Inter president Massimo Moratti’s inability to make a clear decision about the sale of the club has hampered in the transfer market this summer and delayed the rebuilding of the squad.
To quickly recap Moratti’s financial situation. His family’s wealth comes from Saras Raffinerie Sarde SpA, a company in the oil refining business. This company has struggled in recent years and has not paid out any dividends since 2009. Recently Moratti had to sell a minority stake in the company to Russian company Rosneft in order to raise funds.
The problems at Saras trickled down to Inter a Moratti does not have the money to invest in the club like he did in the past. Estimates are that Moratti invested over €1B in Inter in the 18 years that he has owned the club. An incredible amount of money.
Since Moratti cannot afford to underwrite Inter to the tune of €50-75m a year, the squad has been gutted in order to drive down costs.
Since winning the Champions League Inter has sold or let go the likes of Thiago Motta, Coutinho, Samuel Eto’o, David Stanton, Wesley Sneijder, Julio Cesar, Giampaolo Pazzini.
While Moratti likes owning Inter, he no longer can afford it. So reluctantly, and very reluctantly I might add, he has been forced to find a buyer/partner for the club.
Which brings us to Indonesian Erick Thohir. Thohir and Moratti have been locked in negotiations for months and it appears that finally an agreement has been reached where Thohir would pay €350 million for 70% of the shares of Inter Milan. Crucially for Inter fans, the deal is supposed to close the day AFTER the transfer window closes.
And that is the crux of the problem. Moratti’s inability to sell to Thohir this summer has had a serious effect on Walter Mazzarri’s rebuilding efforts.
Juventus, Napoli and Milan have all gotten stronger this summer. Juve and Napoli have signed proven experienced players this season, while Inter have been forced to buy potential. Juventus sign Tevez, Napoli sign Higuain, while Inter Icardi.
It is amazing that three years ago that Inter were champions of Europe. Now the club triumphs the signing of Saphir Taider, who would not even had made Jose Mourinho’s squad three years ago.
Inter fans are left with the hope that Thohir will free up some money to invest in the squad in January. But three years of bad transfers has left this Inter squad a shadow of the team it was. It will take several transfer windows for Mazzarri to rebuild the squad into title contenders,
It didn’t have to be this way. But Moratti’s inability to sell Inter this summer has had a huge impact on how competitive Inter will be this season.
