After Walter Mazzarri's respectable if unspectacular debut at the helm of Inter Milan, it was expected that the former Napoli coach would lift the team above the heights of 5th place which they reached last season and return to the promise-land of the Champions League. The big signing of the summer was former Manchester United defender and serial winner Nemanja Vidic. However, as the season got under way, it became apparent that the Red Devils had let the ageing Serbian go at just the right time. A spate of mistakes as well as some red cards made it a disastrous debut campaign for the once rock solid centre-back. Perhaps playing in a back-three of Mazzarri's stubborn 3-5-2 system didn't help him and Inter's defence looked extremely disjointed in the early weeks where they got off to a poor start. It was in attack where their main bright spark was as Mauro Icardi developed into one of the hottest strikers in Europe, eventually finishing as joint top scorer in Serie A with 22 goals. However, his exploits up top weren't enough to save Mazzarri from the chop just before the end of the year. His successor was prodigal son Roberto Mancini, who'd led the club to three straight league titles in his first stint at the club and laid the foundations for Jose Mourinho's eventual treble winners. Having gone to England and won the Premiership with Manchester City, many expected him to rekindle the magic with the Nerazzurri. However, they say you should never go back to where you had a lot of success and Mancini failed to live up to his previous reputation. In fairness, it was hardly the same swashbuckling squad he had in his previous tenure and he hasn't quite had enough time to put his own imprint back on the side. However, he did make some exciting January signings with Lukas Podolski arriving in January and Xherdan Shaqiri a major coup from Bayern Munich. However, the German could barely hit a barn door during his spell and Shaqiri showed flashes of his obvious talent but wasn't always fit. Hernanes had a good ending to the season and even out-shined the precocious Mateo Kovacic in midfield but perhaps the young Croatian already has one foot out the door. Inter need to invest and invest heavily in the summer especially at the back whilst trying to cope with any potential star departures.
