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. Once the season started, Pančev's performances were nowhere near expectations. From the get go, it was apparent the Macedonian was experiencing major problems adapting to stringent Italian league defences and his goal output suddenly became nonexistent. It didn't take long for his relationship with Bagnoli to take a turn for the worse, as the two started butting heads, often publicly. Pančev apparently even resorted to faking an illness in order to avoid sitting on the bench. The Italian press got down on the striker too, derisively modifying his Red Star moniker Il Cobra to Il Ramarro (green lizard). He'd wait until after the winter break to net his first league goal, which came at home versus Udinese in January 1993. Parallel to Pančev's struggles, Inter posted a decent league season behind Sosa's goalscoring exploits, and with no distraction of European football finished league runners-up to cross-town rival AC Milan. Overall, during his debut season, Pančev appeared in just twelve league matches for the nerazzurri, scoring one league goal in addition to five goals in four Coppa Italia appearances (second best striker of the latter competition).
Pančev later played in the Macedonian national team's first ever official match, on 13 October 1993, against Slovenia. His final international was a June 1995 European Championship qualification match against Belgium.