Inside Inter's two months of misery: Club World Cup embarrassment and dressing-room rows the latest chapter in Nerazzurri's dramatic slide from chasing a treble and beating Barcelona

Inter followed up their shock defeat of a brilliant Barca side by beating Torino on May 11 to keep alive their hopes of a second-consecutive Scudetto. The very next weekend - the penultimate of the 2024-25 season - the Serie A title race appeared to have turned in the Nerazzurri's favour.

With leaders Napoli being held to a scoreless draw in Parma, Inter were heading top of the table thanks to Dumfries' 79th-minute header at San Siro. However, in the dying seconds of normal time, Lazio were awarded a contentious penalty for a handball by Yann Bisseck, and Pedro slotted home the spot-kick to earn the visitors a 2-2 draw that effectively gifted the scudetto to Napoli.

Clearly believing themselves to have been the victims of some terrible injustice, Inter refused to fulfil any of their media obligations after the game. However, Inzaghi - who had been sent off for reacting furiously to the award of the Lazio penalty - and his players only had themselves to blame for throwing away the title, which Napoli sealed the following Friday with a Scott McTominay-inspired victory over Cagliari.

"We didn't deserve to win it because we're not top after 38 games," centre-back Stefan de Vrij told DAZN. "But there's a feeling that we could have done more in the league this year."

However, as the Dutch defender pointed out, Inter still had one game to play - the most important of their season: "We've worked really hard this year and done very well in the Champions League, so we'll now do everything we can to finish on a high. There's a huge desire to play a great final next week."

Unfortunately, what Inter produced against Paris Saint-Germain was a historically-bad performance on one of the most humiliating nights in the club's history.

Ahead of their May 31 showdown with PSG in Munich, Inter's players insisted that they had learned a lot from their previous Champions League final appearance in Istanbul in 2023. On that occasion, they had lost 1-0 to Manchester City, but played far better than anyone had expected. At the Allianz Arena, though, they were worse than anyone could have imagined.

The game was essentially over after 20 minutes, with PSG 2-0 up thanks to Achraf Hakimi and Desire Doue. A clearly exhausted Inter offered absolutely nothing by way of a response. Alessandro Bastoni was among those left utterly shell-shocked by a "painful" 5-0 defeat that left "a deep sense of bitterness and will take time to fully understand."

From the outside looking in, it felt as if time had simply caught up with Inter. An exuberant PSG showed them to be exactly what they were: an old team in need of rejuvenation. What they definitely did not need, though, was Inzaghi stepping down as coach just three days later to take charge of Al-Hilal.

Inzaghi's exit upset the majority of Inter fans. The Nerazzurri's financial constraints are well-documented, and a source of frustration to many connected with the club, but Inzaghi looked like a captain leaving a sinking ship.

The backlash only intensified after Al-Hilal revealed that Inzaghi had agreed to join the Saudi Pro League side before the Champions League final, which inevitably prompted questions over whether his imminent exit had played a part in the Munich debacle. The Gazzetta dello Sport even suggested that Inzaghi had been trying to convince Nicolo Barella and Bastoni to follow him to Jeddah, which only intensified the feeling of betrayal at San Siro.

Aside from the manner of Inzaghi exit, which Inter had not been anticipating even in spite of the pre-existing uncertainty surrounding his future, the act itself created a problem for Beppe Marotta & Co. They suddenly had a massive hole to fill, and finding a worthy replacement before the start of their Club World Cup campaign was never going to be easy.

Cesc Fabregas was Inter's top target, as the Spaniard had done an excellent job securing a top-10 finish with Como in their first season in Serie A for 21 years. However, Como refused to allow the former Arsenal midfield to leave, meaning Inter had to turn to Christian Chivu, the former Nerazzurri defender who had earned praise for keeping Parma up after taking over at Ennio Tardini in mid-February, when the Gialloblu were 19th in the table.

Chivu's tenure didn't get off to the most encouraging of starts, with Inter held to a 1-1 draw by Monterrey in their Club World Cup opener. They were also staring an embarrassing loss to Urawa Red Diamonds in the face when captain Lautaro Martinez sparked a crucial, come-from-behind win with a 78th-minute equaliser in Seattle.

Inter then beat River Plate at the same venue to seal top spot in Group E and raise hopes that the cash-strapped Nerazzurri could not only finish a draining campaign with a flourish, but also earn some serious prize money in the process. However, while Inter did reasonably well out of the Club World Cup financially , they still suffered a humiliatingly early exit at the hands of Fluminense that exposed a massive divide in the dressing room.

Immediately after the 2-0 defeat in Charlotte, Lautaro let rip. After apologising to the club's fans for the last-16 loss, he revealed that he had a "clear message" for everyone at the club.

"Anyone who wants to stay, must stay; anyone who doesn’t want to stay here, should leave," he told Sport Mediaset. "We represent an important club and must challenge for important objectives."

When pressed on to whom he was referring, the striker added: "I'm just speaking in general. I am not going to name names. We are here to give our all, but I saw many things [recently] that I did not like. I am captain, I am the leader of the group, so I have to speak up. The message is clear: those who want to stay and continue challenging for important trophies can do so, otherwise, goodbye!"

However, while Martinez refused to name names, Marotta had no qualms about revealing the Argentine hitman's intended target: midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu, who has been linked with a move to Galatasaray in recent weeks.

"These are the words of a captain, who underlined some eternal truths, which is that when a player no longer wants to be there, it is only right that he goes," the Inter CEO told DAZN. "As of today, nobody has expressly told us that he wanted to leave. But we will talk to [Hakan] and resolve the situation in the best way for everyone."

That obviously needs to be done sooner rather than later, as feeling in Italy is that Inter are imploding, with Lautaro's strike partner, Marcus Thuram, having 'liked' Calhanoglu's angry response to being publicly attacked by his captain. Roma legend Francesco Totti has also questioned the timing of Lautaro's outburst, while legendary coach Fabio Capello says whatever issue the skipper had with Calhanoglu should have been resolved "face to face in the dressing room".

After two months of misery, Inter certainly could have done without such a public spat between two of their most important and high-profile players. It creates the impression that this is a club in decline, rather than one capable of rising again.

But then again, this is also the beauty of football: one moment, you're struggling to find the right words to express the joy you're experiencing; the next, you're struggling to work out why it all went wrong.