Gianni Rosabosa is chatting to Gianluca Vialli in the post-match interview after the loss to Roma. Vialli questions Rosabosa’s transfer dealings of the summer.

“I was given they keys to many cars. I chose Ferrari’s not Fiat’s! Yet with a Ferrari you need time to learn how to get the best out of the car. You cannot just jump in, turn the key, and put your foot down. You must work out when to put your foot down and when to ease off. We are still learning how to get the best out of our Ferrari’s.”

The season had started with Inter facing mixed fortunes on the pitch. A 2-0 away win against Udinese on the opening weekend had been followed by a 3-3 home draw against Atalanta and a 2-0 away loss to Roma.

Questions were beginning to be asked about the changes made to the squad during the summer. £314m had been spent and £286m had been brought in through sales.

Let’s look back at the in’s and out’s of the summer of 2020.

First the In’s

Stefano Sensi and Nicolo Barella are the obvious names who joined the club having spent the previous campaign on loan from Sassuolo and Cagliari, respectively. Inter also invested £13m in German left back Noah Katternbach from FC Koln.

£26m was also spent on Bologna youngster Emanuel Vignato. And after six months of tracking and wanting. Inter also spent £36.5m on Brescia starlet Sandro Tonali. The spending didn’t stop there! We then spent £550k on promising young right back Tommaso Barbieri from Novara. And a further £2.6m on another young option for the right back role, Leonardo Sernicola. After watching him impress as few times for Ascoli during the 2019/20 season we decided to bring the lad in from Sassuolo.

We also brought in veteran midfielder Arturo Vidal from Barcelona for £18.5m, the hope is he can share his experience to a rather young midfield.

Then lastly, we then managed two bits of business I did not think would happen. They were certainly not planned. First was an audacious bid of £124m for Gigi Donnarumma from city rivals Milan. This bid was made by DoF Ariedo Braida, all I did was say yes please if you can get the deal done. We also went big with a £54m bid for Fiorentina starlet Enrico Federico Chiesa. This deal had to eventually wait for an out going to fully finance.

So, who went?

Pinamonti, Karamoh and Matteo Politano all went for significant sums following their respective loans during the 2019/20 season. £15.5m, £11.25m and 16.25m respectfully.

Mauro Icardi left for a permanent move to PSG for £60m and Matias Vecino left for Porto for 9.5m rising to 12.5m.

Joao Mario would leave for Arsenal for £10.75m rising to £13.5m and Ashley Young would leave for Besiktas for under £500k.

Godin and Candreva would leave for the Premier League on free contracts. And Christian Eriksen would get the big money move to Real Madrid for £60m.

The big shock outgoing was another deal made by a Premier League team. Chelsea would take their time but eventually accept our increased demand of wanting £89m for Lautaro Martinez. And it would be this deal that would give the money to seal the Ricky Church Federico Chiesa deal.

How do we look now?

As a squad we look in far better shape with what I believe is a greater balance of experienced seasoned pros, up and coming youngsters and some who fit in between.

Goalkeepers;

Samir Handanovic, Ionut Radu, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Michele Di Gregorio.

Defenders;

Andrea Ranocchia, Stefan De Vrij, Alessandro Bastoni, Milan Skiniar, Danilio D’Ambrosio, Noah Katterbach, Federico Dimarco, Tommaso Barbieri.

Midfielders;

Stefano Sensi, Roberto Gagliardini, Sandro Tonali, Nicolo Barella, Sergej Milincovic-Savic, Arturo Vidal, Radja Nainggolan, Giovanni Reyna, Ivan Perisic, Luigi Mendola, Samuele Mulattieri

Forwards and Wingers;

Federico Chiesa, Simone Rabbi, Amad Toure, Romolu Lukaku, Emanual Vignato, Eddie Salcedo, Sebastiano Esposito.

So how are we looking to play?

My initial aim is to stick with the 4231 which was remarkably successful last season. Now there were two variations of the tactic which positioned the “Attacking Midfielder” centrally, known as Central Spoonerism and the other with the “Attacking Midfielder” slightly to the left called The Big Spoon. The name holds no bearing at all to anything nor has any meaning, it is just a name. The key player or role in the two tactics has been Stefano Sensi in the Deep lying playmaker slot. He has been critical in the assist and deepr build up towards the goals scored. The need to have a suitable and very able deputy in Sandro Tonali will no doubt prove to be a shrewd move in maintaining creativity in the attacking phases of play.

These two tactics are available for your own perusal by clicking on the tactics and downloading for your own game. Let us know how you get on!

What about the Questions?

We had mentioned earlier that questions had been asked by the media about the difficult start to the season. Inter had breezed past Udinese, struggled against a plucky Atalanta and been defeated by a triumphant Roma.

The progress over the next month was awesome. The defeat to Roma was like a reset button. The results and performances came back and the team seem to build in confidence. The most pleasing result was the 5-1 home win against Shakhtar. I say this because at one point the game was 1-1. Yet the second goal from DeVrij and the late introduction of Esposito brought a very saitsfactory performance to what could have been a battling match.

Below is the competitions chart of how Inter are fairing so far.

Ciao for now! Enjoyed this post? Check out other Football Manager content at Dictate the Game .

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• One-Club Man: Defence-First Football & Club DNA In FM24
• One-Club Man: 1st Day on The Job, Meet The Team