Sluggish Italian team's time to go down? (5)
I believe the answer is:
inert
'sluggish' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'italian team's time to go down?' is the wordplay.
'italian team' becomes 'inter' (Inter Milan FC).
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'to go' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'down?' becomes 't' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'inter' with 't' removed is 'iner'.
'iner'+'t'='INERT'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inert that I've seen before include "Nothing doing" , "Torpid" , "Inter, being unable to move" , "Chem. non-reactive" , "Leaden" .)