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The renaissance of Scott McTominay has been nothing short of wondrous. From being Jose Mourinho's hill to flog Paul Pogba to a PSR blue chip, the midfielder's Mediterranean glow-up was beyond anything we imagined: Ray-Bans and espresso in hand certainly suits him.
We were all quick to question Manchester United: to pinpoint quite how toxic Carrington really is for McTominay to rise from white elephant to golden goose so effortlessly.
Perhaps we should've looked closer at Italy.
Perhaps Inter Milan being destroyed 5-0 in the Champions League final was worse than it first appeared. Perhaps one World Cup victory for the national side since they last won the tournament – yep, over England – is more alarming than it seems. And perhaps no Italian side in the last-16 of the Champions League – as now looks likely – is to be expected.
Maybe those instances have been cherry-picked. After all, Italian football has enjoyed moments of glory since the Juventus monopoly ended.
Euro 2020. Inter in two Champions League finals; a Derby della Madonnina in the semi-final of the first. Gian Piero Gasperini had his time in the sun, crashing Bayer Leverkusen's Invincible Treble parade in 2024. Fiorentina made two straight Conference League finals. Gianluigi Donnarumma is the best goalkeeper on Earth; Riccardo Calafiori, Sandro Tonali and Alessandro Bastoni are among the finest footballers on the planet. There are talents emerging to hang your hat on, though these are mostly defenders: Marco Palestra has world-class potential, Giorgio Scalvini has recovered well from an anterior cruciate ligament injury and Honest Ahanor is clearly one for the future.
But if the state of Italian football in 2026 isn't alarming, bells are sounding anyway, right now. No Italian side in the last-16 of the Champions League. And the team top of Serie A, by 10 whole points, knocked out by a Norwegian side in preseason.
“It is only about their performance, it’s never about the result.”@Nicocantor1 heaps praise on Bodø/Glimt’s determination and resilience, which helped them pull off a magical #UCL run ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/3QjeYIbPSoFebruary 25, 2026
“They had a comfort – mentally, physically – knowing that we needed to score two goals,” Inter boss Cristian Chivu remarked post-match. “Second half, they had more energy than us. We lost our focus, we made some mistakes. We give [them] credit and congratulate our opponents because they were better than us in two games.”
Yes, Bodo/Glimt deserve credit: they have beaten Manchester City and Atletico Madrid this season. But it's difficult not to draw conclusions on Inter from the tie.
Before kick-off, Ronaldo and Christian Vieri reunited in front of the Curva Sud to receive Inter shirts and to deliver the San Siro a slice of nostalgia. Both were world record transfers for the Nerazzuri: the former won the Ballon d'Or and the World Cup Golden Boot as an Inter man, while the latter has still netted more World Cup goals than any other Italian.
Clearly, two decades ago is already a bygone era. It's hard to imagine an Italian setting goalscoring records at the 2026 World Cup, let alone a Serie A star challenging for the Ballon d'Or.
“Inter are the best in Italy, but maybe it is time to think not about what can happen in one or two years, but about 10 or 15 years," Italian journalist Vincenzo Credendino offered. “And on that side, we can see generally Italian football is not on the same level of top European leagues.
“What does it say about Italian football? That something needs to be changed.
"The level of Italian football is poor. It is a structural issue. We play very slow football. You can ask any manager in Italy and they will all say the same.”
Italian coaching is an insular culture
In the 21st Century, only two overseas managers have won a Scudetto. The last was Jose Mourinho in his pomp with Inter Milan – coincidentally, the last time that an Italian side tasted glory in the Champions League, with four final defeats since. The other was Sven-Goran Eriksson, right at the start of the 2000s.
It is proof of an insular culture. Italian coaching, however, is perhaps due a revolution.
Antonio Conte is a genuine Serie A legend, his achievements standing among any coach on the continent right now: but he is anachronistic in a way, his style contingent on recycling discarded parts of other superteams – and not only is the long-term viability of such football continually tested in the modern game, his record in Europe is consistently troubling. Looking at, arguably, the next three big names in Italian management, Simone Inzaghi and Roberto Mancini, are both in the Middle East, while Carlo Ancelotti is living it up in Rio. Gasperini rounds off the top five, and he has Roma fourth – but he's 68, and with all due respect, is not the future of the game.
Other notable Italian coaches aren't influenced all that much by Italian football. Enzo Maresca has enjoyed success, relatively, in England: but his only spell managing in his homeland lasted 14 games. De Zerbi is cut from a similar cloth, his suitability at the top level currently up for debate after a blowout in southern France. Thiago Motta was superb at Bologna, not so good at Juventus.
The recent guard, who you may consider traditional Calcio men, are no longer considered elite. Max Allegri is back at Milan, still second in the league, but no longer linked with top jobs. Stefano Pioli is now 60, his last title, in 2022, probably his last. Vincenzo Italiano is talented, if not cut out for the top. Maurizio Sarri is back at Lazio, perhaps suggesting the same.
It is of little surprise that Italian clubs, these days, are looking to up-and-coming talent from overseas in the quest for an edge: Cesc Fabregas, Carlos Cuesta, and Chivu himself. Fabregas, meanwhile, hasn't pulled punches about the state of the game in Italy, noting that Spain is “obsessed” with youth compared to Italy.
Spanish coaching seems to be en vogue these days, and Fabregas seems destined for a big Premier League move sooner rather than later. The English top flight has been won by Italian managers more times since its rebrand in 1992 than any other nationality – but it would have seemed utterly ludicrous for huge swathes of Prem history for the Azzurri national team captain to be playing his club football in England.
Calcio is due for a restructure, as other countries have realised during their own nadirs. It took Germany crashing out of Euro 2000 and getting thumped 5-1 in Munich when even Heskey scored for Die Mannschaft to recalibrate. England, in turn, failed to qualify for the Euros eight years later, and reacted by pumping investment into the future.
It's now three decades, meanwhile, since Football Italia was deemed the ultimate cool of the continent; slightly longer since Italia ‘90, the colosseums of that halcyon summer month – the San Siro, Delle Alpi and Olimpico included – now either crumbling, torn down or since abandoned altogether.
Italian football, too, is crumbling, in need of tearing down and starting again. Bodo/Glimt is a low – who knows what the next will be.
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