Back in September 2017, Kevin De Bruyne fired home the winner as Manchester City beat Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge.

City had trounced Liverpool, Watford and Crystal Palace by an aggregate score of 16-0 in the previous three weeks, but victory in west London felt different.

Here at last was the football Pep Guardiola had wanted to play since arriving at the Etihad 12 months earlier in full flow, and at the home of the reigning champions, no less.

It was the goal that kick-started the Guardiola era at City in earnest.

The Spaniard had finished his first season in England empty handed, but would go on to win the Premier League and the Carabao Cup in his second term. Another 16 major trophies have followed since, with De Bruyne integral to them.

How fitting, then, that it was the Belgian who scored the winner in the game that truly announced City’s arrival under Guardiola.

And how fitting that Antonio Conte, the man who stood in the opposite dugout at Stamford Bridge eight years ago, will be De Bruyne’s manager next season.

In April, the 33-year-old announced he would leave Manchester as a free agent after 10 years at the Etihad and Napoli confirmed his signing on Thursday.

The Partenopei sold Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in January and while De Bruyne is clearly not a direct replacement for the Georgian, he will add plenty of creativity to Conte’s squad.

He will also be reunited with Belgium team-mate Romelu Lukaku, who scored 14 goals in Serie A last season and registered 10 assists, the most of any player in the division.

A €30million (£25m) signing from Chelsea in August, Lukaku transformed Napoli, scoring winners against Roma, Juventus, Atalanta and AC Milan and the goal that sealed the Scudetto in the final game of the season against Cagliari.

If Lukaku will relish transferring his partnership with De Bruyne from the international stage to club level, the sight of the Belgian playing alongside Scott McTominay, who also cost £25m last summer, will take some time getting used to.

Perhaps even more than Lukaku, the Scot was the figurehead of Napoli’s Scudetto, winning the Serie A MVP after scoring 12 goals and setting up six in an extraordinary debut season in Italy.

McTominay and De Bruyne were on opposite sides of the Manchester derby for seven seasons but will now be partners in Napoli’s midfield.

Such has been McTominay’s impact that he even forced Conte to abandon his favourite 3-5-2, which he began the season with, in favour of a 4-2-3-1 with the Scot almost playing the role of an auxiliary striker alongside Lukaku with Kvaratskhelia and David Neres tucking in.

The Brazilian and Kvaratskhelia were used as traditional wingers by the end of October as Conte switched to a 4-3-3 with McTominay operating as the most advanced in the midfield trio alongside Stanislav Lobotka and Frank Zambo-Anguissa.

Then came Kvaratskhelia’s departure in January, which prompted Conte to reshuffle his pack again, using McTominay as a box-crasher with a front two of Lukaku and Giacomo Raspadori.

De Bruyne’s arrival gives Conte new options. The Belgian could play as attacking midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 as he did under Guardiola at City, or he could slot in as a more traditional No 10 behind two strikers.

If he has the same impact of two of Napoli’s three Premier League arrivals last summer, then the Partenopei will have a great chance of retaining the title.

As ever, when it comes to signing players of De Bruyne’s calibre, there are questions.

At 33 years of age, he is clearly in the winter of his career and was in the starting XI for just 27 of his 40 appearances last season, with only 19 of those starts coming in the Premier League.

Injuries have steadily mounted for the Belgian, who missed seven weeks with a hamstring problem last season, just over a year after the same issue had sidelined him for three months.

The suggestion City would not have let peak De Bruyne go is not without merit either.

Then there is a wider discourse about the direction of travel in Italian football. What does it say about the state of calcio that the reigning Serie A champions signed a 33-year-old De Bruyne on a free transfer just a day after City spent £46m to sign Tijjani Reijnders?

Arguably AC Milan’s best player last season, the Dutchman is six years younger than De Bruyne and will replace him at the Etihad. 

And yet, while those are legitimate concerns, the flipside of the coin is that Napoli may have got themselves a bargain. Far more importantly, they have signed one of the exceptional midfielders of the modern era.

Since signing from Wolfsburg in 2015, De Bruyne made 422 appearances for City in all competitions, scoring 108 goals and registering 177 assists. 

He was named Premier League player of the season in 2019-20 and 2021-22, one of only four players to win the award twice after Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo and Nemanja Vidic.

He is, in short, a true great.

Eight years ago, De Bruyne’s goal kick-started Guardiola’s era at City. At Napoli, he may just be the catalyst to propel Conte to more silverware.