How many first team signings should we expect Inter to make?

It’s fairly safe to say that Inter Milan’s lack of Mercato activity this summer has been concerning for most fans. While we don’t except the club to make any signings until after July 1^st, the absence of concrete rumors is interesting this late into the offseason.

It’s also no secret that Inter have plenty of problems they need to address. The club could use a couple of new fullbacks, at least one center back, a back goalkeeper, a defensive midfielder, a winger (if Perisic departs), a backup striker (depending on how you feel about Stevan Jovetic), and generally anyone that can improve the quality of the side.

While that’s a lot to accomplish in two months, Inter’s owners have massive amounts of money, and might be ready to make a big splash to improve the club for Luciano Spalletti’s inaugural season.

So, how many first team signings should fans expect the Nerazzurri to make this summer?

To help answer this question, we looked at Inter’s transfer activity over the last five summer transfer windows and tallied the number of significant first team signings*.

*Methodology note: I qualified “significant first team signings” as players Inter acquired by loans, permanent transfers, and free transfers that would go on to make five or more first team appearances the following season (sorry, Caner Erkin and Martin Montoya).

I also took into consideration when Inter first acquired the player, not when the club triggered its obligation to buy him. For example, Joao Miranda was included in 2015 (when Inter signed him on loan from Atletico Madrid), not in 2016 (when Inter’s obligation to buy made Miranda’s move permanent). This method ender up excluding players like Eder and Marcelo Brozovic, who first joined Inter as loanees in January, to later have their moves made permanent the following summer.

So let’s dive in.

Summer 2012: In the 2012 summer window, Inter made seven first team signings. They were: Rodrigo Palacio, Samir Handanovic, Antonio Cassano, Walter Gargano, Matais Silvestre, and Gaby Mudingayi.

Summer 2013: In the 2013 summer window, Inter made six first team signings. They were: Mauro Icardi, Marco Andreolli, Hugo Campagnaro, Rolando, Ishak Belfodil, and Saphir Taider.

Summer 2014: In the 2014 summer window, Inter made five first team signings. They were: Namanja Vidic, Gary Medel, Pablo Osvaldo, Yann M’Villa, and Dodo.

Summer 2015: In the 2015 summer window, Inter made nine first team signings. They were: Ivan Perisic, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Miranda, Jeison Murillo, Jonathan Biabiany, Stevan Jovetic, Adam Ljajic, Felipe Melo, and Alex Telles.

Summer 2016: Last summer, Inter made five first team signings. They were: Antonio Candreva, Joao Mario, Ever Banega, Cristian Ansaldi, and Gabriel Barbosa.

Based on the information above, Inter have averaged 6.4 first team signings over the past five summer windows, with a high of nine in 2015, and a lows of five in 2014 and 2016.

When considering the inflation of the current Mercato, and the quality of players Inter currently need to truly improve the squad, I think it’s reasonable to expect the club to make somewhere in the range of 5-7 first team signings this summer, with 3-4 of additions being good enough to step directly into Spalletti’s Starting XI.

What do you think? How many summer signings do you expect Inter to make before the window closes on August 31^st? Participate in our poll and share in the comments below.