This has been a bad winter for Inter who continued to fall behind in the race for Champions League slots following a 0-1 upset to Bologna at home on Sunday.
Victory was Bologna’s third on the road this season as they beat Inter at the San Siro for the second time in as many years.
Stefano Pioli’s Bologna are now 12th in the standings and almost safe from relegation. That was the club’s pre-set target in summer and it seems that the objective has now been reached.
Not the same can be said of Inter whose top-three target is now in jeopardy after conceding a third defeat in front of their own fans.
For sure, there is something wrong with Inter, joint-fifth with Lazio and four points adrift of third-placed Milan in the standings.
After a stuttering start, that included back-to-back home defeats to Roma (1-3) and Siena (0-2), many thought Inter had reached their peak following an impressive 3-1 victory at Juventus on the 11th day of the Serie A.
However, instead of building on that success, Inter fell into lethargy and were rather erratic ever since. That patch of inconsistency has seen Andrea Stramaccioni’s men taking a nose-dive in the standings.
With 10 games to go, Juventus are favourites to retain the league title after strengthening their lead at the top ahead of Napoli and Milan who are leading the chase for the other two Champions League slots.
Inter’s poor form of late has also brought them to the verge of elimination from the Europa League.
In last week’s Last 16 first leg, they suffered a heavy 0-3 away defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
Stramaccioni was reported as saying that his team can turn the tie around at the San Siro but realistically Inter need a miracle to outsmart the in-form Spurs and reach the quarter-finals.
That makes the Coppa Italia Inter’s only chance of winning any major silverware this season.
On April 17, they need to cancel a 1-2 first-leg defeat to Roma to reach the final against Lazio in May.
Jose Mourinho did the best thing when he left Inter on a high and himself as a winner in 2010.
His departure signalled a slide in the team’s fortunes as club chief Massimo Moratti failed to identify the right man to take over from the Portuguese coach.
These last three seasons, Inter had five coaches – Rafa Benitez, Leonardo, Gian Piero Gasperini, Claudio Ranieri and Stramaccioni. But results have been anything but satisfactory.
Moreover, Moratti has offloaded most of the club’s valid players – Julio Cesar, Maicon, Lucio, Sulley Muntari, Wesley Sneijder, Samuel Eto’o and Goran Pandev. These transfers were made to balance the club’s books in view of the new UEFA Financial Fair Play regu-lations.
Instead of replacing quality with quality, Inter opted for some average signings and the results are there for all to see.