Inter’s English Experiment: Stones, Spence and Jones Make History
Inter have just done something that took them 118 years to manage the first time around. Three Englishmen in one summer. John Stones, Djed Spence and Curtis Jones – as many as the Nerazzurri had signed in their entire history before this window.
This isn’t a quirky footnote. It feels like a shift.
Stones walks away from comfort
John Stones turned 32 in May. A month later, his Manchester City contract ran out and, for the first time in his career, England no longer felt like the only option.
After a decade under Pep Guardiola, with every domestic trophy ticked off and a Champions League medal in his pocket, he chose something else: risk.
"It was something I had always wanted to do and, when this opportunity came up, I spoke about it with my family, and we were certain: we wanted to come here," he told Inter’s media.
That’s not a player nudged out the door. That’s a deliberate jump.
"I want to learn new things, understand a new way of playing and experience a new league. I can't wait to start this new chapter and this new journey. I couldn’t imagine a better place to do it."
San Siro will test that enthusiasm quickly. Even stripped of its 1990s glamour, Serie A still carries a particular cruelty for defenders. One lapse, one wrong step, and you’re punished.
Fikayo Tomori, who made the same leap when he left Chelsea for AC Milan, spelled it out in The Athletic.
"In England, intensity is, 'We've got to be at them, run harder than them' - everything like that," he said. "Here, it's mental not only in the preparation for the game and dealing with outside pressures and fan expectation.
"What they value so much here is being concentrated and locked into the game for 90 minutes... there are a lot of things where teams are waiting for that one moment when one player out of 11 makes a mistake and then they strike."
That’s the world Stones is walking into. Less chaos. More traps.
Spence comes back a different man
Djed Spence already knows what that world looks like.
He spent the second half of the 2023-24 season on loan at Genoa, a six‑month spell that clearly left a mark. He didn’t just come back with minutes in his legs; he came back changed.
"You learn so much when you play abroad," the full-back said. "I can say I became a man when I was abroad and I'm grateful for the experience."
So when Inter called, there was no fear of disappearing from the England radar, no panic about leaving the Premier League shop window.
That hasn’t always been the case. Tomori, for one, felt the cost of moving to Italy during Gareth Southgate’s tenure, his Serie A form not always reflected in England call-ups. European results haven’t helped the league’s reputation either, with Italian clubs flattering to deceive in recent seasons.
But Inter have cut against that trend.
Two Champions League finals in three seasons between 2023 and 2025 gave them a different sheen. Even last term, when a shock play-off defeat to Bodo-Glimt sent them out early, their level still impressed one of their future signings.
Jones follows the noise
Curtis Jones faced Inter with Liverpool. That night stayed with him.
"I played against them for Liverpool and they're a team that loves having the ball," he told Inter’s official website. "There are players here who can score lots of goals, create assists and make plenty of chances. You can feel how united this squad is. Inter can compete with the very best teams in the world."
Then he got to the real hook.
"You can also feel the hunger that's here, and, as I've already said, the support from the fans is unbelievable. The Inter supporters really are the 12th man."
For Jones, the decision wasn’t just about tactics or trophies. It was about sound.
"The biggest thing was the feeling I had last season when I played against Inter in the Champions League and experienced the passion their fans have for the team," he said. "Of course, you can also talk about the trophies, the Club's history and all the great players who have worn this shirt. But the fans were the decisive factor. I was out on the San Siro pitch and I could hear them singing and supporting the players throughout."
Once that gets into your head, Anfield or not, it’s hard to ignore.
The San Siro pull
Tomori, watching from the other half of the city, knows exactly what Jones is talking about.
"Having these ultra passionate fans who just sing for 90 minutes. Not even 90 minutes. They’re there before we’re out warming up," the Milan defender said. "They’re there after the game. Even that in itself is another nuanced thing that makes it so special."
He tried to explain it to friends. They didn’t get it – until they flew over and felt the concrete shake beneath their feet.
Tomori has become something of an unofficial Serie A ambassador. He told Ruben Loftus-Cheek about the atmosphere at the Giuseppe Meazza before the midfielder swapped Chelsea for Milan. When Tammy Abraham was weighing up Roma, Tomori sent a simple message: "Bro, this is a really good league!"
It isn’t the old days, when the very best players in the world funnelled into Italy almost by default. But the idea that Serie A is finished doesn’t stack up. As Micah Richards has argued, it remains "very, very underrated".
McTominay’s blueprint
If Jones wants proof that an English‑league lifer can go to Italy and become something more, he only has to look south.
Scott McTominay left Manchester United for Napoli in search of regular football in his preferred position. Two years later, the Lancashire-born midfielder is a scudetto winner and one of the most adored figures in the club’s modern history.
Locals call him "McFratm". The comparison with Diego Maradona might be exaggerated, but the affection is real.
It’s not just about goals or late runs into the box. McTominay has thrown himself into everything – the language, the history, the streets, the food. The tomatoes, especially.
"It was a huge decision for me, but at times in your life you just have to go for it," he told The Times. "To hit the ground running in Serie A isn’t always easy. A lot of players go and struggle to find their feet because it’s slightly different to the Premier League. It’s more tactical.
"So, it's not easy going abroad, but it’s been quite seamless for me, to be fair, in terms of how much the Italian people have helped me settle."
That is the template in front of Jones. Not an easy one, but a visible one.
A new English colony in Milan
Expecting Jones to replicate McTominay’s impact would be unfair. Different club, different city, different role.
But the odds feel less stacked against him than they did for English players of previous generations. He is not walking into Serie A alone. He is arriving at the champions, into a team that knows how to win, alongside two compatriots and under a fanbase that has already captured his imagination.
Inter have bet on three Englishmen at once. Stones chasing a new challenge, Spence returning to a league that hardened him, Jones following the roar he heard as an opponent.
For once, Italy might not feel like a lonely outpost for British players. The question now is whether this trio can turn a bold summer into a lasting shift – or whether Serie A will remain a league that only a few, like McTominay, truly manage to bend to their will.
