Serie A preview: Napoli title favourites but face renewed challenge from rivals

From his outpost on the island of Sardinia, Claudio Ranieri says he is "closing a circle". This most worldly of football coaches, architect of Leicester City’s stunning English Premier League title of 2016, ex manager of numerous clubs in Italy, Spain, England and France, is back in top flight football. He is 71, the wise man of a Serie A season that begins this weekend.

The Ranieri circle at Cagliari is, like that Leicester story, a fairytale within a remarkable career. Thirty-three years ago, he was a young coach who guided Cagliari to successive promotions and into Italy’s top division. In June he repeated that ascent, a dramatic feat given that back in December, when Ranieri was offered his 22nd coaching job, the Cagliari who had turned to him sat 14th in Serie B.

Ranieri hoisted them upwards, and back from 2-0 down in their play-off semi-final against Parma, claiming the last remaining spot in the top division of Italy with an injury-time goal against Bari in June’s promotion play-off final. Ranieri shed tears of joy.

Back in 1990, when he last took Cagliari into a top-tier campaign, Italy had the sport’s most glamorous league. It drew Europe’s best stars, its stadiums had just hosted a World Cup. Its defences were wrought out of iron, goals notoriously hard to come by. Goalkeepers were still allowed to handle passes from the feet of outfield colleagues. Tackles were brutal. It was still three decades before VAR started elevating the number of penalties.

The Serie A Ranieri revisits for this bonus - and perhaps final - return, is very different. The budgets of its clubs now fall way behind their peers in the Premier League and the monied elites of Germany, France, Spain and Saudi Arabia, but Ranieri can detect a