Football Season Guide

The arrival of President Thohir in the past season, following Moratti’s decision to give up the ownership of the club, was hailed enthusiastically by Inter supporters as they expected the Indonesian entrepreneur to invest plenty of cash in order to bring the team back to the top of the Serie A. Truth be said, Thohir started investing only later in the campaign, once coach Mancini took over from Mazzarri. Such investments proved to be not particularly useful, though, as Inter ended up out of the European competitions for the second time in the last three years. For such reason, in order to further strengthening the squad, the money kept flowing even during the summer transfer campaign. An impressive amount of cash was spent for the arrival of Kondogbia from Monaco, who should become the guiding light of the midfield in Mancini’s plans. The promising Montoya, on loan from Barcelona, Murillo, from Granada, and Miranda, on loan from Atletico Madrid, also arrived and they should join Juan Jesus in the back four, hoping to tighten what last year was a real colander. Ranocchia, the injured Vidic and Andreolli should provide cover in the heart of the defence while Nagatomo, Santon and D’Ambrosio should be the alternatives as full-backs. The promising Gnoukouri, Brozovic, Medel and Guarin, provided that the latter are not sold at the very last, are expected to join Kondogbia in the middle of the park in a 4-3-1-2 formation with still-to-shine Kovacic and Hernanes as the attacking midfielders. In the attack, Icardi will be acting together with Palacio and Jovetic, who returns to Italy following a rather forgettable spell at Manchester City. Biabiany, who passed the past season on the sidelines due to a heart condition, could allow some tactical changes, provided he manages to return to his previous standards. In terms of departures, Inter mostly got rid of players who failed to impose themselves in the team. Flash-in-the-pan Shaqiri and Podolski above all.