Serie A's managerial merry-go-round aims to end Inter's reign

Serie A returns this weekend with a familiar question hanging over the new campaign: can anyone stop Inter Milan? According to the Guardian's Serie A preview, the league's challengers have answered with a reshuffle of the dugout, as Milan, Napoli and Atalanta all begin the season with new head coaches, hoping a change of leadership can end Inter's recent dominance.

The Guardian's preview frames the season as a response to what Italian football's observers have called a 'third apocalypse' — the national team's failure to qualify for the World Cup, which the paper's Rome correspondent described in April as a moment of reckoning for the sport in the country. The hope, the preview suggests, is that a more competitive title race can restore the league's standing both at home and abroad.

Inter, for their part, have not stood still. The BBC reported this week that the champions have agreed a deal worth €35 million (£30m) with Liverpool for midfielder Curtis Jones, a signing that signals intent to build on their domestic success rather than rest on it.