It would be an understatement to say that Inter Milan had a crazy 2023.
From January to December, from ups and downs on the pitch to several high-profile transfer soap operas, it was an emotional year that saw the Nerazzurri fully live up to their “Pazza Inter” nickname.
Inter the year on a positive note.
The Nerazzurri beat Serie A leader Napoli in the first of the year. They won 1-0 at San Siro.
That match gave some hope that Inter could go on to push the Partenopei for the title.
But in Inter’s history, a disappointing 2-2 draw against Monza would be the match that would set the tone for the rest of the Nerazzurri’s Serie A season.
Piling on Inter’s problems as a result of erratic form on the pitch is a tricky scenario on top of that.
Slovakian foreign coach Milan Skriniar has shown once and for all that he must leave the Nerazzurri at the end of his contract with the club.
Inter had already rejected offers from Paris Saint-Germain for Skriniar a few months earlier.
The Nerazzurri then negotiate the contract with the defender and his representatives.
With Skriniar’s deal running out at the end of June of last year, the situation was very clear. Inter had to either convince the Slovak to sign a new deal, or else he’d leave on a free transfer in the summer.
There were talks, of course.
But by the end of 2022, the mood was turning pessimistic.
Inter’s failure to convince Skriniar to draft a new contract until the end of December seemed to imply that the former Sampdoria marker was leaning towards PSG.
And then, in January of last year, Skriniar’s agent proved it. The player’s agent, Roberto Sistici, gave an interview in which he clarified that negotiations with the Parisians were ongoing.
Sistici also blamed Inter for their handling of the situation – arguing that it was the Nerazzurri who had pushed Skriniar out by listening to offers for him the previous summer.
The timing of that interview was also controversial.
Sistici’s interview came out around the same time that Skriniar was receiving two avoidable yellow cards in the first half of a Serie A match against Empoli at San Siro.
The defender got his marching orders. And Inter lost this match 0-1.
Skriniar had needlessly let his side down when they suffered a surprise home defeat that put the nail in the coffin of their hopes of making a name for themselves in Serie A.
The frankly unsettling moment. A player who had been wearing the captain’s armband for months and could well have inherited it permanently, is still out of the question.
Skriniar would miss much of the start of the season due to injury.
But the truth is that the 28-year-old’s story with Inter ended in January.
Inter did what they could to get out of the dark cloud of the Skriniar stage in February.
The Nerazzurri ended the month with a comprehensive 1-0 win over AC Milan.
The scoreline showed Inter’s dominance on the pitch. And it also followed a 3-0 loss to the Rossoneri in the Italian Super Cup in January.
January had also seen Inter beat Parma and Atalanta in the Coppa Italia to reach the semifinals of that competition.
And in some other knockout party, the Champions League, Inter 2023 with victory in February.
The Nerazzurri beat Portuguese side Porto in the first leg of the round of 16 at San Siro.
It was a narrow 1-0 win that gave Inter some advantage in the second leg.
But if that momentum gave Inter something to hold on to and continue in the league, the pitch temporarily told another story.
The Nerazzurri suffered a brutal and demoralising defeat in Bologna a few days later.
Inter also travelled to Sampdoria earlier this month. There’s nothing to hide: the team’s situation in the league is a big problem.
With the Serie A name a distant dream, speculation about Inter coach Simone Inzaghi began to grow.
There were doubts over whether the former Lazio coach would guide Inter until March. And the idea of him staying this summer seemed almost absurd.
Inter’s form in Serie A was not the same in March.
The Nerazzurri played 3 league games a month. The first was a leisurely 2-0 win against Lecce at home.
But a shock defeat to Spezia is another derailment for Inter.
Inzaghi’s team were no longer fighting for the title – they were scrapping for a place in the top four.
And the 1-0 loss to Juventus at San Siro is yet another setback in that regard.
But, on the other hand, in Europe, Inter continue to do their job.
A goalless draw in Porto allowed the Nerazzurri to achieve the narrow merit of the first leg of the Champions League round of 16.
Inter had to suffer and bite their nails until the end. It’s a defensive function in general, but the last few minutes of the game were very dramatic.
Porto scored the goal for the Nerazzurri, who were looking for an equaliser.
And Inter had goalkeeper Andre Onana to thank for a miraculous double save on Porto striker Mehdi Taremi, ensuring that all the team’s defensive efforts were in vain.
The Nerazzurri in the round of 16 of Europe’s main club competition.
If the first three months were bad for Inter in Serie A, April is frankly terrible.
Inter made it three home defeats in the league in a row. Having lost to Juventus 0-1 at the San Siro in March, the Nerazzurri lost to Fiorentina and Monza by the same scoreline in front of their fans.
Sandwiched between these two home defeats is a 1-1 draw against Salernitana.
That result was made all the more bitter by the fact that the relegation battlers had scored very late on – Antonio Candreva’s cross sailing right in over the head of Onana.
Inter’s run of five matches with just one point would have been pitiful for a team aiming to keep themselves within the top flight, let alone one with credible title aspirations.
And the Nerazzurri found themselves away from home as the top four in the table.
Missing out on the Champions League for the following season would have been a real crisis for Inter.
And it looked like Inzaghi had one foot out as a coach.
Even if the 47-year-old could somehow turn it around, the complete lack of consistency in league form created firm doubt that the club trusted their coach at the helm beyond the end of the season.
On the other hand, a convincing 2-0 win against Benfica was a salvation.
Inter put one foot in the semi-finals of the Champions League with this victory in Lisbon.
And then they finished off the task at San Siro, with a 3-3 draw wild enough for Inter to triumph in the next round of the competition.
And in the Coppa Italia, Inter reached the final of the main national festival of the Coppa Italia for the second consecutive season.
The Nerazzurri have Juventus in two games.
It was a contentious encounter in which a scandalous incident of racism involving Inter striker Romelu Lukaku and enthusiastic Bianconeri overshadowed the action on the pitch.
But how transparent it is that Inter, for all their problems in Serie A, were only gaining momentum in the knockout competitions.
Then, in the last two games of the month, the Nerazzurri, despite everything, transferred that form to the league.
Inter beat Empoli away and Lazio at home convincingly enough to end the month.
May is a triumphant month for Inter, and the focus is undoubtedly on the second leg of a Champions League semi-final against AC Milan.
The Nerazzurri already had the Rossoneri in the Italian Super Cup and Serie A in 2023.
And they did it twice more in two of the most prominent derbies in recent memory.
A resounding 3-0 aggregate score allowed Inter to qualify for the final of Europe’s most important club competition.
But beyond that, the emotions of Lautaro Martinez sealing the win at San Siro in front of a largely Inter crowd would live long in the memory.
May was a month of redemption for the Inter team.
The Nerazzurri’s form in Serie A is the opposite of their terrible run in the spring.
Four wins and one defeat, away to champions Napoli, have allowed Inter to finally secure their position in the top four.
And in the Coppa Italia, Inter saw off Fiorentina in the final. They lifted their second piece of silverware for the season and their fourth under Inzaghi.
After enduring four brutal months at the start of 2023, Inter suddenly had the wind at their back.
And they did so for what awaited them the following month.
Inter had not only beaten Porto, Benfica and Milan to reach the Champions League final.
The Nerazzurri eliminated Barcelona in the organisation phase.
But the team that was waiting for Inter in the final had an even more difficult test.
Manchester City, the English champions, unstoppable for much of the campaign.
And it felt like Inter were the loser in the Champions League final in Istanbul.
But things weren’t like that when the two met.
Inter faced City throughout the first half of the match. This boosted the Nerazzurri’s hope and confidence.
Then, in the second half, the Premier League side broke through: midfielder Rodri scored what turned out to be the goal of the match.
Far from giving Inter a rest, this goal prompted the Nerazzurri to go all out at the Cityzens in a desperate attempt to make a comeback.
There were several good chances for Inter to equalize. Striker Lukaku infamously blocked his own teammate Federico Dimarco’s shot inadvertently in one of them.
And that seemed to sum up Inter’s night.
It was impressive functionality at the highest level and earned the respect of neutrals.
But it wasn’t Inter’s day, and the Nerazzurri had to settle for second place.
It was still, when the dust settled, an immensely impressive showing in the Champions League by Inter all throughout 2023.
Coach Simone Inzaghi was proud of what his players had done. And the stadium fans cheered the players with jubilation despite the defeat.
Inter had a lot to gain in confidence ahead of the next season. But most of all, heartbreak.
Inter have made the decision to reshuffle their squad in the 2023 summer transfer window.
Therefore, July would be an incredibly hectic month in the transfer market for the Nerazzurri.
Big names like Marcelo Brozovic, Edin Dzeko and Samir Handanovic are absent.
And in the most important transfer, Inter have reached an agreement to sell goalkeeper Onana to Manchester United.
In management, players such as Davide Frattesi and Yann Bisseck have added young players to the team.
And Juan Cuadrado stunned Juventus with a loose pass.
The Colombian was a player with whom there was no love lost with Inter fans. Not after eight years of flashpoint incidents in Derby d’Italia matches.
But the Colombian veteran switched his allegiances from Bianconeri to Nerazzurri all the same.
All these stories interlocked in a tangled mesh.
But the two biggest threads concerned Inter’s attack.
Striker Marcus Thuram signed a five-year deal on July 1st, when his contract with Borussia Monchengladbach expired.
Several other clubs had tried to sign the Frenchman – most notable Milan and PSG. But in the end, he chose Inter on a free transfer.
And then Inter’s relationship with Lukaku collapsed in the most dramatic way.
After weeks of what seemed like only a matter of time before the Nerazzurri signed the Belgian, who had been on loan from Chelsea last season, on a permanent basis, things took a turn for the worse.
Inter have learned that Lukaku blatantly negotiates with bitter rivals Juventus all the time.
In addition, the Belgian criticised his teammates and club executives for refusing to answer phone calls during the most chaotic era of the moving saga.
Lukaku’s antics completely alienated Inter. Reports suggest that Nerazzurri sporting director Piero Ausilio broke off his relationship with the striker in a brief phone call.
August was no quieter than July for Inter.
There was still plenty of transfer business left to do.
A variety of players (Yann Sommer, Carlos Augusto, Emil Audero, Marko Arnautovic, Alexis Sanchez) have signed on the dotted line with Inter players.
But one player who didn’t sign for the Nerazzurri was Udinese midfielder Samardzic.
The 21-year-old, however, underwent medical examinations ahead of his arrival at Inter.
In a saga of moves that rivaled those of Skriniar and Lukaku in terms of controversy and acrimony, Samardzic’s move to Inter collapsed in the 11th hour.
The Nerazzurri had completely agreed a deal to sign the Serbian former RB Leipzig midfielder from Udinese.
And personal terms appeared to be all in place with the player.
But then Samardzic’s entourage – led by the player’s father – attempted to renegotiate at a point when even the medicals were completed.
Inter switched off angrily. The club were convinced that they had already reached an agreement in talks released through agent Rafaela Pimenta.
Samardzic stayed at Udinese.
Meanwhile, Inter began their Serie A crusade for the current season in August. 2-0 wins over Monza and Cagliari set the tone for another run for names.
And at the end of the month, Inter signed the permanent Benjamin Pavard from Bayern Munich.
The Nerazzurri paid a hefty sum to land the 2018 World Cup winner. Pavard is a long-term target for Inter to update Skriniar.
It was a feel-good ending to a stormy transfer window. Even if Pavard was not actually the last signing Inter made.
The Nerazzurri brought on Davy Klaassen from Ajax in a loose move that came out of nowhere and ended in the final hours of the deadline.
After a chaotic summer, Inter are stronger than ever in September.
The Nerazzurri beat Fiorentina 4-0 at San Siro to start the month. It is possible that the intentions in the Serie A title race will be clearer.
Then, later in the month, the Nerazzurri demolished rivals Milan with a score of 5-1.
It’s the fifth time the derby rivals have met in 2023. And Inter won them all.
Midfielder Frattesi had his most memorable moment in an Inter shirt to date, completing the win with a stoppage-time goal.
Then came Inter’s first stumble of the season.
The Nerazzurri drew 1-1 in their Champions League opener against Real Sociedad and were largely outplayed.
And in Serie A, Inter squandered a first-half merit to lose their first defeat of the season, to Sassuolo at San Siro.
Despite this, the mood remained positive.
Striker Martinez scored a remarkable four goals against Salernitna to end the month. This despite the fact that the 26-year-old hadn’t even started the match.
Martinez inherited the captain’s armband in the summer. And he made his first crusade with the bracelet in full swing.
After striker Lukaku cut ties with Inter, there is uncertainty about what he will do next.
In the end, the 30-year-old joined another Serie A team, but despite the flirtations it wasn’t Juventus.
Roma got Lukaku in the final days of the transfer window.
The Belgian was on course to clash with Inter.
Roma travelled to the San Siro to face the Nerazzurri at the end of October. And the Inter faithful had plans for the Giallorossi’s star striker.
The Inter ultras Curva Nord handed out whistles to use against the Belgian.
There were some efforts by the authorities to stop their use. But they were nevertheless audible during the match.
Whether it was the interruption of that angry reception or simply a bad evening at the office, Lukaku presented an anonymous demonstration at the most sensitive point of the ROM line.
And it was Thuram, Inter’s great arrival in July, the hero of the night. The 26-year-old scored the only goal of the game.
Inter enjoyed a good night at San Siro to close out a month in which they also beat Benfica and Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League at home.
In Serie A, the Nerazzurri drew against Bologna in front of their home fans. But there was also a convincing victory in Turin.
That win over Roma gave Inter a position in the Serie A name race.
And a win against Atalanta in early November solidified it.
More broadly, in November AC Milan and Napoli (the last two Serie A champions) seriously faltered and withdrew from the name race.
And Juventus has Inter’s great rival.
The Nerazzurri and Bianconeri met in Turin in the first match of the November break.
That match was a cautious 1-1 draw that did not recommend either team getting loose in the title race as Napoli had done in the 2022-23 season.
Meanwhile, Inter secured their place in the Champions League round of 16 for the third consecutive season by beating Salzburg.
A crazy 3-3 draw ended the month. Inzaghi faced a heavily rotated side on an organisational level in Lisbon, relying on rarely noticed names to triumph over a 3-0 half-time deficit and snap an unlikely point.
In the final month of 2023, Inter experienced one major disappointment.
The Nerazzurri pulled out of the Coppa Italia at the first opportunity.
After coming back from an extra-time goal down the past two seasons, this time history has been reversed.
Inter scored first, but the Rossoblu responded with two goals behind the Nerazzurri.
According to reports, Inzaghi and Inter will not be able to defend their Coppa Italia crown for the past two seasons.
Meanwhile, the Nerazzurri ended up in their Champions League organisation after a goalless draw against Real Sociedad.
This meant that Inter knew that, in theory, they would find themselves with a tougher draw in the round of 16.
Inter drew with Atletico Madrid in the end. The Nerazzurri would likely have moved away from the likes of Manchester City and Bayern Munich.
But Inzaghi and his players know that the same draw awaits them in February as last season’s draw against Porto.
Meanwhile, in Serie A, Inter maintained their lead in the most sensitive area of the table.
A draw in Genoa is perhaps a flat note to end the year.
But before that, there were back-to-back league wins.
Among them are convincing away wins for Napoli and Lazio, last season’s champions and runners-up.
And forward Arnautovic stood out in the absence of captain Martínez due to injury.
The Austrian produced a makeshift backheel in the 2-0 win over Lecce. He then scored his first goal for Inter in Serie A against Genoa.
The feeling is that Arnautovic, a former West Ham United and Stoke City veteran, is only just beginning to recover at Inter after a rocky start that included a six-week injury layoff.
Looking ahead to 2024, the most productive way to describe the atmosphere at Inter would be “cautiously optimistic”.
There is no doubt that the Nerazzurri are in for a fatal name race with Juventus.
But after a wild 2023, the team has more self-belief than ever.
And in the meantime, Inter are already intervening in the market.
The Nerazzurri are on the verge of completing a deal to sign Canadian international Tajon Buchanan from Club Brugge.
The 24-year-old will necessarily update Juan Cuadrado.
Cuadrado will miss much of the rest of the season after calf surgery.
The 35-year-old has shown some glimpses of his quality throughout the season but has only started once as persistent fitness issues have prevented him from carving out a niche.
Cuadrado’s resolution is controversial, but in the end his season is very low-key.
The surprise transfer and subsequent injury problem of of the veteran are one more plot point in a 2023 of enormous ups and downs for Inter.
And Buchanan’s arrival to update it will be the first in 2024.
But if next year is like the one that just passed, it will be just a footnote.
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