Inter Milan head south as other giants rise

Inter Milan started 2011 as European and world champions and the undoubted kings of Italy but it has been a painful last 12 months for the nerazzurri.

And what has made it even worse is that their traditional rivals AC Milan and Juventus have been launching comebacks of their own.

Inter ended 2010 by firing the coach who had guided them to the Club World Cup, Rafael Benitez, and hiring Milan stalwart Leonardo.

The move resulted in a slight improvement in league results but Inter were humiliated in the Champions League, losing 5-2 at home to Schalke 04 before crashing out 7-3 on aggregate.

They did enough to finish second in Serie A but gave up the title they had held for five years to bitter neighbours Milan.

Leonardo then quit to become the new sports director at Paris St Germain and Inter president Massimo Moratti opted for Gian Piero Gasperini as his replacement.

However, he also decided to sell star forward Samuel Eto'o to Anzhi Makhachkala in a move that would reportedly earn the Cameroon captain 20 million euros a year.

Without a recognised replacement, Inter started the new season poorly and Moratti undermined Gasperini by openly telling the press what system his new coach should be playing and which players should be starting.

Results worsened and Gasperini was fired after just five official matches and replaced by Claudio Ranieri.

Progress was slow under the former Chelsea and Juve coach but results did at least start to improve towards the end of the year.

It was a very different story in the red and black half of the city where Milan followed up their previous summer transfer coups - when they signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho - by getting rid of Ronaldinho and signing errant Italian talent Antonio Cassano along with experienced midfield enforcer Mark van Bommel.

Cassano played a bit part but proved a capable understudy for Ibrahimovic, Robinho and Pato.

Van Bommel's addition proved crucial, though, particularly in the absence of the often-injured Andrea Pirlo as Milan stormed to the Serie A title with two games to spare.

Coach Massimiliano Allegri had thus won the scudetto in his first season with Milan and only his third in the Italian top flight.

It was Milan's first title since 2004 but Europe was a different story as they lost to Tottenham in the second round of the Champions League.

Milan had a blip at the start of the new season but a run of five straight wins set them back on the right path and by the end of the year they were again challenging at the top.

For Juventus it was a tale of two halves to the year.

The first part saw them gradually drop down the league table from a top four spot until they finished seventh and missed out on Europe altogether.

Luigi Del Neri was given his marching orders and replaced by former midfield dynamo Antonio Conte, who had just guided Siena to promotion to Serie A.

Without a European distraction, Juve had the best start of everyone in the league and some smart buys, including Mirko Vucinic from Roma, Arturo Vidal from Bayer Leverkusen as well as Pirlo on a free transfer from Milan, created a more impressive looking squad.

There were mixed fortunes for other teams too as Napoli finished third and qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 21 years, and then knocked mega-rich Manchester City out of the group stages.

Udinese and Lazio proved their fourth and fifth placed finishes from 2010/11 were no fluke as they again started the new season well, keeping pace with Milan and Juve.

But Sampdoria went from qualifying for the Champions League by finishing fourth in 2009/10 to relegated at the end of the next season after a remarkable collapse.

Italy for their part continued their steady development under Cesare Prandelli, coasting to victory in their Euro 2012 qualifying group and recording an impressive friendly win over world champions Spain.