the drama doesn’t stop the further you go down the table. Barely a week after joining Hellas, Antonio Cassano quit and retired, thought better of it, then quit and retired. Another promoted club, SPAL, back Serie A for the first time in almost half a century were quickly dubbed $PAL by their fans after they announced a season-ticket pricing scheme that wouldn’t look out of place at the top end of the Premier League. But then again, given the entertainment this league provides in what could be the most open season in years, you can see where they were coming from; they’re probably worth it.