Inter Milan: What Has Gone Wrong for the Nerazzurri?

It's hard to believe that just 16 months ago, a host of Inter Milan players stood together on a podium in Madrid, jubilation etched on each of their faces after having defeated Bayern Munich 2-0 in the Champions League final.

How quickly things have changed since then.

The news that Gian Piero Gasperini had been dismissed from his managerial post less than a month into the 2011-12 season cast further doubt upon an Inter side that has seen its star in decline since that wondrous May day.

So many players had received just recompense in that victory for long careers founded upon a bedrock of determination and duty.

Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso, Christian Chivu, Wesley Sneijder were among the men who had given their all during the course of the 2009-10 season and beyond, and though Inter certainly weren't the most talented side in the world (that distinction goes to Barcelona), they could say with unabashed pride that they'd won an unprecedented treble (Serie A title, Coppa Italia  and Champions League), the first ever for a Serie A side.

The smiles from that iconic photograph that once graced the front page of L'Equipe—I was studying in Paris at the time—have since yellowed with the passage of time.

Integral components of that side have departed—most notably talismanic striker Samuel Eto'o for the "greener" allure of Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala.

Yet, there is no getting around the fact that Inter have never adequately replaced Jose Mourinho, architect of that most impressive season.

Andy Brassell, an excellent and reputable European columnist, cast his own appraisal of the current situation in Milan, where "black and blue" have come to more aptly describe the team's bruised appearance rather than its iconic colors.

Brassell's most convincing argument centered upon the shuffling of the managerial position in the past year. Since Mourinho left, there have been four appointments. Hardly the sort of continuity one would expect at such a high-profile club.

Rafa Benitez, taking the reigns after Mourinho, never looked likely to follow up such a fantastic campaign, and with perhaps the most important of 2009-10's contributors Wesley Sneijder coming off a taxing summer during which he'd played every game during Holland's run to the World Cup final, a quick start always seemed a terribly difficult task.

One wonders if that Tottenham match in the Champions League group stage, where Gareth Bale entered into British legend for his four-goal peach of a performance, single-handedly scalping Douglas Maicon along the way, would have ever been allowed to happen under Mourinho.

The Portuguese tactician added to his sterling reputation as a defensive architect during that Champions League run in the 2010 knockout stages, when Inter won away at Stamford Bridge before proceeding to snatch an improbable aggregate victory against Barcelona (ironically taking advantage of the Catalans' own fatigue from a prolonged bus trip to Milan before the first leg thanks to the volcano Eyjafjallajökull's eruption and subsequent ash, which grounded most flights in Europe—including Barcelona's scheduled route to Milan).

Those Inter sides worked because they moved as a unit. As Brassell notes, Samuel Eto'o often played out of position under Mourinho—for example, on the wings against Barcelona—and while the Cameroonian's personal figures dipped as a result, the team shone.

Benitez reinstalled Eto'o in his natural position of central forward, but in doing so, marginalized Diego Milito, who became little more than a peripheral figure in 2010-11 after taking Europe by storm a season before, where his brace in the Champions League final had seemingly cemented his status as a premier player on the world stage.

For new manager Claudio Ranieri, who takes up where Gasperini left off, the task is daunting.

A man Mourinho once mocked for showing his AS Roma side the movie Gladiator before a crucial match, Ranieri couldn't have found a better situation to flex his managerial acumen than in Milan at the moment.

Ranieri is renowned for his singular ability to draw impressive results from sides teetering upon precarious precipices.

While Inter are far from full-frontal collapse, under Ranieri, they may move a bit farther away from the brink.