Serie A 2016-17 preview: Can anyone stop a Juventus six-peat?

The 2016-17 Italian Serie A season is a bit of a farce, as it has been for the past few years if we’re honest. Juventus has won the Italian domestic league title five years running.

Added to that, Juventus raided the best players off the second- and third-place teams from a season ago, seemingly funding the transfers via the record sale of midfielder Paul Pogba to Manchester United. Following a memorable season where Gonzalo Higuain set the new Serie A record for goals in a season, Napoli sold off the Argentine striker to the champions for an Italian record fee of $98.9 million. Talented playmakers Miralem Pjanic left third-place AS Roma for Turin in similar fashion, though the Bosnia-Herzegovina midfielder only cost Juve about a third as much as Higuain.

In truth, Juventus not winning the league would be utterly shocking.

Inter Milan finished fourth a season ago, though that was not good enough for the Champions League due to Italy’s weak UEFA coefficient. Inter fell a full 13 points back of that targeted third place, so manager Roberto Mancini got a red slip with Dutchman Frank de Boer arriving to take over the storied club struggling to return to prominence.

Inter secured the services of play making midfielder Ever Banega on a free transfer and also notably brought in winger Antonio Candreva from Lazio. Banega is an inspired capture which could help Inter regain its footing after last finishing in the Champions League spots in the 2010-11 season. The change in manager and the improvements to the squad hint that Inter could be in the race for Europe, which is the best 19 of the 20 teams can hope for. Challenging Juventus is simply not realistic.

At Roma, manager Luciano Spaletti has Francesco Totti back for another year, and the dynamic between the coach and his captain is a bit odd, to say the least. Upon retirement, Totti is guaranteed a position as the club’s sporting director, so Spaletti is essentially tasked with coaching his own future boss. More than likely, Totti will be the man to one day fire Spaletti if the manager does well enough to keep his job for the duration of the season.

Beyond the odd Roma drama between manager and aging star, the club brought back Mohamed Salah, Edin Dzeko and Stephan El Shaarawy after all three attackers saw their loan deals expire. Also, the loss of Pjanic is tough to gloss over, though the club did pay a pretty penny for 19-year-old Brazilian attacking midfielder Gerson.

Roma, like Inter, is simply not up to the level of Juventus.

Napoli spent about a third of the money it received for Higuain on 22-year-old center forward Arkadiusz Milik, who scored 21 goals for Ajax in the Dutch Eredivisie during the previous campaign. Napoli has also added a bit of depth elsewhere, with the likes of center back Lorenzo Tonelli and central midfielder Piotr Zielinski, but the team from Naples is still comfortably behind Juventus. Consider that Higuain scored a league-record 36 goals for Napoli and Juve still won the league by nine points.

In truth, the 2015-16 Italian league was only a single-digit contest because Juventus started out with only three wins in its first 10 Serie A matches. Of the remaining 28 rounds, Juventus won 26, lost one and drew one. One can’t help but compare the 2015-16 Serie A title race to Usain Bolt’s 100-meter final run at the 2016 Olympics. He started slow and looked to be behind, but as the finish line approached, one could see that absolutely no one else had a chance of winning the race.

Though the Old Lady’s weight has never been clarified, we’ll assume she’s a well-fed woman given her heavy pasta and pizza diet. To start the season, the fat lady is already singing because Serie A is over before it begins. For Juventus, success in the Champions League will define this side more than yet another Serie A title.

Incidentally, another Serie A title would be a sixth straight league title — a feat that has not been accomplished by any team in any of Europe’s top four leagues. So, even if the 2016-17 domestic title is a mere formality, Juventus is set up for an historic, memorable season.

Note: A Serie A preview without AC Milan mentioned seems unreasonable, but Milan has been busier conducting business in the board room than in the transfer market. Milan finished seventh a year ago, and without any notable infusion of talent and cash as yet, Milan doesn’t merit much of a mention. The club will not take part in Europe and cannot possibly expect to contend with Juventus with the current squad. AC Milan has an outside shot at finishing in the top three because Carlos Bacca, Luiz Adriano, Keisuke Honda and M’Baye Niang are all capable of scoring goals on their days. The weak midfield, however, makes it tough to expect a sustained run from the storied club that plays its home matches at the famous San Siro stadium.

Shahan Ahmed is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow Shahan on Twitter:@ShahanLA and @perfectpass