When Massimo Moratti took control of Inter Milan in the 1990’s he promised to bring success to Inter at all costs.
They had failed to win the European cup since the mid 60’s and were constantly in the shadow of AC and Juventus.
He invested heavily and attempted to buy the best in the world to bring success to the San Siro. He brought in the likes of Ronaldo and Christian Vieri and attempted to “buy success” in the way that Real Madrid and Chelsea would go on to do in the years down the line.
But even with the likes of Ronaldo, Vieri, Figo and many other big names they would fail to win the Serie A title, fail to win the Coppa Italia and their only success would come in Europe’s third tier competition of the time, the UEFA Cup, which they made their own by winning it in 1991, 1994 and 1998. But for a side who spent the volumes of money Inter did this shows the incompetence they showed. In their finals they defeated Roma, Salzburg and Lazio. Hardly giants of the European game and only going to highlight the level that Inter managed to reach.
Their lack of success continued into the 00’s and it took one of the greatest manager’s in modern football to end their wait for major glory. Bringing in Jose Mourinho and giving him huge amounts of money to spend was the only way to bring Inter some glory. Mourinho would win everything in sight, winning the first treble by an Italian side. He then left for Madrid though, showing that Inter was never his end goal. They are not on the same level as the English and Spanish sides but they will, for some reason, always claim to be on their level.
Inter believe they are a European super power, but this is not true. They are no more welcome at Europe’s top table than Porto, Bayer Leverkusen and Chelsea. Big clubs yes, but in Europe’s true elite? No chance.