Days out from arguably the biggest game in club football, Inter boss Simone Inzaghi would prefer full focus to be on beating PSG in the Champions League final on Saturday.

But it is not. “It’s crazy to talk about my future,” he told his pre-final press conference this week. He might not be discussing it yet, but everyone else is.

It is inevitable, amid long-standing frustrations with the club’s frugal transfer policy and an outright refusal to deny links with Saudi Pro League team Al Hilal in that same press conference, that the touch paper has been lit around the San Siro.

Inzaghi’s contract at the San Siro has another year to run, but talks are scheduled next week with CEO Giuseppe Marotta to determine whether he will see it through.

It would be a major blow to the Nerazzurri if this is his final game. Inzaghi has been Inter’s most successful coach of recent times. Even more so than Antonio Conte, who led the club back to the top of the Italian game after almost a decade.

Though this could end as his one trophy-less season, what he has achieved in four years is fairly remarkable. While Conte won a first Scudetto in 11 years, he did so with significant financial backing and left within weeks when it became clear the money was running out.

Inzaghi’s first job as his successor in 2021 was to oversee more than £150m worth of sales, losing Achraf Hakimi to Saturday’s opponents PSG and Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea. It has taken seven transfer windows for them to even spend the funds they brought in.

His budget has not been one worthy of a two-time Champions League finalist and six-time domestic trophy winner. Inter have made a net profit of around £100m under his tenure, the largest in Serie A. And yet here they are, back at the summit of European football for the second time in three years and only the third in six decades.

They have beaten Bayern Munich and Barcelona en route to the final, and lost only one of 14 games in the competition this season.

Inter are, unsurprisingly, desperate to tie down the 49-year-old to a new deal, on an increased salary with a promise of looser purse strings. Even without that Inzaghi has brought not only success, but an exciting brand of fluid counter-attacking football too.

Alessandro Bastoni has become one of the world’s most cultured centre-backs. Federico Dimarco is among the most consistent wide players in Serie A. The rotating midfield trio of Nicola Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are a nightmare to track.

It is difficult to blame him should he decide enough is enough. The most he has been able to spend on any individual player is a £25m outlay on each of Davide Frattesi and Benjamin Pavard. Inter fielded the oldest average starting XI in Serie A this season, and named 11 over 30s in their Champions League squad. The inevitable rebuild incoming will need time and patience.

While his hands have been tied, he could only enviously watch on as Antonio Conte arrived at Napoli last summer, spent £125m and pipped his side to the Serie A title by a point.

The success of Conte’s side means his Inter career will end on a sour note on Saturday should it prove his swan song. Football has a cruelly short memory and Inzaghi has been blamed for their lack of trophies through poor game and squad management, always one of his bigger flaws.

While Napoli have been able to focus on just the league and Coppa Italia, Inter have fought on four fronts. After the final they will have played 19 games more but may have nothing to show for it. It is a bone of contention that Inzaghi has not picked his priorities better.

In a year with the lowest points tally required to win Serie A in 14 years, even that has proven a hill too steep to climb with perceived mis-steps from manager and management.

When he led Inter to their last Champions League final in 2023 they finished 18 points off the title but won the Coppa Italia and Italian Super Cup as a consolation.

This time, there have been accusations of Inzaghi relying too heavily on fringe players deemed below-par. Only Bologna made more line-up changes across the Serie A season. Back-up centre-back Yann Bisseck, who started 17 league matches, has faced particularly stinging criticism.

Inter have dropped 12 points from winning positions and conceded 15 goals in the last half hour of games. The most painful of those was Pedro’s injury-time penalty to salvage Lazio a 2-2 draw at the San Siro in the penultimate match of the season. It was Bisseck who gave it away.

Without that, Inter would likely be looking to complete a league and European double this weekend. Instead, it may take the Champions League trophy to bring back the feel-good factor to the San Siro – until that meeting between Inzaghi and the board, anyway.

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