5 bold predictions for the 2015-16 Serie A season

Every year, Serie A offers up something crazy. Maybe it's a player running to hug and kiss his grandmother in the stands after scoring a goal, or maybe it's a 38-year-old topping the scoring charts. Regardless, Italy always serves up a show on and off the pitch.

And this year should be no exception.

Here are five bold predictions for the 2015-16 Serie A season:

Juventus to win a record fifth consecutive title

It's not going to be as easy as before, but Juventus should defend its Serie A crown.

A fifth consecutive Scudetto would make Juve just the second Italian club to achieve the feat.

It's a slightly different cast from the teams of recent glory - Andrea Pirlo, Carlos Tevez, and Arturo Vidal all left for new adventures abroad - but the players at coach Massimiliano Allegri's disposal are still world class.

Juve enhanced the defence with the €26-million signing of Alex Sandro on Thursday after already re-tooling the offence with Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala.

Plus, there's always Paul Pogba. Now with the No. 10 on his back, expect the 22-year-old Frenchman to dominate the midfield and score ridiculous goals from long range.

AC Milan to make the Champions League

Two years outside the most famous club competition in the world is enough. AC Milan spent more than €80 million this summer to ensure it doesn't happen again.

The Rossoneri last played a Champions League game in March 2014. With an improved squad, it should ensure a top-three spot in Serie A this season.

Milan signed one important player in each position - striker Carlos Bacca, midfielder Andrea Bertolacci, and defender Alessio Romagnoli - with the ambition of putting last season's disastrous 10th-place finish behind it.

The most important signing, however, is probably on the bench. Sinisa Mihajlovic is a coach who preaches discipline and hard work - the first ingredients of success.

Carlos Bacca to finish as top scorer

Bacca is a bit of late bloomer. He arrived in Europe in 2012 as a relative unknown from Colombia, and just three years later he's transformed into one of the most dangerous goal poachers on the continent.

Bacca has surpassed the 20-goal mark for his clubs Club Brugge and Sevilla over the past three years, and he should do the same at Milan.

His shooting accuracy last season was the best in Europe, according to Opta, and it's exactly the kind of finishing Milan desperately needs.

It took only 22 goals to make Inter's Mauro Icardi and Hellas Verona's Luca Toni the top scorers of the past Serie A campaign. If that's the benchmark, Bacca should at least challenge them for the crown.

Roberto Mancini to be fired first

There is a lot of pressure on Inter Milan to succeed after a summer of spending, and coach Roberto Mancini has little room for error. A month or two of poor results and he's gone.

Mancini won just 36 percent of games last season following his re-hiring in November. Inter struggled with consistency as the quality on the pitch just wasn't there.

Now the squad has reinforcements: it made key defensive signings in Jeison Murillo and Miranda, solving one of the club's biggest problems. The departure of Mateo Kovacic to Real Madrid may hurt Inter in the long run, but it still has the highly rated Geoffrey Kondogbia and Marcelo Brozovic to marshal the midfield.

There are no excuses this time, so Mancini will feel the heat early.

Torino to push for the top 5

Coming off back-to-back top-table finishes, Torino is quietly cementing itself as real threat in Serie A.

Life in the shadow of Juventus is rough, but last season Torino showed its might, beating their cross-city rival for the first time in 20 years and scoring three goals against Athletic Bilbao at the impregnable San Mames to eliminate them from the Europa League.

Though Torino is now without Matteo Darmian, who joined Manchester United, coach Giampiero Ventura has recovered from critical losses before. He managed to keep his squad competitive despite losing Ciro Immobile, Serie A's top scorer from 2013-14.

There are also many exciting young players on the squad. Torino brought in 21-year-old Andrea Belotti from Palermo and 23-year-olds Davide Zappacosta and Daniele Baselli from Atalanta, giving one of the older groups in Serie A some fresh legs.