Can Roberto Mancini reignite Inter Milan?

There has long been a theory that the omnipotence of Jose Mourinho's management style causes clubs to suffer inordinately following his departure.

Headily toasting his victories leads to an unavoidable hangover. As evidence of this, Porto failed to win the Primeira Liga title the season after Mourinho left in 2004, and the then European champions took four campaigns to get beyond even the last-16 stage in the Champions League.

At Chelsea too, the decline following Mourinho's exit was noticeable. Avram Grant, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Guus Hiddink, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and Rafael Benitez all came and left in the six years between Mourinho falling and rising again at Stamford Bridge. Only Ancelotti lasted longer than nine months. The desire to experience the sweet taste of success again breeds a short-term perspective.

Nowhere has this Mourinho Effect been more noticeable that at Internazionale. This week Roberto Mancini returned to the San Siro, the seventh coach appointed since Mourinho left for Madrid in May 2010. Mancini is charged with addressing a slump which has seen the Nerazzurri finish outside the Serie A Champions League spots in the past three seasons. They now sit ninth in the table, having won just four of their 11 games so far. Walter Mazzarri was sacked on Saturday after what general manager Marco Fassone labelled a 'negative atmosphere' at the club. It's easy to see why a dismal mood exists.

Jose Mourinho's final season at Inter exists as one of the great achievements in domestic football. They became only the sixth team in history to win the Treble of league, cup and European Cup, the first Italian club to achieve the feat.

Since then, Inter's deterioration has been severe. They finished second in Serie A in 2011, but then slipped to sixth, ninth and fifth thereafter - Rafael Benitez, Leonardo, Gian Piero Gasperini, Claudio Ranieri, Andrea Stramaccioni and Mazzarri all failing to arrest the slump. In Europe things have declined even more rapidly, with exits to Schalke and Marseille in the Champions League followed by defeat to Tottenham in the Europa League. In three years, Inter went from continental champions to not even qualifying for Europe.

Any discussion over the Nerazzurri's downfall must centre on the inability to replace their ageing (and thus departing) stars. Samuel Eto'o, Wesley Sneijder Thiago Motta, Maicon, Lucio and Marco Materazzi all left the San Siro in a two year period. In the summer, Esteban Cambiasso, Javier Zanetti, Walter Samuel and Diego Milito added their names to that list. Of the 23 players that appeared for Inter in the Champions League in 2009/10 season, none still remain. Fittingly, club legend Zanetti was the last to turn off the light - there is something very modern about an era finishing in just four years.

The continuous stream of managers, each with their own style, formation and ideas, has destroyed any hopes of certainty at Inter. To read through the first-team squad is to scan a list of individuals rather than a team: Nemanja Vidic, Yuto Nagatomo, Yann M'Vila, Dani Osvaldo, Hernanes. There is no specific Inter style anymore, no identity, merely the sour taste of impermanence. Seven cooks in four years never gave the broth a sporting chance.

Inter's squad is not without talent, but one wonders how long it will take Fredy Guarin or Mateo Kovacic to grow tired of the circus. Both have been linked with moves away from Milan. The wonder is that they ever joined at all.

The main issue with constant flux is a lack of long-term thinking. Joel Obi and Ibrahima M'Baye are the only products of the club's Primavera to have started league matches this season, despite the academy's recent success. Players such as Mattia Destro, Mario Balotelli, Davide Santon and Philippe Coutinho were all allowed to leave before they had even turned 21. The days of Giuseppe Baresi, Giuseppe Bergomi and Giacinto Facchetti - players who stayed at the Nerazzurri for their whole careers - seem nothing but a blue-and-black-tinted memory.

All this uncertainty has been played out against a backdrop of insecurity at boardroom level. The future of president and owner Massimo Moratti had been in doubt for some time, but he eventually announced in September 2013 that he was in discussions to sell the club to Indonesian businessman Erik Thohir. In November 2013 Thohir was announced as the club's new president.

And so now, in their darkest hour, Inter have turned to a familiar face in Mancini, a coach who divides opinion perhaps more than any other at the highest level of European football.

No-one has won more trophies in Inter's history than Mancini - three Scudettos, two Coppa Italias and two Supercoppa Italiana titles. That is certainly the party line, with president Thohir hailing Mancini's "track record at Inter" as key in his appointment. "His international experience and hunger for success will I know drive the team to the next level."

However, you can't spell Mancini without 'ma' - there is always a 'but'. During his first spell at Inter, Mancini was able to rely on a generous budget from Moratti, and the Calciopoli scandal had taken away the direct competition for both the league title and any potential signings. This is a far different landscape than in when Mancini swung into town a decade ago.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Patrick Vieira, David Pizarro, Maicon and Walter Samuel all arrived during Mancini's four-year reign, making the Serie A title little more than a formality. "Inter only started winning when they took advantage of Calciopoli, taking Juventus' players," former Juve general manager Luciano Moggi says pithily, in reference to Ibrahimovic and Vieira.

As ever, Mancini has his own opinions on the subject. "Mourinho won the Champions League because he inherited a team that I had built," he told the Evening Standard earlier this year. "It is the same at City. All these top players that are at City now I bought: Samir Nasri, Yaya Toure, David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko." He is a man with high estimations of his own ability.

There may be a degree of truth to the Italian's words, but there is no doubt that his ten domestic trophies won as manager have been owed, at least in part, to sizeable transfer budgets. Mancini's last job, at Galatasaray, was ended after a row over transfer spending but it is important to note that he took over the league champions and spent more money than every other side in the league during his reign.

"When I accepted the coaching post, Gala's aims were different," claimed Mancini following the split. After finishing nine points behind Istanbul rivals Fenerbache, the club might well make the same point to their departing manager.

Unfortunately, Mancini cannot now spend lavishly to accelerate improvement. "We will buy players, but we're going to be careful with our spending," Thohir admitted upon takeover. "Our objective is financial restructuring, creating a club which is in sound financial health." The priority for Inter remains a new stadium which they themselves own, crucial if they are to bridge the gap to Juventus. However, the playing staff also requires improving if they are to match their ambitions. It all creates a very un-Mancini job description.

These are not the only concerns over Mancini's management. Three years before his infamous pitch-side disagreement with Carlos Tevez, the same happened between Mancini and Luis Figo, while Manchester journalist Ian Ladyman recalls receiving a text from a senior City player talking of taking "champagne off ice" when they learnt of the Italian's sacking. Similar tales of unrest and unpopularity have been told of Mancini's first spell at Inter, and that's when they were winning league titles. Add to this his apparent phobia of the Champions League (he has won just nine of his last 27 matches in the competition) and it is obvious why there are doubts about his ability to succeed.

However, whilst Mancini's appointment represents a gamble on Thohir's part, it simply has to work. This is a crucial time for the future of Internazionale. With only three Champions League places on offer in Serie A, it feels like a case of Juventus and Roma + 1 for the foreseeable future. The longer the club goes without Champions League qualification, the harder it becomes. Even Benitez's Napoli look far further along the path to sustainable progress.

A European giant just four years ago, Inter have now fallen to their knees. 'Never go back' is football's oft-repeated adage, but Inter have tried and failed with every other option - appointing Mancini is the consequence.

For the club, this is a last desperate attempt to claw themselves back into the elite; for Mancini himself, a chance to restore his reputation in familiar surroundings. The new manager is about to find out that this Internazionale is different in all but name from the one he left six years ago.