Those Inter fans who thought that Udinese were the right opponents for their team to beat and return to winning ways after a four-match winless run were proved wrong.
On Sunday, the northeasterners came from a goal down to beat Inter 2-1 at the San Siro to make it two wins in successive years following the 5-2 victory at the same venue in May 2013. Incidentally, that defeat had marked current Udinese coach Andrea Stramaccioni’s last game in charge at Inter.
Following that, Stramaccioni was replaced by Walter Mazzarri. He lasted 17 months before making way for Roberto Mancini who made a return to Inter after a six-year absence.
Sunday’s defeat – Inter’s second home upset of the term following the 1-4 mauling at the hands of relegation-threatened Cagliari on the fifth day – left the Nerazzurri 12th, nine points adrift of third-placed Genoa.
Inter only managed a single point out of a possible nine since Mancini took over in mid-November, suggesting that the new coach had failed to leave an impact.
These statistics amply demonstrate that Inter’s problems have deep roots and Mazzarri was made a scapegoat merely to mask Erick Thohir’s myriad of mistakes since he took the reins of the club from Massimo Moratti.
For Moratti, the treble season of 2009/10 represented the climax of almost two decades at the helm of Inter. However, his biggest blunders in the post-2010 era were the failures to replace coach Jose Mourinho and identify the right players to keep the club at the top.
Mancini has become the seventh coach employed by Inter since the departure of Mourinho in summer of 2010.
It seems that Thohir is now pursuing in the same trajectory.
The Indonesian businessman kept faith with Mazzarri – the coach Moratti had appointed before he sold the majority stake in the club. After finishing fifth at the end of the 2013/14 season, Thohir not only retained Mazzarri at the helm, but also extended his contract until June 2016.
A few months later, in the wake of Inter’s poor start to the season, Thohir fired Mazzarri and appointed Mancini – a move that is estimated to have cost the coffers of the beleaguered club a cool €35m!
All this came at a time when Inter are among a few clubs, including Roma, being investigated by UEFA for possible infringements of the Financial Fair Play Regulations.
Meanwhile, Inter’s dire financial state contradicts the fact that Thohir has appointed a high ranking coach in Mancini.
Reports suggest that Mancini, the highest paid Serie A coach in circulation thanks to a €4m annual salary, has included a break-up clause in his two-and-a-half year contract with Inter, allowing him to leave if he is not given enough cash to bolster the squad.
Only a few months ago, Mancini had applied the same clause to quit Galatasaray.
Upon taking over the running of the club, Thohir had made no bones of his intention of getting Inter back among the top clubs in the world and set his sights on reaching the 2015/16 Champions League final which will be staged at the San Siro.
However, lately Thohir has also been on record as saying that Inter are going through a period of transition and the most they can aspire at the moment was a place in the Europa League.
Rapid decline
Inter have failed to play in the Champions League these past three seasons after finishing sixth, ninth and fifth respectively.
That exposes the rapid decline of a club who only four years ago became the first Italian outfit to complete the treble of Scudetto, Coppa Italia and UEFA Cham-pions League.
The continuous changing of coaches, each bringing their own styles and players, has virtually eroded any level of stability at the club.
Long-term planning is clearly not Inter’s mantra as a clear vision is also lacking with Thohir committing a serious mistake of over-promising and not delivering.
Young players from the club’s own academy are barely given a chance to prove themselves. This season, Joel Obi, Ibrahima Mbaye and Federico Bonazzoli are the only club products to have featured for the senior side.
Less quoted clubs like Genoa, Sampdoria, Udinese, Sassuolo and Palermo are all sitting ahead of Inter in the Serie A standings.
Unlike Inter, these teams are all achieving remarkable results des-pite restricted budgets.
Perhaps, Inter should do well to re-design their strategy to start achieving more with less.