Serie A giants Inter Milan performed well last season, finishing third in the league and reaching the final of the Champions League. Not only were the results satisfactory, but the huge gains from the Champions League also eased the club's finances to a great extent.
In this summer's transfer window, many of Inter's main players from last season left for different reasons, but the club not only steadily improved the team's strength through reasonable transfer operations, but also made a profit of about 70 million euros.
Four big players on the central axis left, with transfer income of 130 million euros
In this summer's transfer window, four players from Inter's main squad left last season, which can be said to have gone through a whole central axis:
Romelu Lukaku, 30, returned to Chelsea on loan
Brozovic, 30, moved to Riyadh Victory for 18 million euros
Skriniar, 28, is on a free transfer to Grand Paris when his contract expires
Onana, 27, moved to Manchester United for €52.5 million
All four players have contributed to the team in their respective positions and are all first-class in terms of quality, and their departure can be said to have damaged Inter's strength. Other first-team players who left include:
Pinamonti, 24, moved to Sassuolo for €20 million
Gosens, 29, moved to Union Berlin for 13 million euros
Young players such as Muradieri, Fabien, Pirola, Crideo, Lazaro and Malais earned a total of 26.5 million euros for the team
In this way, Inter earned a total of about 130 million euros from the sale of players in the summer window.
Onana is arguably a big profit, selling €52.5 million from Ajax's visa-free goalkeeper a year ago. Romelu Lukaku's transfer can be described as a farce, but fortunately it was a timely stop. The most unfortunate thing is that Shik, a 28-year-old top defender, would have to sell for more than 50 million euros if it were not for the cost of a free transfer. Overall, Inter control the transfer is very good.
Visa-free and lease-based, introducing a number of powerful people to provide strong support
In terms of bringing in players, although Inter raised 130 million euros through sales, but the stretched financial situation does not allow them to invest them all, can only deal with some veterans on loan and visa-free, the biggest cost is to buy Bayern defender Pavard, the following is the specific situation:
Pavard, 27, €32 million (to be officially announced) transferred from Bayern
Aslani, 21, moved from Empoli for 10 million euros
Saik, 22, €7 million transferred from Aarhus
Sommer, 34, moved from Bayern for €6.75 million
Archerby, 35, moved from Lazio for €3.5 million
These five players have spent a total of about 60 million euros on Inter, of which Pavard, Sommer and Archerby will be the main players of the team in the new season, and Aslani and Bisek will be the main rotation of the team.
Inter have also introduced a number of players through visa-free and loan, namely:
Marcus. Thuram, 26, made 32 appearances for Borussia Mönchengladbach last season, scoring 16 goals and assisting seven times
Alexis Sanchez, 34, scored 18 goals and assisted three times in 44 appearances for Marseille last season
Arnautovic, 34, scored 10 goals in 23 appearances for Bologna last season
Cuadrado, 35, scored two goals and assisted five times in 47 appearances for Juventus last season
Vratesi, 23, scored seven goals in 37 appearances for Sassuolo last season
Thuram Jr. is only 26 years old, and he is worth 32 million euros in the German turn, Inter beat a number of rivals in the summer window to bring in, and he will replace Romelu Lukaku and partner Lautaro up front. The 23-year-old will be the main rotation player in midfield.
Sanchez, Arnautovic and Cuadrado will be the main substitutes, although they are no longer young and have passed their peak, but judging from last season's attendance and statistics, the three are in good form, and the intensity of coping with Serie A is not a big problem.
The strength of the team has steadily increased
From the foregoing, we can roughly calculate that Inter's overall profit in the transfer market this summer is about 70 million euros, although there are 4 main players, but the team's strength has not declined, but steadily risen, and the following is Inter's starting lineup for the new season.
In this 352 lineup that Inzaghi Jr. is good at, the strength of the starting lineup can be said to be not much different from last season, but the overall is younger and more energetic. The main substitutes are Alchez, Arnautovic, Fratesi, Aslani, Cuadrado, Augusto, Sensi, De Vry, Darmian and others.
Overall, Inter's operation in the summer window has been very successful, with a number of highly targeted transfers effectively compensating for the departure of four main players, of course, it would be perfect if Shik could leave a transfer fee of tens of millions of euros. The current Inter starting line-up is still very competitive in the Champions League, and the substitutes are mostly experienced veterans and impactful young players, and the strength can be said to be stable and rising.
New season expectations
Serie A has been played in two rounds, with Inter beating Monza and Cagliari in two clean 2-0 respectively to lead the table with Milan, Napoli and Verona and start well. Lautaro scored three of the four goals, and two new signings, Thuram and Arnautovic, each contributed an assist.
Inter will welcome Fiorentina and Milan at home respectively in the future, with the fourth round against Milan arguably a real test, and the two giants aiming for revival have made a lot of moves in the transfer market this summer, and this match will be a litmus test for both sides.
Unknowingly, Suning has been in charge of Inter for 7 years, from the initial ignorance, to now a mature European transfer market with ease, Zhang Kangyang paid a lot of tuition, but also learned a lot. If this healthy and rational development can continue, Inter can look forward to the future, and reaching the Champions League final again is not far away.