Roberto Mancini was heavily criticised for the way his signings during the January transfer window performed poorly. One of the more expensive names to arrive at the San Siro during January was Xherdan Shaqiri.
The former Bayern Munich winger was signed for around £ 13 million, but he is on the verge of rejoining the Bundesliga outfit after failing to deliver at Inter. Despite the disappointment, the club has continued to back its manager. Players like Geoffrey Kondogbia have been brought in for huge sums of money and they will have more pressure thanShaqiri had six months ago.
New signings likeJeison Murillo featured for Inter in the 1-0 defeat against Bayern Munich in a pre-season friendly match. Despite the game ending in a disappointing result, Mancini was relatively happy with the performance of his players. This result is rather good considering that the Inter players have only begun preparations for the new season. The Italian Serie A usually begins slightly later than major top leagues. The slight disappointment would have come in the form of the injury to Murillo, who was substituted just before the interval. Inter Milan will continue their pre-season preparations by taking on arch rivals AC Milan in a friendly match.
"Murillo made a good impression - he's got a strong character to go with his physique. It's a shame he picked up that knock but I don't think it's anything serious. Kondogbia did well, too. He's only been training with us for 10 days and I think he'll need a bit more time to find his best form, but I'm happy with his performance all the same," said Mancini. A lot of pressure will be on the former City manager after he witnessed his team finish in a disappointing eighth place last season in the league.