1 Year After Erick Thohir's Takeover, Are Inter Moving in the Right Direction?

Erick Thohir celebrated the one-year anniversary of his Inter takeover this week. It was on 15 October, 2013, that the Indonesian businessman purchased 70 percent of the club’s shares. “I am an entrepreneur,” said Thohir back then, as he introduced himself to Inter’s fans. “But first of all I am a supporter.”

There was understandable apprehension from his new audience. Thohir was an unknown quantity arriving into a league with no great history of foreign investment. Roma were the only other club in Serie A with owners from outside Italy, and their fortunes had (to that point) been mixed under the leadership of first Thomas DiBenedetto and then James Pallotta. 

If any Inter fans were hoping for a big-spending billionaire who could bring global stars back to San Siro, then Thohir made clear from the outset that they were barking up the wrong tree. During interviews and press conferences, he repeatedly referenced Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations, and the club’s obligation to balance its books. (quotes in Italian, via La Repubblica) 

But if financial prudence was a necessity, then it was not an end goal in itself. Thohir also spoke of his ambition for Inter to win trophies and play attractive football while doing it. Specifically, he said that the Nerazzurri should be aiming to position themselves as one of the 10 foremost clubs in the world over the next decade. (quotes in Italian, via Gazzetta dello Sport)

It was a line he repeated on Wednesday, during an interview with CNN: "I'm not looking for personal success. It's more about how can I work hard, supported by my new team, to make Inter one of the top-10 clubs in the world."

One year into his tenure, it seems fair to stop and review their progress towards that target. How much closer are Inter to securing that status than they were before their new owner arrived?

Looking purely at on-pitch results, the answer would have to be, “not very.” The team Thohir purchased last year was fourth in Serie A, with 14 points from seven games. Today they are 10th, with eight points from their first six matches of the new season.

It is too early to draw serious conclusions from the league standings, of course, and it is also true that the Nerazzurri have the additional strain of European football to contend with this time around. Their Europa League record so far this season reads: Played four, won four, with 12 goals scored and none conceded.

But there are still valid concerns about this team’s recent domestic performances. Inter have let in seven goals in their last two league games alone, including four during a home defeat to Cagliari—a team who have scored just three times in their other five games combined. These are not the sorts of performances one expects from an aspiring top-three side. 

After a shambolic January transfer window—in which Thohir agreed to swap Fredy Guarin for Juventus’ Mirko Vucinic, only to then abandon the deal at the last moment due to fan pressure—Inter seemed to approach their first summer under the new owner with a much more coherent plan. They set about rejuvenating their squad while also adding experience in the right places to fill the void left by the departures of Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso and Diego Milito.

Inter reinforced their defence with Nemanja Vidic and Dodo, their midfield with Gary Medel, Rene Krhin and Yann M’Vila, and their attack with Dani Osvaldo—using a variety of loan deals and permanent moves. They did so while spending a total of just €12.1 million on transfer fees, according to Transfermarkt.it, and offset most of that cost by selling fringe players for €9.65 million.  

From the perspective of Financial Fair Play, it was a highly impressive window. Cambiasso and Milito had been the two highest-paid players on the team, with a combined annual salary of €9.5 million, according to Gazzetta dello Sport (via Italian-language website tifosobilanciato.it), and yet the squad looked stronger without them. 

But in practice, most of the new arrivals have struggled. Krhin is yet to make an appearance, M’Vila has done nothing to suggest he is about to recapture the form that once saw him touted as one of the most promising young midfielders in Europe, and Medel has been criticised for offering too little going forwards.

Vidic, meanwhile, has been disastrous, giving away a penalty and getting sent off in his first Serie A game, gifting a soft goal to Palermo in his second and then surrendering another spot-kick in his fourth match. It was thought that playing in Walter Mazzarri’s three-man defence might suit him at this stage of his career, allowing faster team-mates to compensate for his declining pace, but so far that has not proved the case. 

There is time yet for both the defender and his new team-mates to redeem themselves. Vidic has confessed that not speaking Italian has hindered him, and told the Inter Channel he hopes improving his communication with his team-mates will allow him to resume the sort of leadership role he has filled on previous teams (quotes in Italian, via Goal.com)  

In more general terms, it is not uncommon for any player to need time to adapt to a new team and a new league. The only difficulty is that Thohir needs results as soon as he can get them. Because the longer Inter remain out of the Champions League, the harder it will be for him to achieve his concurrent goal of balancing Inter’s books. 

Inter slipped to 15th in Deloitte’s Football Money League—their lowest-ever position—last year, almost entirely because of their failure to qualify for Europe’s top club competition in 2012-13. Despite improving their commercial income streams, Inter’s overall revenue had fallen by more than €30 million from the year before.

Thohir can see different ways yet to boost that figure. As he noted during an interview with the Financial Times (subscription required) this month, the owner is keen to do more to tap into the team’s market in Asia, where, he says, 60 percent of Inter’s 280 million fans reside. His decision to sign Nemanja Vidic was made at least in part because he believed the player was a “good brand for the Asian market.” 

Domestically, he wants to do more to exploit stadium revenue streams—whether by moving Inter into a completely new venue or simply doing more to exploit San Siro as a facility throughout the week, rather than only on matchdays. 

But in the end, he knows everything becomes easier with Champions League football—which would not only increase revenue but also the club’s exposure in those Asian markets which he is so keen to exploit. One year in, it is still too soon to draw sweeping conclusions about the overall direction of the club. But on-pitch improvement is coming a little slower than he might ideally have liked.