Inter have almost no chance of making progress in Europe under Antonio Conte, according to the Nerazzurri’s former forward Antonio Cassano.
Conte has led Inter to the club’s first Serie A title in 11 years, but they were once again knocked out of the UEFA Champions League at the group stage after finishing below Real Madrid, Borussia Monchengladbach and Shakhtar Donetsk.
Inter’s next challenge under Conte – if he stays – would be to improve their form in Europe, but Cassano doesn’t hold out much hope for the former Juventus boss.
“Inter are laying the foundations to get back to their glory days of 2010, but I have a thousand doubts over the coach,” Cassano argued on Christian Vieri’s Twitch channel, Bobo TV, on Thursday.
“It could be that Inter repeat Juventus’ dominant period, perhaps not with nine straight titles but certainly more than one.
“I can’t see how Conte can improve in Europe though, although if he does then I’ll say I was wrong.
“It’s been 10 years, he’s had 10 years of disasters in Europe, so we’ll see.”
Inter’s penultimate match of the Serie A season takes them to play Juventus for the Derby d’Italia, in a match that will be crucial for the Bianconeri’s top four hopes.
The Nerazzurri have had precious little success at the Allianz Stadium since Juventus moved there, with their only victory coming under Andrea Stramaccioni back in 2012.
“We played an unbelievable match,” Cassano, who started that 3-1 win up front, recalled.
“Stramaccioni came to me, Rodrigo Palacio and Diego Milito in our room the night before the game and said: ‘We need to play man-to-man with their defenders.’
“We looked at each other and didn’t know what to say, but he’d got his tactics spot on.
“Juan Jesus marked Arturo Vidal and we played a super game.”