It’s fair to say that this was far from an exciting summer for calcio fans, who had to endure the sight of numerous stars leaving the Italian peninsula one after one. And yet, the reigning champions were arguably hit worse than anyone else.
With their owning company Suning Group facing deep financial troubles, Inter were forced to downsize their project, which resulted in the departure of their Scudetto-winning manager Antonio Conte as well as two of their most important players in the same transfer market.
Nonetheless, the club’s CEO Giuseppe Marotta and his collaborators tried to make the best out of a complicated situation, and managed to land several decent signings. So here’s a roundup of the Nerazzurri’s transfer campaign, in addition to our final assessment.
Departures
If we’re going to discuss the Beneamata’s summer transfer market, then we must start with the players that Inter sold. Achraf Hakimi joined a galaxy of world class talent at Paris Saint-Germain, after completing a 60 million euros switch to the French capital. Romelu Lukaku later followed suit, sealing a return to Chelsea in a blockbuster deal that reached 115 millions.
Additionally, the Italian champions cut some of their deadwood, freeing the the likes of Ashley Young, Radja Nainggolan and Joao Mario. On the other hand, Antonio Candreva and Matteo Politano made their respective transfers to Sampdoria and Napoli permanent.
Arrivals
Inter surely made some interesting signings to make up for their departed stars. Edin Dzeko arrived from Roma on a free transfer, and was joined by his former foe in the Italian capital Joaquin Correa who completed a loan move from Lazio.
Hakan Calhanoglu completed a free transfer from the red and black side of the city in order to replace Christian Eriksen who might not be medically-cleared to compete in Serie A following his horrific collapse at Euro 2020.
Zinho Vanheusden was in fact the Nerazzurri’s biggest singing in terms of the numbers, as his return to Milano costed the club’s coffers 16 millions. The Belgian was sent on loan to Genoa. On the other hand, Denzel Dumfries will be hoping to replicate Hakimi’s success on the right wing after sealing a transfer from PSV.
Best Coup
Perhaps we’re still affected by what we’ve seen during the last weekend, but Joaquin Correa is our pick for this one. The Argentine slowly developed into a brilliant supporting striker under the guidance of Simone Inzaghi, and having the two men reunited at Inter might me one of the best hits of this transfer market.
Worst Blow
Even though losing the player who’s arguably the best wingback in the world is a major blow, it just can’t be compared to losing the team’s target-man, most prolific star and the driving force behind the Scudetto-winning side.
Lukaku won the Serie A MVP award for a reason, and although the club still possesses a fine attacking department, his incredible physical strength and sublime finishing touch will surely be missed on more than an occasion throughout the long campaign.
Missed Chance
Inter still possess a solid defense and a strong midfield, whilst the attack has been renovated, but a left wingback would have been a nice addition during this transfer market.
Inzaghi is still relying on the aging Ivan Perisic who was never truly made for this role, while we’re still unsure if Federico Dimarco can cut it on the big stage.
Final Rating
This is a tricky one. Whilst the Italian champions most probably ended up with a weaker squad following the departures of two world class players, the point of this article is to assess the job done by the management – which happens to be completely blameless for the whole debacle that was created by the owning company.
If we were rating the owner’s work, then the rating would have been very low, but credit must be given for Marotta and sporting director Piero Ausilio for keeping the ship as steady as possible after Suning pressed the self-destruction button.
Rating: 6.5 / 10