If trophies were awarded for chaos then Italy would have won the last three World Cups with ease instead of missing them altogether.

As they embark on yet another rebuild, the four-times world champions have probably ended up in the right place, with Euro 2020-winning coach Roberto Mancini back in charge. Naturally, there has been conflict, confusion and high farce along the journey.

The next road is the toughest – turning Italy into a global force again. It all starts on Friday, when Belgium are the opponents in Rome for Italy’s Nations League opener and the start of Mancini’s second stint in charge.

Mancini knows he is lucky to have another chance. Three years ago, the 61-year-old quit suddenly and accepted a huge contract to take charge of Saudi Arabia, leaving Italy in the lurch. Many supporters have never forgiven him and the Serie A clubs were not keen on having him back either. They wanted Antonio Conte, not Mancini, to lead the revival.

It certainly helps to have influential supporters. Mancini and Italian FA boss Giovanni Malago’ knew each other and even played for the same five-a-side football team in Rome. Their association won’t count for much if Mancini blows the Nations League campaign – or if Malago’ finds himself out of a job due to a procedural technicality.

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Who will drive the new era?

Mancini has made clear he wants to place faith in young players but given the lack of opportunities for Italian prospects in Serie A, he has had to cast his net wider.

That has meant first call-ups for Issa Doumbia, a star of the Sporting Lisbon midfield, and Mohamed Ali Zoma, who has been scoring freely for Nuremberg in the German second tier. Both are 22.

Mancini also pinched Alessandro Romano, 20, from under the noses of Switzerland, where he was born, and believes the multilingual Cagliari midfielder can be the Azzurri’s answer to Rodri. He is still fighting Jurgen Klopp for Germany Under 21 forward Nicolo’ Tresoldi, who was born in Italy.

Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma captains the side and along with Nicolo Barella, is one of only two survivors from the Euro 2020 Final win over England at Wembley likely to start on Friday. Premier League trio Michael Kayode, who should make his debut, Riccardo Calafiori and Sandro Tonali are set to be included, with the 21-year-old Francesco Pio Esposito, of Inter Milan, the first-choice centre-forward.

Esposito is similar to 2006 World Cup winner Luca Toni and already has five goals in nine appearances for Italy. His elder brother, Sebastiano, is in the squad for the first time, but ‘Pio’ generates far more excitement.

How did we get here?

Lazio midfielder Davide Frattesi admitted this week that the failure to reach last summer’s World Cup was still ‘an open wound’ for Italy.

That penalty shoot-out defeat by Bosnia-Herzegovina in March cost Gennaro Gattuso his job and once Malago was elected president of the Italian FA, Mancini’s chances of reclaiming the role he abandoned spiked dramatically.

Had Mancini been re-appointed immediately, it would have been controversial enough. Instead, Italian football had another trick up its sleeve.

After a long courtship, Malago made AC Milan and Italy great Paolo Maldini the FA’s technical director, with former Brazil international Leonardo as special adviser. The pair lasted 16 days.

Their fanciful attempt to hire Pep Guardiola was followed by a bizarre move for Andrea Pirlo, one of Italy’s finest players but in the wilderness as a coach since Juventus sacked him five years ago.

Things moved quickly from there: Pirlo’s alleged ties to a Russian betting company were unearthed, the 47-year-old ruled himself out of contention and Maldini and Leonardo promptly walked out. Their replacement is Claudio Ranieri, Premier League-winning manager with Leicester in 2016 and one of Italian football’s most respected figures.

Maldini is a huge name in Italian football and a capable executive but his departure is not the loss it may seem. The attempt to hire Guardiola felt foolish; the switch to Pirlo illogical. For this role, Mancini is surely a better fit than either, despite the reasonable misgivings.

What next?

Life is never calm. The role of Malago’ is now in question, as politicians ponder whether he should ever have been eligible to become president.

Any candidate must be a member of the Italian FA to stand for election, and it is unclear whether Malago’ was at the time of the vote.

In the end, executives come and go. The results of the senior team will always set the tone for the whole movement and the sooner Italy’s clubs realise it the quicker the national team will be revived.

The excellent @XtraAzzurri social media account records how many Italians start in Serie A each weekend. In the last round of matches, it was barely 25 per cent.

In a recent match between Juventus and Milan, two of Italy’s greatest clubs, Juve midfielder Manuel Locatelli was the only Italian among the 20 outfield starters. Cesc Fabregas says all the right things about picking Italians for his impressive Como side but there are none in his ideal XI. Roma discarded Romano last summer and Napoli boss Max Allegri speaks about attacker Antonio Vergara, who should make his Italy debut in this break, as though he is still an academy player taking his first steps in the professional game. Vergara turns 24 in January.

Mancini is the right man to challenge this. As a brilliant player in the 1980s and 1990s and then a fine coach, Mancini has never been scared of upsetting his peers or bosses. Do not forget that when he first became coach, Italy had failed to qualify for Russia 2018. Three years later, they were European champions.

Mancini was responsible for Italy missing Qatar 2022 yet his side had freakishly bad luck at times in that campaign. Ever the optimist, Mancini will expect fortune to smile on him again.