The 1996–97 season saw Hodgson leave Inter after guiding them to a third-place finish. He was replaced by Luigi Simoni whose side finished second in the league in the 1997–98 season and won the UEFA Cup. In an interview in 2009, Hodgson recalled his time at Inter: "We lacked stars, apart from Paul Ince. It wasn't the Inter we see today of household names. They weren't the best technically but physically they were like machines. The Premier League is like that now, but back then Italy was far ahead."