A year ago last Wednesday, Erik Thohir, the Indonesian billionaire, became the majority shareholder at Inter Milan and a new era opened for the most decorated Italian club of the past decade.

The idea that Serie A might be stepping in a fresh, bold direction with Thohir’s arrival also took hold.

The division needed rebooting, said Thohir, a point he repeated in the interviews he gave to mark the anniversary of his takeover.

Thohir also has interests in Major League Soccer and in Indonesia football, and he told CNN: “It’s important we think globally.”

He urged his fellow club presidents in Italy not to let the once-glamorous brand that is Serie A fall further behind Spanish or German domestic football in perceived international status.

Thohir is not unique among investors from outside Europe to look with envy at the way the English Premier League markets and sells itself.

Nor, apparently, is he alone for thinking Serie A clubs, few of whom are foreign-owned, represent an opportunity, with huge potential for growth.

Witness Roma’s current renaissance, three years after a US-based group took over there.

On the day Thohir celebrated his first birthday as the most influential figure at Inter, stories – speculative so far – emerged that Qatari investors were considering moving for a stake in Napoli, who, like Inter, are a club confident of their large support-base, but frustrated at the barriers separating them from the game’s elite playground.

Inter meet Napoli tomorrow night, a big-audience fixture but 10th versus seventh in the Serie A table.

That means neither are in the shaded zone that would put them in any European competition were they not to elevate their positions by the season’s end, and a long way short of the top two spots that guarantee participation in the Uefa Champions League.

Inter won that prize just four years ago and then entrusted the defence of the title to Rafa Benitez, who is now coach of Napoli.

Napoli, meanwhile, made an energetic debut in the Champions League in 2011/12, guided there by Walter Mazzarri, who is now the manager of Inter.

The fact that Mazzarri is well into a second season at Inter means he is already enjoying a longer tenure than a majority of the coaches employed under Thohir’s predecessor, Massimo Moratti, who remains the club’s honorary president.

Benitez lasted barely five months at the club. He would have been forgiven for thinking sympathetically about Mazzarri’s position when Thohir last week confirmed he had been seeking the advice of Moratti about how the club should steer their way through a delicate phase in their campaign.

Inter have lost their past two league matches, heavily: 4-1 at home to Cagliari and 3-0 at Fiorentina.

“Walter Mazzarri will be coach at Inter for many years because what we need is stability,” Thohir said last week. Yet, inevitably, the buzz around the Italian peninsula is that another defeat might cause Thohir to reassess.

If he is as sensitive to booing from Inter followers as Moratti was, Mazzarri probably cannot afford to lose this joust with Benitez.

Juventus and Roma already appear well on schedule to take the top two places.

Whether Mazzarri or a successor has the resources at Inter to build a sustained challenge for third place, and a Champions League play-off next August, is also a doubt.

Thohir has authorised just over €25 million (Dh117.5) of spending on new players in the two transfer windows of his presidency, a modest outlay by the standards of Moratti’s extravagant 20 years.

Two of the summer recruits, Danilio D’Ambrosio and Daniel Osvaldo, are injured and the midfield roster appears threadbare given the fitness doubts afflicting Gary Medel, Fredy Guarin, Mateo Kovacic, Yuto Nagatomo and Jonathan. Mazzarri’s line-up tomorrow will be long way from the XI he would ideally look to play.

As for Thohir, it would be safe to assume that mid-table in Serie A is a long way from the ideal he envisaged when he took over at Inter 12 months ago.

sports@thenational.ae

Fixtures

Today

Roma v Chievo 8pm

Sassuolo v Juventus 10.45pm Tomorrow

Fiorentina v Lazio 2.30pm

Atalanta v Parma 5pm

Cagliari v Sampdoria 5pm

Palermo v Cesena 5pm

Torino v Udinese 5pm

Verona v AC Milan 5pm

Inter Milan v Napoli 10.45pm

Monday

Genoa v Empoli 10.45pm

Serie A table

Team P W D L GD P

Juventus 6 6 0 0 11 18

Roma 6 5 0 1 7 15

Sampdoria 6 4 2 0 5 14

Udinese 6 4 1 1 4 13

AC Milan 6 3 2 1 4 11

Verona 6 3 2 1 1 11

Napoli 6 3 1 2 1 10

Lazio 6 3 0 3 4 9

Fiorentina 6 2 3 1 2 9

Inter Milan 6 2 2 2 3 8

Genoa 6 2 2 2 0 8

Empoli 6 1 3 2 0 6

Cesena 6 1 3 2 -5 6

Torino 6 1 2 3 -3 5

Cagliari 6 1 1 4 -2 4

Chievo 6 1 1 4 -4 4

Atalanta 6 1 1 4 -6 4

Parma 6 1 0 5 -5 3

Palermo 6 0 3 3 -8 3

Sassuolo 6 0 3 3 -9 3