Another talented youngster, 21-year-old Dejan Savićević, also arrived to the club during the same transfer window, but both promptly got sent to serve the mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint that kept them off the pitch for the entire league season.
Arriving at a club that had finished the previous league season in disappointing eighth place (which precipitated a major squad overhaul with the famous German triumvirate of Lothar Matthäus, Jürgen Klinsmann, and Andreas Brehme leaving San Siro and head coach Luis Suárez getting fired), Pančev was naturally looked to for goals as suggested by his glowing reputation from the Yugoslav First League and Red Star's European campaigns.
Upon signing, the club owner and president Ernesto Pellegrini even compared him to Paolo Rossi, giving an indication of the level of expectation thrust upon the Macedonian.
[5] Joining a squad that in addition to new head coach Osvaldo Bagnoli also featured plenty of new faces in the player personnel, the conventional wisdom was that such circumstances would work in Pančev's favour in terms of fitting in.
His competitors for spots upfront were all new arrivals as well: Uruguayan Rubén Sosa who came from Lazio, the Italian 1990 World Cup hero Salvatore Schillaci joining from Juventus, and, depending on formation, even Russian attacking midfielder Igor Shalimov who was acquired from Foggia.
However, in contrast to club president Pellegrini, head coach Bagnoli wasn't as taken with Pančev's playing style and already during pre-season reproached the player for lack of movement.
After almost two months without competitive football, Pančev got reinstated courtesy of an injury suffered by Bagnoli's preferred centre forward Schillaci, with the head coach giving the Macedonian a full ninety minute performance in a 0–0 home draw versus Sampdoria.
With Schillaci and Sosa both out injured, Pančev started the following league fixture versus Brescia in late November 1992 alongside Fontolan; Inter won 2–1, but the player again failed to score.
The return of Sosa in early January 1993, relegated Pančev to the bench while Inter finally showed some improved form with four straight league wins.
It was apparent the Macedonian was experiencing major problems adapting to stringent Italian league defences and his goal output suddenly became nonexistent.
[6] In December 1992, Pančev had an offer from Alex Ferguson's Manchester United but opted to remain at San Siro and continue fighting for a spot at Inter.
Pančev remained part of the Inter squad for the 1993–94 season, although he was completely out of the first-team picture as his relationship with Bagnoli deteriorated to a point of no repair.
Arriving to a club fighting for its life near the bottom of the table, Pančev scored two goals in ten matches for Leipzig during Bundesliga spring half-season.
In the UEFA Cup, he got a surprise starting appearance in late September in the return leg of the second round tie versus Aston Villa and even had a glorious opportunity to score following Nicola Berti's thundering shot that bounced favourably off the crossbar, but ended up blasting the rebound high over the bar.
Due to his less than stellar displays in Serie A, Pančev has often been referred to as bidone by Inter fans, a derisive term in Italian meaning "trashcan", used colloquially for high-profile flops in the league.
[10] He also complained about supposed less-than-friendly attitudes in the Nerazzurri dressing room towards certain foreigners, and in this regard singled out Inter's Italian stalwarts Walter Zenga, Giuseppe Bergomi, and Riccardo Ferri as main perpetrators: Yes, they were my problem!
[11] It proved to be the only international tournament he played in; he was later called to UEFA Euro 1992, but he then renounced a place in the squad on 23 May, claiming physical reasons, although this statement was believable for just a few people in Belgrade, who saw political views as the true cause of the withdrawal of the Macedonian forward - who had been the top marksman on qualifying group stages, with ten goals.