Serie A Preview: Capello Analyzes Juventus and Milan's Challenges Against Inter
Fabio Capello has seen too many title races to be seduced by summer optimism. With less than two weeks to go before Serie A kicks off, he looks at the landscape and sees one certainty.
Inter are still out in front. By some distance.
In his column for La Gazzetta dello Sport, the former Milan and Juventus coach painted a stark picture of the gap at the top of Italian football, warning that the chasm between the champions and their two historic rivals is not one that can be closed with a couple of late-August signings.
“The distance between them (Milan and Juventus) and Inter, the champions of Italy, seems difficult to bridge in such a short space of time,” he wrote. It is not a throwaway line. It is a diagnosis.
Juventus: Not yet a Spalletti team, and one big problem
Capello’s reading of Juventus is blunt. Luciano Spalletti’s imprint, the structure and automatic movements that defined his previous sides, is not yet visible.
“Juventus don’t yet seem like a Luciano Spalletti side to me,” Capello observed, before turning the knife into the most sensitive area of the squad. The goalkeeper.
“Juve still has a big problem and that is the goalkeeper,” he wrote. “I say that with all due respect to Michele Di Gregorio, but his situation seems irreversible to me.”
The club have moved with intent in attack, and Capello likes what he sees from the new faces Randal Kolo Muani and Kerim Alajbegovic. They add power, depth, options. But behind them, the foundations still look shaky. For Capello, the priority is clear: fix the defence, and above all, fix the man between the posts.
Several names have been floated. Zion Suzuki has been linked as a possible loan option if he completes a move from Parma to PSG, a solution that would fit the idea of a short-term “buffer” before major investment next summer. Capello, though, has a different name in mind.
“Many names have been mentioned and from what I've seen, the Old Lady might prefer a ‘buffer’ option, postponing the spending until next summer. So, if a no.1 comes in on loan, I have no doubts about who to bet on: Vicario at Tottenham.
“The reason is simple. Compared to Suzuki, the Italian has already shown that he performs well at big clubs, like he has done in London.”
In other words: Juventus do not have time for experiments. They need guarantees.
Milan: A construction site with no clear blueprint
If Juventus look incomplete, Milan look unsettled.
“Milan look like an open construction site: only the work in progress sign is missing, yet the start of the Serie A season is just around the corner,” Capello wrote. The metaphor fits. Scaffolding up, plans half-drawn, workers still arriving on site.
What troubles him most is not just the lack of a defined starting XI under Ruben Amorim, but the timing and attitude around key figures. The decision by Mike Maignan and Adrien Rabiot to extend their holidays until a week before the season has set off alarm bells.
“Milan are still waiting for two big names in Maignan and Rabiot – by the way, I didn't like the news of their return being delayed by four days at all,” Capello admitted. For a coach who built his career on discipline and standards, that detail matters.
The new signings are barely in the picture either. “The new signings Gila and Ramos haven't been seen much either, nor has the clear starting XI that Amorim will have in mind.” Pre-season should be the laboratory where ideas are tested and automatisms are forged. Instead, Milan feel to him like a team still searching for the basic outline.
And then there is Rafael Leao.
Capello senses a storm gathering around the Portuguese star, whose public flirting with the Premier League has not gone unnoticed.
“I get the impression that there's still a bit of confusion around the Rossoneri, starting with Rafael Leao's situation. Rafa overestimated himself by publicly calling for the Premier League and, if he stays, I would be wary of the San Siro reaction to the first time he fails to run.”
That is a sharp warning. Milan’s crowd is passionate, demanding, and quick to judge perceived lack of commitment. One lazy press, one half-hearted sprint, and the atmosphere could turn. For a new coach like Amorim, that kind of tension around his marquee forward is the last thing he needs.
Inter in control, rivals racing the clock
All of this plays directly into Inter’s hands. While the Nerazzurri refine, Juventus and Milan are still assembling. The calendar does not wait.
The Corriere dello Sport front page this week claimed that the top Serie A clubs are collectively “missing” around 20 starters with less than a fortnight to go. Capello agrees with the underlying concern: too many unresolved issues, not enough time.
He is not writing off the season for Milan and Juventus. He is not saying the Scudetto race is over before it starts. But he is clear about the starting grid.
Inter are on pole. The others are still in the pits.
For Milan, everything now hinges on clarity: on the next meeting between Gerry Cardinale and Amorim, on a defined market strategy, on hard decisions around Leao and the late-returning leaders. “I hope that the next meeting between Cardinale and Amorim will bring some order and provide the right boost to sort things out on the market heading into the final 20 days,” Capello concluded.
The clock is ticking. Inter can hear it too, but for them it sounds like a countdown to a title defence. For Juventus and Milan, it sounds more like an alarm.
