When the book is written on Napoli’s fourth league title, Antonio Conte will likely be front and centre on the cover.

This Scudetto has been largely shaped and defined by the former Juventus, Inter Milan and Chelsea coach, a serial winner who is now out on his own after securing the Italian title with three different clubs. Fabio Capello claimed four with AC Milan and one with Roma but the two he led Juventus to, in 2005 and 2006, were revoked in the wake of the Calciopoli scandal.

But let’s be perfectly honest here, very few expected the Scudetto to return to Naples after just a two-year absence. Especially not in the aftermath of Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s departures over the past 12 months.

This iteration of Napoli is far from the 2023 side that romped to the title under Luciano Spalletti, but the real difference maker, the star, is Conte. 

Conte’s success with Napoli this season ranks among his greatest achievements, right up there with his first Scudetto with Juventus in 2011-12 and guiding perhaps the worst Italy squad in living memory to the quarter-final of Euro 2016.

Yet when it comes right down to it, Conte can only do so much for his players. Ultimately, someone has to put the ball in the net.

If the 1987 and 1990 titles were defined by Diego Maradona’s genius and the 2023 Scudetto by the three pillars of Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia and Kim Min-Jae, then Scott McTominay and Romelu Lukaku are the figureheads of this one.

It was them who settled the nerves against Cagliari, scoring either side of half-time, first the Scotland international then the big Belgian. For Lukaku, this is his second Serie A title, four years after the first. He was then in very different colours, and was a very different player. 

The Belgian rifled in 24 goals from 36 games in 2020-21 to end Inter Milan’s 11-year title drought. 

That edition of the Nerazzurri was made for Lukaku, Conte built his team around the striker and instructed his players to service him at all times.

Lukaku’s initial spell at Inter represented his apex: 64 goals in all competitions across two seasons is an almighty return. 

There is a sense that since that move to Chelsea in the summer of 2021, Lukaku was restless, a feeling that he needed a reunion with Conte somewhere down the line. 

A return to San Siro in 2022 flattered to deceive, with his inadvertent block costing Inter an equaliser in the 2023 Champions League final in Istanbul the abiding memory.

Conte’s successor at Inter, Simone Inzaghi, did not rate Lukaku to the same degree, preferring an ageing Edin Dzeko.

Lukaku spent last season on loan at Roma and while he scored goals, he appeared a lost soul, a man without a home.

Until Conte came calling again to join him in Naples.

“He is an atypical centre-forward,” Conte said of the Belgian. “Usually, with that sort of physique, players are slow. But he has great legs, powerful, very fast.”

A sort of father-son, or mentor-apprentice, relationship developed between the pair over time.

“He is a good guy, a good person,” remarked Conte. “I’d put my hand in the fire for him.”

The feelings are entirely reciprocated. Speaking of Conte and their dynamic, Lukaku told CRC Radio: “I can open up to him on a personal level.” 

On a professional level, Lukaku was effusive: “He’s always attentive to the details, he cares about every movement, every play in defence and attack.” 

Lukaku has stated that Conte improved his mental strength, and said his thoroughness means “we are so well-prepared that you can’t make mistakes; this responsibility is something I really enjoy.”

At 32 but with a lot of mileage on the clock, Lukaku is no longer the explosive striker he was even just a few years ago. He has modified his game this season, working more outside the box and feeding others. 

He has scored 14 times this term but whereas in the past it might have been quantity over quality, this season has been the opposite.

He scored winners against Roma, Juventus, Atalanta and AC Milan and the opener against Fiorentina. But his greatest contribution to the title win has been assists. The Lukaku of old, the one who ran the channels and was blistering in counter attacks, has been replaced by a more bullish and selfless figure. 

This season no one in Serie A has more assists than Lukaku’s 10. 

Always a powerhouse insofar as his ability to hold on to the ball while fielding off defenders, Lukaku has relied more on this element than in previous years.

It is something Conte has always tried to coax out of the Belgian, stressing the importance of knowing how to “hold the ball up, exchange it with his more talented team-mates”.

Yet he was not always a fan of playing this way.

“Playing with my back to goal,” the striker confessed to Il Corriere dello Sport recently, “Conte was very clear. ‘If you don’t improve this aspect, you can’t play with me’. No alternatives. 

“I have to thank him because what used to be my weakness turned into a strength.”

Think back to games against Cagliari, Como and Empoli. Lukaku dragged defenders out of position, allowing McTominay, Frank-Zambo Anguissa and others to run in behind. 

Six assists were produced in those three games. All but one of them was outside the box. 

Ahead of the final round of Serie A games, of the 800 touches of the ball Lukaku had this season, only 150 were inside the box. 

For the Belgian, Conte is that coach.

“Every player has that one coach that changes their career. Cristiano Ronaldo had [Sir Alex] Ferguson, [Lionel] Messi had [Pep] Guardiola, [Didier] Drogba had [Jose] Mourinho. I like to think that we’re like Phil Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal.”

As for McTominay, has there been a more impactful signing in Serie A this season? The Scottish midfielder is in the form of his life, his impact so immediate he is the most popular player in the city. 

Finally playing under a coach who utilises his talent correctly, McTominay has a licence to push forward and score goals by making late surges into the box. 

In essence, he has become the de facto striker if Lukaku drops deep when in possession. 

The 28-year-old morphed into a clutch player for Napoli in the final weeks of the campaign: five goals in three games against Empoli, Monza and Torino and two assists against Genoa kept Napoli apace with Inter.

Nicknamed ‘McFratm’ (McBro) by team-mates, a play on the Italian word ‘fratello’ (brother) and ‘bottle opener’ by fans, McTominay won the hearts of Neapolitans long before the title was secured. 

McTominay was, in many respects, the icing on the cake for Conte’s engine room. Anguissa and Stanislav Lobotka, both pivotal in the 2023 title, remained at the heart of the midfield. 

While Anguissa ferried up and down and Lobotka was the Andres Iniesta-like conductor from deep, McTominay’s combative and marauding nature complemented the two.

A replacement for Piotr Zielinski, McTominay is more prolific and Conte pivoted from his trademark 3-5-2 system in order to fit the Scot into a formation that brought the best out of him.

There are shades of Claudio Marchisio in McTominay. Marchisio, who in Conte’s first season as Juve boss, thrived in a 4-3-3 and scored nine goals from midfield as they lifted an unlikely Scudetto ahead of a better side from Milan.

Sounds familiar. 

Pizzas have been created in McTominay’s honour; tattoos have been inked with his number eight and, of course, this being Naples, murals have sprung up across the city. Scottish fans have made the jaunt over to see him in action.

With 12 goals and six assists, McTominay has been Scotland’s greatest player in Serie A since Denis Law in the early 1960s. Conte believes he is now a “complete player.”

Having won Player of the Month for April, McTominay capped his remarkable campaign by being named Serie A’s Player of the Season for his role in securing Napoli’s fourth league title.

Conte’s fingerprints are all over this Napoli title win, but without his two sergeants in Lukaku and McTominay, it would never have been possible.