Chivu's personal touch lifts Inter to a domestic double in his first full season

Barely a year ago, half of Italy considered Inter sunk. The club was coming off that 5-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final, as lopsided a loss as anyone can remember, and on top of that decided to hand the bench to a coach with just 13 Serie A games of experience. It sounded like a reckless gamble. Twelve months later, Cristian Chivu has Inter back on top, with the league and cup double in hand, and the club opens the new season as the clear favorite.

So what exactly changed? According to those inside the locker room, it wasn't so much a tactical revolution as a shift in approach. Hakan Çalhanoğlu explained it himself in an interview with beIN Sports Australia, and his words sum up the Chivu effect pretty well.

With Chivu it's something different, he cares more about the person than the soccer. For him it's more important how you are, how you feel, and he's open to everything. He gives you the confidence to feel good. Of course he has tactical ideas, but away from soccer he's like a brother or a friend, you can talk to him about anything, he's always close to you. That helped me a lot.Hakan Çalhanoğlu

That close bond, paired with some fresh ideas on the field, was enough for Chivu, 45, to lift the domestic double in his first full season in charge. The transfer market helped too: Inter added a distinctly English flavor to the squad with the arrivals of defenders Djed Spence and John Stones, and everything points to Curtis Jones joining as well. The team begins its title defense this Saturday at home against newly promoted Monza.

Napoli, Milan and the benches that changed hands

Napoli finished as runner-up last season and probably would have pushed Inter harder had it not been for a long stretch of injuries. Now the club faces the challenge with its sixth coach in just over three years, following Antonio Conte's departure. The man chosen is a familiar face: Massimiliano Allegri, arriving after a spell at Milan that he himself called an outright failure.

At Milan, the man taking the wheel is Ruben Amorim, whose standing as one of Europe's rising coaches took a hit during his time at Manchester United. The rossoneri, who finished fifth last season, reinforced the squad with a record-setting investment, paying more than 70 million euros (about $80 million) to Paris Saint-Germain for Portuguese forward Goncalo Ramos.

The bench changes didn't stop there. In total, nine Serie A clubs changed coaches this summer. Maurizio Sarri left Lazio to take charge of Atalanta, which endured a difficult campaign in its first year without Gian Piero Gasperini, while Gennaro Gattuso, the former Italy national team coach, now occupies the Lazio bench.

Stability at Roma and Juventus, and Como's surprise run

At the other end of the spectrum is Roma, which did find continuity. Under Gasperini, the club returned to the Champions League for the first time since 2018, despite a public clash with Claudio Ranieri, a former coach and special advisor to the club, who ended up parting ways with the institution. Gasperini has now added youth with the arrivals of Santiago Castro and Rodrigo Mora, and quite a few see Roma as a serious contender for the title, something the club hasn't managed in more than 25 years.

At Juventus, Luciano Spalletti is heading into his first full season after taking over in October. The former Italy and Napoli coach finished sixth, but was rewarded with a two-year contract extension.

And then there's Como, the season's big surprise: the club finished fourth and reached the Champions League for the first time in its 119-year history, just seven seasons after sitting in Italy's fourth division. The work of Cesc Fabregas, in just two years at the helm, has been no small feat: the team had the league's stingiest defense without giving up on attractive soccer. To reinforce that backline, Como brought in Trevoh Chalobah from Chelsea for 30 million euros, and managed to hold on to its top talent, attacking midfielder Nico Paz. The question now is whether its young squad, most of them with no experience in European competition, can handle the double workload of league and Champions League play.