Hussein Marhoon’s Tuesday editorial: Mercato review

The fantastic Hussein Marhoon keeps on delivering his editorials for SempreInter.com. Here is his latest:

It has been a frantic summer for Inter and their fans. It started with yet another change at helm as Walter Mazzarri took over coaching duties from Andrea Stramaccioni, it was also dominated by the imminent takeover of Erick Thohir as a majority shareholder and last but not least there was the transfer market with all the drama that comes with it. The closure of the transfer market came as a ‘relief’ for some elements of the Nerazzurri faithful as many of them were left disappointed. This article will evaluate Inter’s summer transfer market activities in depth.

These are the players Inter signed this summer:

* Source: Transfermarkt

** Source: La Gazzetta dello Sport

These are the players Inter offloaded over the summer:

* Source: Transfermarkt

** Source: La Gazzetta dello Sport

Inter’s Other Operations (Players In):

Inter’s Other Operations (Players Out):

* Source: Transfermarkt

** Source: La Gazzetta dello Sport

*** Not accounted for by La Gazzetta dello Sport

Here’s a summary of Inter’s summer transfer activities:

Players In (Transfermarkt): 30.8m€

Players Out (Transfermarkt): 8.5m€

Transfer Market Loss (Transfermarkt): (22.3m€)

Players In (La Gazzetta dello Sport): 49.7m€

Players Out (La Gazzetta dello Sport): 8.25m€

Transfer Market Loss (La Gazzetta dello Sport): (41.45m€)

The reason why two sources were used to examine Inter’s summer transfer activities was to give full details since figures given by Transfermarkt (and also by SKY Italia) ignored the considerable transfer fee of 8m€ paid to Udinese to settle the co-ownership of Samir Handanovič in favor Inter, and also to show the noteable difference between Transfermarkt and La Gazzetta dello Sport in valuing the Mauro Icardi and Ishak Belfodil deals (6m€ compared to 13m€ and 7.5m€ compared to 10m€ respectively).

Either way you look at it, Inter still ended the summer with the biggest transfer market loss among all Serie A teams and that’s despite not being the biggest spenders in Italy. The club made it clear some time ago that it has adopted new measures in the transfer market that will aid it build a young, competitive team with the minimum cost possible. In theory, this approach was the right path to take to streamline the club’s operations and embrace the new reality that surround it. However, it seems that directors at the club still doesn’t know how to create a balance between maintaining a healthy organization while staying competitive.

Inter took a huge gamble by signing young promising players such as Icardi, Belfodil and Taïder who cost the club not less than 19m€ (cost may still increase if Inter decide to buy Belfodil’s and Taïder’s full ownerships). This might look like a great piece of business for some considering the amounts we see in today’s football world, but the fear is that the pressure and weight of expectations might be too heavy for those young lads. Let’s not forget that Inter had two bad seasons and the fans will not tolerate another wasted season. In fact, the club hasn’t set a specific target to reach this season but that doesn’t mean it’s not in desperate need for European football and the extra revenues that comes with it. Therefore, spending a minimum of 19m€ on three young lads that might not be ready to help the club secure European football for next season at the minimum could turn to be unwise, especially with Inter’s current financial constraints.

What was tough to take though was how other Serie A rivals managed to bolster their squads with more quality signings and with minimal transfer market losses (in the case of Juventus, Napoli and Milan with transfer market losses of 15.95m€, 14m€ and 13.15m€ respectively) or even made transfer market gains despite signing high profile stars such as Mario Gómez and Adem Ljajić (in the case of Fiorentina 4.65m€ and Roma 32.4m€). All the aforementioned teams finished ahead of Inter last season and on paper they all managed to strengthen their squads with better players. We also shouldn’t ignore that in today’s football stars impact is not only felt on the pitch but they also contribute a lot off the pitch in increasing clubs revenue streams from merchandising, gate receipts and the media.

Advocates of Inter’s transfer activity this summer argue that the club has done well to trim 11m€ off their wage bill by rescinding Dejan Stanković’s contract and offloading Antonio Cassano to Parma (both players contracts were due to expire on 30 June 2014). This has to been seen as a positive move especially that both players were clearly not part of Mazzarri’s plans, but the club still has the 3rd largest wage bill in Italian football (95m€) which is 20.9m€ more than what Serie A rivals and Champions League side Napoli pay (the Partenopei’s wage bill is 74.1m€) and 34.5m€ more than what Europa League side Fiorentina pay (La Viola’s wage bill is 60.5m€). Ironically, Napoli and Fiorentina constructed more competitive sides on paper this summer…

Despite the aforesaid transfer market woes, Inter should be credited for managing to offload all their promising youngsters to top flight teams this summer. Players like Joel Obi (joined Parma), Diego Laxalt (Bologna), Alfred Duncan, Ibrahima Mbaye, Marco Benassi and Francesco Bardi (Livorno), Samuele Longo and Matteo Bianchetti (Hellas Verona), Vid Belec and Daniel Bessa (FC Olhanense) will all have the opportunity to get more playing time to show their worth and get much needed experience.

Based on the above performance in the transfer market, I’d give Inter 5 out of 10 for their activities… but are we really in for another wasted season? I really hope the answer is no. Personally, I still believe that Walter Mazzarri was and will prove to be Inter’s best signing this summer. He’s a hard working coach who has always exceeded expectations wherever he coached and has always delivered with resources he was provided with. Interisti should hope that the man from Tuscany will work his magic once again and will get the best out of all the players he has at his disposal.

Finally, this is Inter and with Inter you always never know… amala!