[FM09] Twenty years in Italy

Game – Football Manager 2007

Database – 7.0.2, Medium

Leagues – Top two from England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain

This game is now in July 2026 so the earlier updates of the seasons will be a bit brief, it’s before Best Elevens were added to the game so there’s less info to go on and will have to come all from memory, club records and player histories where possible. Since there’s so much else to write about I’ll try and include a few write-ups of key players with each update so you know who the important people are throughout the game, especially in future years when there will be less names you recognise.

Internazionale

Serie A

2006/07

How the season went

In my first year in charge of Inter we won Serie A comfortably, only losing three games along the way as we finished on 85 points, 17 clear of Chievo. The double was achieved with a 7-4 aggregate win over Roma in the Copa Italia Final. Europe didn’t go so well though, crashing out of the Champions League in the first knockout round 4-2 against Valencia.

The fan’s player of the year was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and this was deserved for his 46 goals, 32 of which came in the league. Alvaro Recoba chipped in with 16 assists, and Dejan Stankovic had the best average rating with 7.33 over 48 games.

Javier Zanetti was the side’s player with the most league appearances at the end of the season, 374 in total, and Alvaro Recoba had the highest amount of goals, 54.

Esteban Cambiasso was the biggest exit from the team, going to Barcelona for £20 million. And the most expensive addition to the team was the chairman’s signing of John Arne Riise from Liverpool for £11 million. Other notable signings include Igor Akinfeev and Vincent Kompany.

Key players

Igor Akinfeev came from CSKA Moscow for £9 million and has to be considered one of Inter’s best ever goalkeepers. Although the goalkeeping situation over the years has seen players dropped quickly when they had bad games, in the twenty years since signing he’s played 520 matches for Inter, lots of these as vice-captain. Amazingly, he managed a clean sheet in over half of his matches, an astonishing 267 times. He only conceded 372 goals in this time. Although he only played 20 league games in 2021/22, he only conceded 6 goals, making 15 shut-outs. He’s still in the Inter Reserves at this time, but is planning to retire at the end of 2026. He is Russia’s most capped player with 132 caps, making his last appearance in 2020, and kept at least 45 clean sheets in these games.

Just as important to the club over the years was Vincent Kompany. Between signing from Hamburg for £9.5 million and retiring from playing in 2020 he made 522 appearances in central defence for Inter, the majority of these as captain. His peak season was 2012/13, playing 50 games at an average of 7.70, earning himself eight man of the match awards in this time. He is Belgium’s most capped player with 119 caps, scoring nine goals for his country. When he stopped playing in 2020 I immediately signed him up as a coach at Inter, and in the summer of 2026 he became my assistant manager.

Also signed was 16 year old Spanish centre midfielder Adrian Porcel from Osasuna for 750k. After spending several seasons out on loan, he started breaking into the Inter team in 2013. After a couple of years on the fringes of the side though a huge £35.5 million offer came in from Valencia in 2015 and was accepted. Just two years later he moved again, for an even bigger fee, to Arsenal for £44.5 million. He spent five years there before moving back to Italy, Milan signing him for £9.25 million. During his career he played just under 500 league games, only scoring 20 odd goals but creating over 60 assists for his team-mates. Internationally he gained 71 caps, and at the age of 35 he is now the Spanish assistant manager.

Where the trophies went

English Premiership – Liverpool

French Ligue Un – Paris Saint-Germain

German Bundesliga – Hamburg

Italian Serie A – Internazionale

Dutch Eredivisie – Feyenoord

Spanish La Liga – Barcelona

Champions League – Barcelona

UEFA Cup – Benfica

World Club Cup - Internacional

Good start.

Stankovic and Cambiasso were great on 07.

Kompany .

Internazionale

Serie A

2007/08

How the season went

In my second year managing Inter Serie A was again won comfortably, as we gained 84 points to finish 13 points ahead of second placed Milan. For a second year in a row the double was achieved, as we beat Lazio 4-2 on aggregate in the final. In Europe we underachieved again though, this time making it to the quarter finals before being knocked out by our Italian rivals Roma 3-4.

The fan’s player of the year was again Zlatan Ibrahimovic, although his goalscoring total was down considerably from the previous year. 28 goals was still impressive though, especially as he also provided more assist than anyone else in the team, 15. Patrick Vieira managed the highest average rating, 7.52, over his 46 matches.

Full-back Manuel Pinelli became the youngest player to ever play for Inter when he started against Werder Bremen in the Champions League at the age of 16 years and 361 days. He still holds that record, though he only ever played one more game for Inter before leaving and spending his career in the lower leagues of Italy.

With 19 more Serie A appearances Javier Zanetti remained the player at the club with most league games for the team under his belt, the total now at 393. While Ibrahimovic was drawing most of the plaudits with his goals, Adriano was also banging them in and he overtook Recoba as the player at the club with the most goals, as he now had 66 league strikes to his name.

The biggest name signing this season was Mario Gomez for £23.5 million from Stuttgart. He never really adjusted to Italy though, and with Adriano and Ibrahimovic at the club he was firmly third choice. He proved to be an expensive flop, later leaving in 2013 for £11.75 million to Koln.

Giovanni dos Santos came in for £2.3 million from Barcelona with high hopes for him. However he proved to be a disappointment in his time with the club, never making a serious impression in first team plans and spending most of his Inter career in the reserves. When he finally left in 2017 for PSG, we still managed to get £10 million for him though.

Hakan Ekberg was an attacking right-back signed from MyPa in his native Finland for just £150k. After two very good seasons out on loan at Manchester United and Bayern Munich he seemed ready to break into the Inter first team, but then he started moaning about not playing enough and refused to sign a new contract. He left for our rivals Roma on a Bosman transfer in 2015, but from a personal point of view, it was good to see him have a very underwhelming career. He never played particularly well in his spells at Roma, Barcelona and Manchester City, and started only 256 league games during his career. Serves him right.

There were no notable players leaving the club this year.

Key players

Alberto Zapater proved to be a great signing for the club. After Cambiasso left the previous transfer window Zapater came in for £7 million from Zaragoza and proved to be a bargain at that price, filling the defensive midfielder role very well over the next 15 or so years. In both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons he was the player with the highest average rating at Inter.

Where the trophies went

English Premiership – Manchester United

French Ligue Un – Paris Saint-Germain (second in a row)

German Bundesliga – Bayern Munich

Italian Serie A – Internazionale (second in a row)

Dutch Eredivisie – PSV Eindhoven

Spanish La Liga – Real Madrid

Champions League – Roma

UEFA Cup – Bayern Munich

World Club Cup - Barcelona

European Championships – France

Italy's a fun place to manage. I had a Serie C club there in FM08 and it was a real challenge. Will be checking on you!

Ian, I'll be following your accounts my real life team The brief season summaries have been good.

Internazionale

Serie A

2008/09

How the season went

Serie A was won for the third time, but it was much closer this year, finishing just two points ahead of second placed Milan. The Copa Italia was relinquished, getting knocked out 7-4 on aggregate by Roma in the quarter finals. The away leg saw the biggest defeat of my time at Inter, losing horribly 6-2. The Champions League saw a much better performance than previous years, as we reached the final. After 120 minutes against Lyon the score was level at 1-1, and we went on to win the penalty shoot-out.

Adriano took the focus off of his striking partner this season, as his 33 goals were enough to convince the supporters to name him the fan’s player of the year. Vincent Kompany was the player with the average rating, 7.36 over 50 matches, and new signing Leonardo Pisculichi provided the most assists, 15.

Javier Zanetti played only four matches this season, but it was enough to keep him as the player at the club with the most league appearances for Inter, the total now at 307. With his impending retirement though, a new name will have this record next season. Adriano’s 21 league strikes keep him as the player at the club with most league goals at Inter, 87.

The big signing of this season was Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner, bought in from Arsenal for £12 million after a decent loan spell the previous year. He’s another striker who never really made it at Inter though with Ibrahimovic and Adriano ahead of him, and spent lots of his time with the club unhappy or in the reserves. He eventually left on a free for Sampdoria in 2015, where he was their player of the year four times in a row upon arrival, and retired still there in 2022.

There were no notable sales this year, but a number of aging players retired. Julio Cesar, Luis Figo, Francesco Coco and Javier Zanetti all played their last games for Inter this year.

Key players

Under the word ‘bargain’ in the dictionary, you should see a picture of this man. Norwegian centre-back Leif-Tore Mellemstrand signed from Start for only £4k, and repaid this thousands of times over throughout his career. After a few years maturing out on loan he slotted into the centre-back position alongside Vincent Kompany and stayed there for much of the next dozen years until he retired in the mid 2020s. In 2014/15 and 2017/18 he was the player with the highest average rating at the club, and he made over 90 appearances for his country.

Argentine left winger Leonardo Pisculichi had spent time in Argentina, Spain and Qatar before I signed him from River Plate for £4.4 million in 2008. He went on to play 391 games for Inter before retiring in 2019, scoring only 37 goals but assisting with 134 in this time. In five of his seasons with the team he provided more assists than anyone else. He only played 32 times for his country, lots of these appearances from the bench, with his only regular run of start coming in 2013, but he still managed to score 8 times for his nation. After hanging up his boots he went into coaching, and when I was England manager in 2020 I hired him as the Under 19 manager. This is a role he still fills, having won 33 out of 53 games since then.

Where the trophies went

English Premiership – Arsenal

French Ligue Un – Lyon

German Bundesliga – Bayern Munich (second in a row)

Italian Serie A – Internazionale (third in a row)

Dutch Eredivisie – PSV Eindhoven (second in a row)

Spanish La Liga – Barcelona

Champions League – Internazionale

UEFA Cup – Juventus

World Club Cup – Yokohama F Marinos

Norway

I also had a very brief run as managed of Norway. So brief, it only lasted two games. The first was okay, a 2-0 friendly victory against South Korea. But the second resulted in a disappointing 3-1 loss against local rivals Denmark, and I chose to step down after that match.

Internazionale

Serie A

2009/10

How the season went

For the fourth year in a row Serie A was won by Inter. With 84 points we finished 12 points ahead of Roma in second place. Roma also came runners-up to us in the Copa Italia, beating them 7-3 on aggregate. A 6-2 win at our place was revenge for losing to them by the same scoreline in this competition last year. The biggest win of my management career so far came in the World Club Cup, beating Jubilo Iwata in the semi-finals before going on to defeat Club America 2-0 in the final. We went back to underperforming in the Champions League though, making it just to the first knockout round before losing 3-2 to Sporting CP and not even coming close to retaining the trophy.

The fan’s player of the year award went to Adriano for the second successive year, and his 34 goals, one more than last year, also meant he was the club’s leading scorer. Leonardo Pisculichi had a great year producing 25 assists. Alberto Zapater was the club’s highest rated player with an average rating of 7.67 over his 39 matches.

23 league strikes kept Adriano as Inter’s current player with the most league goals, the total now at 110. Zanetti’s retirement also left Adriano as the player at the club with the most league games for Inter, 200.

This year was possibly the first which showed my habit for signing way too many young players, as 23 players joined the club this year for a total of £62 million. Of the three big name transfers this year, none of them were particularly impressive over the years. Tim Wiese came in from Werder Bremen for £9 million, but never dislodged Igor Akinfeev from the first team and left on a free transfer in 2013. Theo Walcott cost £11.75 million from Arsenal and was decent, but never had a real settled run in the team, being used as a striker one week and then a right winger the next, and moved on to Newcastle for £12.75 million in 2016. Portuguese central midfielder Manuel Fernandes cost £18.25 million from Benfica and I can’t remember much about his time at the club, so I can only assume it wasn’t anything special. He left for Leicester in 2015 for £11 million.

No notable players left Inter.

Where the trophies went

English Premiership – Chelsea

French Ligue Un – Paris Saint-Germain

German Bundesliga – Bayern Munich (third in a row)

Italian Serie A – Internazionale (fourth in a row)

Dutch Eredivisie – PSV Eindhoven (third in a row)

Spanish La Liga – Barcelona (second in a row)

Champions League – Liverpool

UEFA Cup – Rangers

World Club Cup – Internazionale

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Note – Not the most exciting of updates here, the next one should have more players to talk about more in-depth though.