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No Italian team had been eliminated three times in a row in the group stage of the Champions League. On the contrary, the company succeeded Inter, capable of putting three flops in a row, one after the other (four wanting to also add the one of the Europa League in 2016/17 with De Boer, Vecchi and Pioli on the bench), and eliminate themselves by hitting to Shakhtar Donetsk without even having to worry about cookies, as Real Madrid did their duty by beating Borussia Monchengladbach.
That place in the Champions League so sought after and persecuted in the Spalletti era first and then Conte now becomes a total goodbye to Europe already in December, without being able to reach those round of 16 that have been missing since 2011/12.
A European failure, that of Conte, which is above all sporting, but in the second line also economic, without even the bearing of the Europa League that last season had also transformed into the pursuit of the first title for Suning, a career that ended however with disappointment in the final with Sevilla.
Of course, the Scudetto race remains after second place last season. And yet there has been no lack of investment to improve in Europe as well. Just examine the financial statements as of June 30, 2020 to understand what the impact of Conte’s arrival was, starting with the market.
In fact, in the last two seasons Inter have bought:
- Romelu Lukaku, 67.2 million;
- Achraf Hakimi, 40.5 millioni;
- Nicolò Barella, 40.0 million;
- Christian Eriksen, 26.9 million;
- Valentino Lázaro, 21.0 million;
- Stefano Sensi, 20 million (+3 million loan);
- Diego Godin, 3.5 million;
- Matteo Darmian, 2.5 million;
- Ashley Young, 1.7 millioni;
- Alexander Kolarov, 1.5 million.
All this without taking into account, for example, the transfers of Biraghi and Moses during the 2019/20 season and the purchase of Alexis Sánchez from Manchester United. And, above all, without losing fundamental players, with the exception of Mauro Icardi: in the last two seasons the different Godín, Candreva, Politano, Joao Mario, Asamoah, Borja Valero, Dalbert, Gabigol have left Inter, some of them still not definitive title. Basically, the structure of a team that had already finished fourth in Serie A, albeit with great difficulty, in the two seasons with Luciano Spalletti, with additional investments of almost 230 million in the next two seasons.
The impact has already been seen in the accounts as of June 30, 2020: the contractual remuneration of the players decreased compared to 2018/19 from 118 to 114 million, but only due to a “decrease due to the pro-rata temporis accounting of their salaries after the extension of the 2019/2020 sports season until August 31, 2020 after the measures issued by federal agencies in opposition to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, ”Inter writes in the report.
“Instead, the cost of registered personnel was fully accounted for through February 2020 and the residual cost was recalculated over the residual duration of the extended sports season through August 31, 2020.“We always read on the balance sheet. In essence, therefore, the increase in salaries will be partly reflected in the 2021 budget: on the other hand, as of March 31, 2020 the salaries of players had increased to 91.9 million euros, from 87, 3 million as of March 31, 2019.
And the same can be said for coaches’ fees. As of March 31, 2020, in fact, the compensation of coaches and staff amounted to 19.7 million, compared to 12.4 million in 2019: as of June 30, 2020, however, it was 23.5 million, compared to 16.7 million as of June 20, 2019, with a growth of 41%.
If the Covid effect on wages, which will change the cost impact on the 2021 budget, is to be considered, the same cannot be said in place of depreciation. Depreciation that in 2019/20 grew significantly due to the “important investments made during the sessions of the transfer market of the current year”, as Inter himself writes, going from 84.7 to 120.2 million with an increase of 42% .
Even if we only want to consider the remuneration recorded in the financial statements as of June 30, 2020, Inter de Conte weighed in the budget 257.7 million euros (including the fees of the coaches), compared to 219 million for Inter de Spalletti in 2018/19. A cost difference that had its impact on Serie A: each of the 82 points in 2019/20 cost 3.14 million in team-related costs, up from 3.17 million for each of the 69 championship points 2018/19. .
A similar performance, therefore, but with two different final results. Something that did not happen in the Champions League, where Conte’s flop has been felt so far with much greater weight.
Always looking at the economic side, Inter de Conte was eliminated in 2019/20 by Borussia Dortmund: the gialloneri in 2019/20 had registered personnel costs of 143 million and a depreciation of 92.1 million for a total of 235 million, against 163 million in cost of registered personnel and 120 million in depreciation for Inter, for a total of 283 million.
In 2020/21, the direct opponent was Borussia Moenchengladbach: even assuming that the costs of both remain identical to the last budget presented, the Germans in calendar year 2019 spent 110 million between depreciation (41.4 million) and expanded personnel cost (68.6 million), compared to the 301 million of Inter between depreciation (120 million) and cost of expanded personnel (181 million). An important delta, which, however, had no effect on the pitch.
Results on the court that also have a negative effect from the point of view of income, in terms of lost Uefa prizes. Despite the elimination, Inter will continue to collect at least 50 million (compared to about 60 million in 2019/20, of which about 45 included in the financial statements as of June 30), of which 37.6 million without considering the market pool:
- 14.5 million as a group classification bonus;
- 17.7 million of the historical ranking of ten years;
- 5.4 million as a performance bonus.
But it is precisely this last item in which the Conte effect was not felt, compared to the recent past:
- Spalletti 2018/19: 7.2 million (G2, D2)
- Conte 2019/20: 6.3 million (2 wins 1 draw)
- Conte 2020/21: 5.4 million (1 win 3 draws)
Neither of the two coaches reached the 9.5 million bonuses resulting from qualifying for the round of 16, despite Conte in 2019/20 at least managing to match the lack of income by reaching the final of the Europa League ( 10 million without considering the market pool).
However, the need, in a season like this in which the closure of stadiums and the Covid effect are being felt with greater pressure, was to also move forward to guarantee significant liquidity. And even staying in the Europa League will certainly not help Nerazzurre’s coffers.
Now only the Scudetto’s career remains to radically change the judgment of the season: win to lift a trophy again, interrupt Juventus’ dominance and prevent the second (and perhaps last) year of the Conte era in the Nerazzurri from ending a total failure. .
