Italian football is enjoying a renaissance and is in a good moment, says Arrigo Sacchi

Paddy Agnew finds out that Italian football is in a good place again, according to former AC Milan and Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi.

The other day, the former AC Milan and Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi suggested that Italian football is “currently experiencing one of the best moments of its recent history”.

Sacchi’s opinion, expressed in his weekly Gazzetta Dello Sport column, certainly prompts tantilising thoughts.

Most of us have already worked out that potentially this will be an intriguing, different campionato, far removed from many of the last decade when first Inter and then Juventus dominated all before them.

As we come to the turn of the year, at least four clubs – Napoli, Inter Milan, Fiorentina and Juventus – look like serious championship contenders.

Eternal optimists might want to add AS Roma or AC Milan to that list but, frankly, there are serious doubts over both.

Nothing more effectively highlights the “different” feel to this season’s Serie A than the fact that this weekend, for the first time in 25 years, Napoli are back on top, following on from their 2-1 defeat of Inter Milan on Monday night.

Curiously, however, Sacchi sees this as a “best moment” not only because, for once, we are not rounding up the usual suspects but also because of the more varied, more positive quality of football being played by the Napoli-Inter-Fiorentina-Juve quartet.

Arguably, Sacchi knows a lot more about football than most of us. You do not win two Champions Leagues with AC Milan and take Italy to a World Cup final (lost to Brazil in 1994) without knowing something about the game.

His opinion adds authoritative weight to the sensation many of us have had – namely that sides like the above four are beginning to play some very good football.

On top of that, when the new league leaders happen to be Napoli, then an ecstasy of passionate support is only to be expected.

Three months ago, 13,000 people turned up at the San Paolo to see Napoli thump Belgian club Bruges 5-0 in the Europa League. On Monday night, over 54,000 people were there for a 2-1 win over Inter that should have been comprehensive but which, in the end, saw a 10 man Inter hit the post twice in the fourth minute of time added-on.

The Napoli bandwagon, more than competently led by coach Maurizio Sarri, has definitely started to roll. If nothing else, this will be a great Christmas for those traders who sell figures for the traditional neapolitan Christmas crib. Baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary are going to face serious competition from versions of Higuain, Reina, Insigne and indeed Sarri.

Where Sacchi has a point, however, is that all four teams play good football. Fiorentina, with a fluid, often one touch passing game that revolves around Spanish schemer, Borja Valero, regularly look like the most attractive side in the land. Napoli, with a solid defence and the best striker in Serie A in the person of Gonzalo Higuain, deserve to be top.

Inter, in the hands of a wizard coach such as Roberto Mancini and with one of the strongest squads in Italy, proved their class the other night with a comeback from 2-0 down to frighten Napoli.

Finally, and by no means least, the Old Lady Juventus, already qualified for the second round of the Champions League, picked up a fourth consecutive Serie A win, 3-0 away to Palermo, last weekend to remind us that she has definitely not gone away.

Sacchi suggests that for all the brilliance of the work that they have done, both Fiorentina’s Portuguese coach Paulo Sousa and Napoli’s Sarri could, in the end, lose out to Juventus and Inter because they simply do not have same overall squad size and strength as their northern rivals. He has a point. Fiorentina without Valero or Napoli without Higuain could be in serious difficulty.

Sacchi also suggests that both Napoli and Fiorentina tired in their games last week, primarily because both sides have to field very much the same starting XI in their Serie A and Europa League campaigns.

In contrast, Juve coach Massmiliano Allegri, for example, can “rotate” four first choice strikers in Croat Mario Mandzukic, Argentine Paulo Dybala, Spaniard Alvaro Morata and Simone Zaza.

Perhaps, the best thing about Sacchi’s good “moment” is that, for once with regard to Italian football, we are not talking crowd trouble, match-fixing, racism or mafia infiltration.

Those, and other, problems clearly still exist but at least they have taken a back seat in the face of a vibrant championship contest.