Stefano Pioli will be making his debut on the Inter bench on Sunday after becoming the side’s ninth coach since Jose Mourinho and the historic treble of 2010.
A daunting task awaits the 51-year-old as Inter are currently in ninth place with 17 points from 12 games. The Nerazzurri have already slipped 13 points behind leaders Juventus and eight short of Milan, with whom they cross swords on Sunday evening.
Rafa Benitez, Leonardo, Gian Piero Gasperini, Claudio Ranieri, Andrea Stramaccioni, Walter Mazzarri, Roberto Mancini and Frank de Boer have all been in charge at Inter at some stage or another in the last six years, all falling short of expectations.
In the post-Mourinho era, 18-times champions Inter have finished second in 2011, sixth in 2012, ninth in 2013, fifth in 2014, eighth in 2015 and fourth last term.
The continuous changes came at a time when Massimo Moratti was busy negotiating the sale of his majority stake to tycoon Erick Thohir.
The Indonesian became the major shareholder after buying a 70 per cent stake on October 15, 2013. However, this summer Thohir sold most of his shares at Inter to the Suning Commerce Group.
Thohir still retained a 30 per cent stake whereas Moratti sold all his remaining shareholding to Suning.
The new Chinese investors said they will put their immense wealth behind the rebuilding of a new title-winning side.
In the close season, apart from keeping hold of Inter’s best players in goalkeeper Samir Handanovic, Joao Miranda, Ivan Perisic, Marcelo Brozovic, Eder and captain Mauro Icardi, Suning splashed €45 million to prise midfielder Joao Mario from Sporting Lisbon, signed 29-year-old midfielder Antonio Candreva for €22 million from Lazio, and forked out €27.5 million for Brazilian ace Gabriel Barbosa from Santos.
Unwisely, Sunning also parted with coach Roberto Mancini less than two weeks before the start of a new season.
In came De Boer and he soon had his days numbered following a 2-0 upset to Chievo on the opening day of the new Serie A campaign.
Occasionally, Inter did produce some fine attacking play with De Boer on the bench, obtaining a couple of remarkable wins including the one over Juventus (2-1) on match-day four.
Solid defender
But, overall, Inter did not do well under the former Ajax trainer.
True, the side badly lacks a quality central defender (14 goals conceded in 12 league matches). But what is really missing at Inter is someone good enough to take the right decisions at the right time away from the field of play.
In fact, it is still unclear who is really calling the shots at Inter.
Earlier this month, former Villarreal mentor Marcelino seemed almost certain to become De Boer’s successor. Another untried and untested coach in Italian football was deemed risky though so Inter went for a safer option and hired Pioli instead.
But no-one knows who really took the decision to get Pioli and not Marcelino.
Moreover, like Thohir, representatives of the new Chinese investors are seldom in Milan and that has created a vacuum inside the club.
As happened with Thohir, it seems that Suning intend to solve the club’s problems by pumping more money into the system without clear planning.
Results attained so far by Thohir and Suning have been modest to say the least and rumours suggest there will be more changes in the next transfer window to satisfy Pioli’s demands.
Reports are now saying that in January, Barbosa (Gabigol) could be parked elsewhere and that Geoffrey Kondogbia, who cost Inter €30m to sign from Monaco last year, will be sold to the highest bidder.
Indeed, planning has become the forgotten aspect in Inter’s strategy.