Gillingham

A shield with the words "Gillingham Football Club" in the top portion and the remainder divided into two sections, the left containing black and white vertical stripes and the right a depiction of a white horse rearing up on its hind legs on a blue background
Full name	Gillingham Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Gills
Founded	1893 (1893) (as New Brompton)
Ground	Priestfield Stadium, Gillingham (Capacity: 11,582)
Chairman	Paul Scally
Manager	Vacant
League	League Two
2011–12	League Two, 8th
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Gillingham Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Gillingham, Kent that play in League Two. The only Kent-based club in the Football League, they play their home matches at the Priestfield Stadium.

The club was founded in 1893 and joined the Football League in 1920. They were voted out of the league in favour of Ipswich Town at the end of the 1937–38 season, but returned to it 12 years later after it was expanded from 88 to 92 clubs. Twice in the late 1980s they came close to winning promotion to the second tier of English football, but a decline then set in and in 1993 they narrowly avoided relegation to the Football Conference. Between 2000 and 2005, Gillingham were in the second tier of the English football league system for the only time in their history, achieving a club record highest league finish of eleventh place in 2002–03.

History[link]

For more details on this topic, see History of Gillingham F.C..

For a statistical breakdown by season, see List of Gillingham F.C. seasons.

Early years[link]

The local success of a junior football side, Chatham Excelsior F.C., encouraged a group of businessmen to meet with a view to creating a football club which could compete in larger competitions. New Brompton F.C. was formed at the meeting, held on 18 May 1893.^[1] The founders also purchased the plot of land which later became Priestfield Stadium.^[2] The new club played its first match on 2 September 1893, losing 1–5 to Woolwich Arsenal's reserve side in front of a crowd of 2,000.^[3] New Brompton were among the founder members of the Southern League upon its creation in 1894, and were placed in Division Two. They were named Champions in the first season (1894–95) going on to defeat Swindon Town in a test match to win promotion.^[4]

In the seasons that followed, the club struggled in Division One, finishing bottom in the 1907–08 season,^[5] avoiding relegation only due to expansion of the league. Whilst the club's league performance was disappointing, the side did manage a famous cup victory over Football League First Division Sunderland and held Manchester City to a draw before losing in the replay.^[6] In 1912 the directors passed a resolution to change the club's name to Gillingham F.C., and the team played under this name throughout the 1912–13 season, although the change was not officially ratified by the shareholders until the following year.^[7] The team finished bottom of Division One in the 1919–20 season but for a third time avoided relegation, due to the subsequent elevation of all Southern League Division One clubs to form the new Football League Division Three.^[8]

First spell in the Football League[link]

In the first season of the newly-created Football League Division Three, the 1920–21 season, Gillingham again finished bottom, and in the years to follow there was little improvement on this, the club continually finishing in the lower reaches of the bottom division. In 1938 the team finished bottom of the Third Division (South) and were required to apply for re-election for the fifth time since joining the league. This bid for re-election failed, with Gillingham returning to the Southern League and Ipswich Town being promoted in their place.^[9] Gillingham quickly established themselves as one of the stronger sides in the league, winning a local double of the Kent League and Kent Senior Cup in the 1945–46 season.^[9] In the 1946–47 season the team won both the Southern League Cup and the Southern League championship, during which they recorded a club record 12–1 victory over Gloucester City.^[10] The Gills also won the league title in 1948–49.^[11]

Return to the Football League[link]

In 1950, plans were announced to expand the Football League Division Three (South) from 22 to 24 teams and, taking into account their local success in the interim, Gillingham were re-elected to the Football League with a landslide vote.^[11] The team spent eight seasons in Division Three (South) before the restructuring of the league system for the 1958–59 season saw them placed in the newly-created Fourth Division. They remained in this division until 1964, when manager Freddie Cox led them to promotion, winning the first and so far only championship in the club's history. The team finished the season level on 60 points with Carlisle United, but with a better goal average (1.967 against 1.948), which was the tightest league title finish in Football League history.^[12]

After relegation back to the Fourth Division in 1970–71, the Gills were soon promoted back to the Third Division in the 1973–74 season.^[13] After this the club seemed to find its level in Division Three, regularly mounting a challenge for promotion which ultimately fell short each time, never more so than in 1986–87 when they reached the play-offs only to lose in the final to Swindon Town.^[14] During this period the club produced future stars Steve Bruce and Tony Cascarino, who was famously bought from non-league Crockenhill in exchange for a set of tracksuits.^[15]

Gillingham (blue shirts) in action in a match from the 1986–87 season

In 1987, the Gills hit the headlines when, on consecutive Saturdays, they beat Southend United 8–1 and Chesterfield 10–0, the latter a club record for a Football League match. Just a few months later, however, manager Keith Peacock was controversially sacked,^[16] and within 18 months the club had fallen into Division Four.^[14] The ensuing spell in the lower division brought little success, and in the 1992–93 Division Three campaign the Gills narrowly avoided relegation to the Football Conference.^[14]

Recent highs and lows[link]

Beset with financial problems, the club went into administration in January 1995, and by the end of the 1994–95 season faced the threat of being expelled from the Football League and closed down.^[14] In June 1995, however, a London-based businessman, Paul Scally, stepped in and bought the club.^[17] He brought in new manager Tony Pulis, who led Gillingham to promotion in his first season, finishing second in the old Division Three (now Football League Two).^[5] In 1999 the Gills made the play-offs but lost in the Division Two play-off final to Manchester City. The Gills were 2–0 up with less than two minutes left only to see City score twice, the equaliser in injury time, and go on to win 3–1 in a penalty shoot-out.^[18]

Gillingham fans at the 2000 Division Two play-off final

Soon after the play-off loss, Pulis was sacked for gross misconduct,^[19] and Peter Taylor appointed manager.^[20] In the 1999–00 season Gillingham qualified for the play-offs again, where they faced Wigan Athletic in the final at Wembley Stadium. The game finished 1–1 after 90 minutes, but, thanks to goals in extra time from substitutes Steve Butler and Andy Thomson, the Gills won 3–2 and were promoted to Division One for the first time.^[18]

Taylor then left to manage Leicester City, and Andy Hessenthaler was appointed as player-manager.^[21] He led the club to their best ever league finish of eleventh in the 2002–03 season,^[5] but the following season saw the club narrowly avoid relegation on goal difference. Hessenthaler resigned as manager in November 2004,^[21] and new boss Stan Ternent^[22] was unable to prevent the Gills' relegation to League One. At the end of the 2007–08 season the club was relegated again, this time to League Two,^[23] but an immediate return to the third level was secured via the play-offs after beating Shrewsbury Town 1–0 with a 90th minute header from striker Simeon Jackson.^[24] In the 2009–10 season, however, the Gills slipped into the bottom four on the last day, and were relegated back to League Two, having failed to win a single away game in the league all season.^[25] This resulted in manager Mark Stimson having his contract terminated^[26] and Andy Hessenthaler was appointed as manager of the club for the second time.^[27]

Since 2002, the club has faced severe financial difficulties as a result of various events including the collapse of ITV Digital, relegation from the Championship, and the cost of refurbishing the stadium.^[28] In 2006 EDF Energy cut off power to the stadium as a result of unpaid bills of approximately £100,000.^[29] By 2008, the club's level of debt had reached approximately £13 million, although this was reduced dramatically as a result of the sale of Priestfield Stadium to a new holding company.^[28] In 2011, however, the club bought the stadium back for £1 million, considerably less than the £10 million for which it was sold in 2008.^[30]

Stadium[link]

Exterior shot of Priestfield Stadium

The Gills have played at Priestfield Stadium throughout their existence.^[31] The ground was originally purchased by the founders of the club through an issue of 1,500 £1 shares.^[2] Sources differ on whether the ground was named after the road on which the land stood, Priestfield Road,^[2] or whether the road was named after the ground;^[32] if the latter is the case then the origin of the ground's name is unknown. The ground was extensively developed prior to the 1930s, but there was then little change until the late 1990s and the arrival of Paul Scally as chairman. Three of the four stands were demolished and rebuilt between 1995 and 2000. The fourth stand, known as the Town End, was demolished to make way for a new stand, to be named the Brian Moore Stand after television sports commentator Brian Moore, who was a well-known Gills fan, but the club's financial situation has not allowed the new stand to be built and a temporary stand has been in place since 2004.^[33] From 2007 until 2010 the stadium was officially named KRBS Priestfield Stadium as part of a sponsorship deal with the Kent Reliance Building Society.^[34] In 2011 it was rebranded again, this time, to MEMS Priestfield Stadium under another such agreement.^[35]

At its peak in the 1940s the official capacity of the stadium was listed as "between 25,000 and 30,000"^[1] but subsequent redevelopments, the removal of terraces and building of new facilities have seen this reduced to a current capacity of 11,582.^[36] In the 2007–08 season, the average attendance at home matches was 6,077, just 52% of capacity.^[37] The ground has also hosted home fixtures of the England women's national football team.^[38]

Colours and crest[link]

Although Gillingham have long been associated with the colours blue and white, the original New Brompton side wore a strip consisting of black and white striped shirts with black shorts.^[2] In 1913 the black and white strip was dropped in favour of red shirts with blue sleeves, emblazoned with the borough's coat of arms.^[39] The striped shirts returned after World War One, before finally being replaced with the now-familiar combination of plain blue shirts and white shorts in 1931.^[40] More recent years have seen several variations on the blue and white colour scheme. In the late 1990s the team wore blue and black striped shirts, recalling the original New Brompton stripes.^[41] In the summer of 2003 it was controversially announced that the club's first choice shirts for the following season would be predominantly white, rather than blue. The announcement received such a hostile response from supporters that the white strip was replaced by one featuring blue and black hoops, which had originally been earmarked as the team's third choice kit.^[42] In March 2010 the club announced a return to the black and blue stripes for the 2010–11 season.^[43]

The club's current crest is a shield divided vertically into halves of black and white stripes and solid blue, reflecting the club's original and modern kits. On the blue half is the county emblem of Kent, a white horse rampant, albeit slightly altered from its normal form as its mane is stylised into the letters of the word "Gills". This side has been sometimes given a red or pink background, to coordinate with away kits featuring those colours. The club's motto, which appears on a scroll below the crest, is Domus clamantium, the Latin for "the home of the shouting men",^[44] a traditional epithet associated with the town of Gillingham.^[45] In keeping with the crest, the club's mascot, Tommy Trewblu, takes the form of a horse.^[46] He first appeared at a match against Macclesfield Town in October 1998.^[47]

The first sponsor's name to appear on Gillingham shirts was that of Italian home appliance manufacturers Zanussi, who sponsored the club in the mid-1980s. Subsequent sponsors have included Chatham Maritime, Medway Toyota, Invicta FM, Kool, Medway News, and SeaFrance.^[48][49] For three years from the start of the 2007–08 season the team's shirts were sponsored by the Kent Reliance Building Society as part of the deal which also involved the temporary renaming of the club's stadium,^[34] and from the beginning of the 2010–11 season, Automatic Retailing, a Newcastle-upon-Tyne-based vending machine operator, became the main sponsors.^[50] After only one season with Automatic Retailing as sponsors, they were replaced for the 2011–12 season by local business MEMS Power Generation.^[51]

Players[link]

Current squad[link]

As of 21 May 2012^[52]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ross Flitney 2 DF Barry Fuller 3 DF Andrew Frampton (captain) 4 MF Charlie Lee 7 MF Chris Whelpdale 8 MF Jack Payne 9 FW Danny Kedwell 12 MF Joe Martin 16 DF Matt Fish 18 MF Danny Jackman 19 MF Lewis Montrose

No. Position Player 20 DF Callum Davies 22 DF Connor Essam 24 DF Jack Evans 25 MF Alex Brown 26 GK Daren Hawkes 27 MF Tom Brunt 28 GK Paulo Gazzaniga 30 FW Adam Birchall 31 FW Ashley Miller — MF Nathan Nyafli — DF Joe Carter

The club also fields a reserve team, a youth team at Under-18 level^[53] and operates a Centre of Excellence for boys in the Under-9 to Under-16 age groups.^[54]

Notable former players[link]

The club launched a Hall of Fame prior to the 2008–09 season.^[55] The first five players to be elected were chosen by a fan vote in 2009. One new inductee was to be elected every year thereafter, but this has not been done.^[56]

• John Simpson
• Andy Hessenthaler
• Brian Yeo
• Tony Cascarino
• Steve Bruce

International players[link]

The club recognises eleven players as having gained full international caps during their time at Priestfield, although other sources indicate that Freddie Fox had in fact left the club by the time he made his only appearance for England.

Player		Country	Caps	Notes
Andrew Crofts		Wales	12	[57]
Ian Cox		Trinidad and Tobago	11	[14]
Simeon Jackson		Canada	10	[58]
Mamady Sidibe		Mali	7	[14]
Brent Sancho		Trinidad and Tobago	6	[14]
Tony Cascarino		Republic of Ireland	3	[14]
Rimmel Daniel		Grenada	3	[59]
Terry Cochrane		Northern Ireland	2	[14]
Damien Richardson		Republic of Ireland	2	[14]
Jason Brown		Wales	1	[60]
Freddie Fox		England	1	[61]

In 2006, Sancho became the first Gillingham player ever to play in the World Cup finals, and technically the first to score in the World Cup when he scored an own goal in the 2–0 group defeat to Paraguay.^[62]

Back room staff[link]

As at 9 May 2012:^[63]

Directors[link]

• Chairman/Chief Executive: Paul Scally
• Vice chairman: Michael Anderson
• Non-executive director: Mike Quarrington
• Associate director: Yvonne Paulley
• Director of Football: Andy Hessenthaler

Management[link]

• Team manager: currently vacant
• Assistant manager: currently vacant
• First team coach: currently vacant
• Physiotherapist: Steve Allen
• Sports psychologist: Ashley Lawrence
• Youth team manager: Darren Hare

Managers[link]

Mark Stimson served as the club's manager from 2007 until 2010

For the first three years of the club's existence, team matters were handled by a committee. In 1896 William Ironside Groombridge, the club's secretary, took sole charge of team affairs to become Gillingham's first recognised manager.^[64] Former England international Stephen Smith was appointed as full-time manager in 1906,^[65] but left in 1908, with Groombridge once again taking on team responsibilities. Groombridge was associated with the club, as manager and secretary, for over 25 years. When the club was admitted to the Football League in 1920, Robert Brown was appointed as manager, but he resigned a month later before the season had even begun.^[66] His replacement, Scotsman John McMillan, thus became the first manager to take charge of the team in a Football League match.^[66]

In 1939, a year after the club was voted back out of the Football League, Archie Clark took over as manager, and was still in charge when the club was elected back to the Football League in 1950. Clark remained in the job until 1957.^[67] Freddie Cox took over in 1962 and led the club to the Football League Fourth Division championship in the 1963–64 season, making him the only manager to win a Football League divisional title with the club.^[68] Basil Hayward was sacked in 1971 after the club was relegated back to the Fourth Division in the 1970–71 season,^[68] but his successor Andy Nelson led the club to promotion back to Division Three three years later before controversially resigning.^[69]

Tony Pulis took over in 1995, with Gillingham once again in the bottom division, and managed the club to promotion in his first season in charge. Three years later he led the team to the Second Division play-off final, but was sacked immediately after this after being accused of gross misconduct.^[19] Peter Taylor replaced him and took the club to a second consecutive play-off final, where Gillingham gained promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time.^[70]

Chairmen[link]

The following men have been chairman of the club's Board of Directors:^[71]

Honours[link]

• Football League Fourth Division

Champions 1963–64, runners-up 1973–74

• Football League Third Division

Runners-up 1995–96

• Football League Second Division

Play-off winners 1999–00, finalists 1986–87 & 1998–99

• Football League Two

Play-off winners 2008–09

• Southern Football League

Champions 1946–47 & 1948–49, runners up 1947–48

• Southern Football League Division Two

Champions 1894–95

• Southern League Cup

Winners 1946–47

• Kent League

Champions 1945–46

• Kent League Cup

Winners 1945–46

• Kent Senior Cup

Winners 1945–46 & 1947–48, runners-up 1938–39, 1948–49, 1949–50 & 1994–95

Statistics and records[link]

League positions since the 1950–51 season.
Horizontal grey lines indicate league divisions.

Goalkeeper Ron Hillyard holds the record for Gillingham appearances, having played 657 matches in all competitions between 1974 and 1990,^[75] while the record for appearances solely in the Football League is held by another goalkeeper, John Simpson, with 571 between 1957 and 1972.^[76] Brian Yeo is the club's all-time leading league goalscorer, having scored a total of 136 goals between 1963 and 1975.^[77] He also jointly holds the record for the most Football League goals scored in a single season, having scored 31 goals in the 1973–74 season,^[77] equalling the record set by Ernie Morgan in 1954–55.^[78] The highest number of goals scored by a player in a single game at a professional level is the six registered by Fred Cheesmur against Merthyr Town in April 1930.^[79]

The club's record home attendance is 23,002, for an FA Cup match against QPR on 10 January 1948,^[76] a record which will almost certainly never be broken unless the club relocates to a larger ground, given that Priestfield Stadium's current capacity is approximately half that figure.

The team's biggest ever professional win was a 10–0 defeat of Chesterfield in September 1987,^[76] although they had previously registered a 12–1 win against Gloucester City in the Southern League in November 1946.^[14]

The Gills hold the record for the fewest goals conceded by a team in the course of a 46 game season,^[80] having conceded just 20 in the 1995–96 season,^[5] during which goalkeeper Jim Stannard kept 29 clean sheets.^[76]

Rivalries[link]

The 2003 Football Fans Census revealed that no other team's supporters considered Gillingham to be among their club's main rivals.^[81] Millwall are considered to be the closest the Gills have to local rivals.^[82] Swindon Town are seen by many fans as the club's biggest rivals, stemming from bad-tempered matches between the two teams in the past.^[83] While Swindon fans generally do not consider Gillingham their biggest rivals, there was violence when they met at Priestfield in the 2005–06 season, their first meeting since a promotion play-off match in 1987.^[84] Following their promotion in 1989, Maidstone United became Kent's second League side. A rivalry with Gillingham developed over the following seasons, until Maidstone's financial troubles forced them to resign from the League in 1992.^[85]

In popular culture[link]

In 1956, comedian Fred Emney filmed a scene for his sitcom Emney Enterprises prior to the start of a match between Gillingham and Brighton & Hove Albion. The footage featured the overweight Emney, wearing a flat cap and monocle and smoking a cigar, dribbling the ball past the entire Gills defence and scoring a goal.^[86] In the Sky1 television series Dream Team, fictional team Harchester United lost 2–0 to the Gills in an episode broadcast in 2004.^[87] The 2005 film Green Street (known as Green Street Hooligans in the USA) makes use of action sequences filmed during a match between Gillingham and West Ham United, although for unknown reasons the dialogue states that the team playing West Ham is Birmingham City.^[88] A film entitled The Shouting Men, released in March 2010, centres on a group of Gillingham fans and features scenes shot at Priestfield.^[44]

See also[link]

• Brian Moore's Head Looks Uncannily Like London Planetarium – webzine devoted to the club, which previously existed from 1988 to 2006 as a paper fanzine. Named in honour of the club's most famous supporter, the late commentator Brian Moore.

References[link]

External links[link]

Listen to this article (info/dl)

This audio file was created from a revision of the "Gillingham F.C." article dated 2007-05-19, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

• Official club website
• Gillingham F.C. on BBC Sport: Club news – Recent results – Upcoming fixtures – Club statistics
• The Shouting Men @ The Internet Movie Database

Inter

200px
Full name	Football Club Internazionale Milano S.p.A.
Nickname(s)	I Nerazzurri (The Black and Blues) La Beneamata (The Cherished One) Il Biscione (The Big Grass Snake) Baüscia (Boasters in Lombard language)
Founded	March 9, 1908; 104 years ago  (1908-03-09)
Ground	San Siro, Milan (Capacity: 80,018[1])
Owner	Massimo Moratti
President	Massimo Moratti
Head coach	Andrea Stramaccioni
League	Serie A
2011–12	Serie A, 6th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Football Club Internazionale Milano S.p.A., commonly referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, is a professional Italian football club based in Milan, Lombardy. The club is commonly known as Inter Milan outside of Italy.^[2][3] They have spent their entire history in the top flight First Division (known as Serie A since 1929). Internazionale have won 30 domestic trophies, including the league eighteen times, the Coppa Italia seven and the Supercoppa Italiana five. From 2006 to 2010 the club won five successive league titles, equalling the all-time record.^[4] They have won the Champions League three times; two back-to-back in 1964 and 1965 and then another in 2010. The last completed an unprecedented Italian treble with the Coppa Italia and the Scudetto. The club has also won three UEFA Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup.

Inter's home games are played at San Siro, also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. The stadium, which is shared with A.C. Milan, is the largest in Italian football, with a total capacity of 80,018.^[5] Milan are considered one of their biggest rivals, and matches between the two teams are called Derby della Madonnina, which is one of the most followed derbies in football.^[6] As of 2010, Inter is the second most supported team in Italy,^[7] and the eighth most supported team in Europe.^[8] The current president and owner of Inter is Massimo Moratti. The club is one of the wealthiest and most valuable in Italian and world football.^[9] It was a founding member of the now-defunct G-14 group of Europe's leading football clubs as well as its replacement, the European Club Association.^[10]

History[link]

Foundation and early years (1908–1922)[link]

First Inter side to win the scudetto, in 1909–10

The club was founded on 9 March 1908 as Football Club Internazionale, following a "schism" from the Milan Cricket and Football Club (44 members). A group of Italians and Swiss (Giorgio Muggiani, a painter who also designed the club's logo, Bossard, Lana, Bertoloni, De Olma, Enrico Hintermann, Arturo Hintermann, Carlo Hintermann, Pietro Dell'Oro, Hugo and Hans Rietmann, Voelkel, Maner, Wipf, and Carlo Ardussi) were unhappy about the domination of Italians in the AC Milan team, and broke away from them, leading to the creation of Internazionale. The name of the club derives from the wish of its founding members to accept foreign players as well as Italians.

The club won its very first Scudetto (championship) in 1910 and its second in 1920. The captain and coach of the first Scudetto was Virgilio Fossati, who was killed in World War I.

After early years (1922–1960)[link]

In 1922 Inter were in Group B of the Serie A and came in dead last after picking up only 11 points in the season. Thanks to the reunion of the C.C.I. (Confederazione Calcistica Italiana) and Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC), Inter remained in the top league after winning the salvation play-off.

In 1928, during the Fascist era, the club was forced to merge with the Unione Sportiva Milanese and was renamed Società Sportiva Ambrosiana.^[11] They wore white shirts around this time with a red cross emblazoned on it. This shirt design was inspired by the flag and coat of arms of the city of Milan, which in turn is derived from the flag of the patron saint of Milan, St. Ambrose and dates back to the 4th century AD. The new upcoming President Oreste Simonotti decided to change name to Associazione Sportiva Ambrosiana in 1929. However, supporters continued to call the team Inter, and in 1931 new president Pozzani caved to shareholder pressure and changed the name to Associazione Sportiva Ambrosiana-Inter.

Their first Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) was won in 1938-39, led by the great legend Giuseppe Meazza, for whom the San Siro stadium is officially named, and a fifth league championship followed in 1940, despite an injury to Meazza. After the end of World War II the club re-emerged under a name close to their original one; FC Internazionale Milano, which they have kept ever since. Following the war, Inter won its sixth championship in 1953 and the seventh in 1954.

Grande Inter (1960–1968)[link]

Facchetti on a 1968 Ajman stamp

In 1960, Helenio Herrera joined Internazionale from FC Barcelona. From FC Barcelona, he brought his midfield general Luis Suárez who would win the European Footballer of the Year in the same year for his role in FC Barcelona's La Liga/Fairs Cup double. He would transform Internazionale into one of the greatest teams in Europe. He modified a 5-3-2 tactic known as the Verrou (door bolt) to include larger flexibility for counter attacks. The Catenaccio system was invented by an Austrian coach named Karl Rappan. Rappan's original system was implemented with 4 fixed defenders, playing a strict man-to-man marking system, plus a playmaker in the middle of the field who plays the ball together with two midfield wings. Herrera would modify it by adding a fifth defenders, the sweeper or libero behind the two centre backs. The sweeper or libero who acted as the free man would deal with any attackers who went through the two centre backs. Internazionale would finish 3rd in Serie A his first season, 2nd the next year and first in his 3rd season. And then followed a back-to-back European Cup victory in 1964 and 1965. Herrera earned the title "ll Mago" which meant the magician. The code of Herrera's team was the fullbacks Tarcisio Burgnich and Giacinto Facchetti, Armando Picchi the sweeper, Luis Suárez the playmaker, Jair the winger, Mario Corso the left midfielder and Sandro Mazzola who played the inside-right.

In 1964, Internazionale reached the Final by beating Borussia Dortmund in the semifinal and FK Partizan in the quarterfinal. In the Final, they met Real Madrid, a team had reached 7 out of the 9 existing Finals. Real Madrid consisted of the aging stars of the 1950s and a few emerging players that would win the European Cup in 1966. It was Sandro Mazzola who stole the show by scoring two goals in a 3-1 victory.

A year later, Inter repeated the feat by beating two-time winner SL Benfica in the final held at home. Jair was the lone scorer in 1-0 win.

By 1967, Jair was gone. Luis Suárez was injured and missed the Final. Sandro Mazzola's penalty was not enough to stop Celtic FC from winning the title.

After Helenio Herrera era (1968–1990)[link]

Following the golden era of the 1960s, Inter managed to win their eleventh league title in 1971 and their twelfth in 1980. Inter were defeated for the second time in five years in the final of the European Cup, going down 0-2 to Johan Cruijff's Ajax Amsterdam in 1972. During the 1970s and the 1980s, Inter also added two to its Coppa Italia tally, in 1977-78 and 1981-82.

Led by the German duo of Andreas Brehme and Lothar Matthäus, and Argentine Ramón Díaz, Inter captured the 1989 Serie A championship. Fellow German Jürgen Klinsmann and the Italian Supercup were added the following season but to little avail as Inter were unable to defend their title.

Dark times (1990–2004)[link]

The 1990s was a period of disappointment. Whilst their great rivals AC Milan and Juventus were achieving success both domestically and in Europe, Inter were left behind, with repeated mediocre results in the domestic league standings, their worst coming in 1993-94 when they finished just 1 point out of the relegation zone. Nevertheless, they achieved some European success with 3 UEFA Cup victories in 1991, 1994 and 1998.

Massimo Moratti, Inter's current President

With Massimo Moratti's takeover from Ernesto Pellegrini in 1995 Inter were promised more success with many high profile signings like Ronaldo and Christian Vieri, with Inter twice breaking the world record transfer fee in this period (₤19.5 million for Ronaldo from FC Barcelona in summer 1997 and ₤31 million for Christian Vieri from Lazio in summer 1999). However the 1990s remained a decade of disappointment and is the only decade in Inter's history in which they did not win a single Italian Serie A championship. For Inter fans it was difficult to find who in particular was to blame for the troubled times and this led to some icy relations between them and the president, the managers and even some individual players.

Inter chairman Massimo Moratti later became a target of the fans, especially when he sacked the much-loved coach Luigi Simoni after only a few games into the 1998/99 season, after having just received Italian manager of the year award 1998 the day before Massimo Moratti decided to end his contract. In the 1998-99 season Inter failed to qualify for any European competition for the first time in almost 10 years, finishing in a poor eighth place.

Marcello Lippi was sacked after the first 2000-01 matchday

In the 1999-00 season, Massimo Moratti made some major changes, marking once again some high-profile signings. A major coup for Inter was the appointment of former Juventus manager Marcello Lippi. Moreover, Inter were seen by the majority of the fans and press to have finally put together a winning formula. Other signings included Italian and French legends Angelo Peruzzi and Laurent Blanc together with other former Juventus players Christian Vieri and Vladimir Jugović. Inter were also seen to have an advantage in this season as they had no European "distraction". Once again they failed to win the elusive Scudetto. However they did manage to come close to their first domestic success since 1989 when they reached the Coppa Italia final only to be defeated by Lazio allowing them to win the Scudetto and domestic cup double.

The following season another disaster struck. Inter impressed in the Supercoppa Italia match against Lazio and took the lead through new signing Robbie Keane and Hakan Şükür – however, they lost 4-3. Overall, though, they were looking good for the season that was about to start. What followed was another embarrassment, as they were eliminated in the preliminary round of the Champions League by Swedish club Helsingborgs IF. Alvaro Recoba was given the opportunity to equal the tie with a last-minute penalty, but Helsingborg goalkeeper Sven Andersson made the save. Inter found themselves back at square one as Marcello Lippi, the manager at the time, was sacked after only a single game of the new season following Inter's first ever Serie A defeat to Reggina. Throughout this period, Inter suffered the mocking of their neighbours AC Milan; Milan were having success both domestically and in Europe. Also throughout this period suffered endless defeats to AC Milan including a 6-0 defeat in 2000-01 season. Marco Tardelli, chosen to replace Lippi, failed to improve results, and is remembered by Inter fans as the manager that lost 6-0 the city derby to AC Milan in the 2000-01 season. Other members of the Inter "family" during this period that suffered were the likes of Christian Vieri and Fabio Cannavaro, both of whom had their restaurants in Milan vandalised after defeats against AC Milan.