From what I understand, the ones in financial trouble are not Inter themselves, but their owners (apparently that's already been the case for a while, in fact). Probably not on the verge of liquidation, though.
This is somewhat true. Inter aren’t gigantic commercially, doing pretty well but sitting behind the likes of Atleti, Dortmund, Juve and Arsenal when it comes to revenue and club value. Their owners, Suning Corporation, have bad short-term debt to the tune of half a billion that they’re currently being chased for and unable to pay to multiple debtors in the domestic Chinese markets. The Jiangsu Government, in who’s jurisdiction Suning lie, now see the previously successful holding company as somewhat of a regional embarrassment and are looking to flog them off to the highest bidder and are approaching multiple corporations in hope one will buy up and restructure Suning. Alibaba are rumoured to be interested in a controlling stake.
With all that turmoil, there really isn’t the budget for massive input on the footballing side with Inter Milan. Suning bought Inter when the Chinese government were extremely pro-football and domestic growth as social tool, with the intent to use Inter in a similar way to how City and PSG are reputation-enhancing vehicles for their owner and the owner’s country/state. Not too long ago, the Chinese government pulled the plug on the incentives and assistance that corporations were being given to promote football domestically and internationally, hence the sudden end to all the mad rumours of top class players going to play in China. Some Corps, Suning included, just completely ceased operations of their football teams, because in their eyes, without the assistance of the government and the cache that gave them, what was the point in running a loss making endeavour such as a football team. Suning dissolved their own club, Jiangsu Suning 3 months into a league campaign. Just shut the doors and hung up a sign when they’d already commenced fixtures and had a full plying squad including players like Eder and Alex Teixeira (remember him?). This was a side that had won the Chinese Super League the previous season, they weren’t some no-hopers.
So Inter have been retained as a business rather than for the previous sportswashing purposes, which dramatically changes the intent with what they want to do. When they got Conte, they spent big of Lukaku, Hakimi, Barella etc. Now, they’ll be slowly selling off their best players and hoping to remain competitive whilst generating profit through continuous sales and growth. When the Super League failed to go ahead, that really sounded the death knell for Inter. The golden ticket to increased revenue out the window, and a newly demotivated owner who has so many issues in their more important domestic market that running an Italian football club to a decent standard isn’t high on the list of priorities.
Suning recently refinanced the club with a $336m deal with a US holdings firm, but the back end of the deal looks dodgy as fuck. Just as AC Milan were acquired by a US hedge fund from a Chinese ownership group following failure to pay debts, I reckon the city’s second side will be in US hands before too long. Barella, De Vrij and Lautaro are all reportedly for sale for the right price. Hakimi and Lukaku gone. It’s all gone a bit wrong.
