Seven years ago, Como were in Italy's fourth division. This season, they're hosting Manchester United and PSG in the Champions League. Beating Napoli at the Maradona on Sunday wasn't the start of this story — it was confirmation that the story is real.
What Cesc Fabregas has built at Como isn't a fluke propped up by a fortunate fixture run. Finishing fourth last season — ahead of both Juventus and AC Milan — to claim the final Champions League spot came through a system that is genuinely difficult to play against. High pressing in Serie A is still rare enough to be disorienting. Fabregas has weaponized that. Against Napoli, relentless pressure forced a turnover that produced the winning goal. It's a repeatable method, not a moment of inspiration.
The one thing standing between Como and chaos
The structural problem is real, and Fabregas isn't pretending otherwise. Anastasios Douvikas is Como's entire attacking identity. He tied for second in Serie A scoring last season, has two goals in two matches this season, and is now essentially the only recognized center forward at the club after Alvaro Morata's loan departure following an injury-ravaged year.
"Playing every three days at this level isn't easy," Fabregas said. That's an understatement for a club navigating Serie A, Coppa Italia, and the Champions League simultaneously with one striker carrying the load.
Como's move for Fiorentina's Moise Kean in the closing hours of the transfer window isn't ambition — it's arithmetic. One centre forward cannot cover three competitions across a compressed schedule. If Douvikas picks up a knock, the entire system loses its anchor. Any odds built around Como's attacking output need that injury risk priced in.
The numbers behind the project
Indonesian billionaire brothers Michael and Robert Hartono have backed this with over $151 million in summer investment — second only to Juventus in Italian spending this window. Nico Paz, one of the league's most dangerous young playmakers, was retained. The squad isn't assembled randomly.
The Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium had to be modified just to host European football and will still hold barely 10,000 fans when Manchester United come to town. That image — a small lakeside ground hosting the reigning European champions — captures the oddity and the ambition simultaneously. This isn't a sleeping giant waking up. It's a club building infrastructure, identity, and continental credibility in real time, under the biggest lights it has ever faced in its 119-year history.
Whether Como can sustain this beyond the opening weeks hinges almost entirely on solving the striker equation before the window closes. The method works. The table proves it. The squad depth doesn't yet.
