Blame the board for Inter's downfall
After the glory days of Jose Mourinho and the unprecedented treble, many of the Nerazzuri faithful were looking for a dynasty under the Portuguese coach, but it was never meant to be. After the departure of the legendary coach it was up to the teams management to sustain the standard of the team, but unfortunately Morrati and Co. didn’t keep up to the hopes of the fans.
After the world cup and the new names emerging from South Africa, many interistas were watching closely to see the names Morrati and Branca would add to our already strong but ageing team, where everybody noticed that after giving 110% under Mourinho in a long fought season and the harsh environment of the vuvuzela land, small touch ups were needed to keep up our competitiveness both in Italy and Europe, with the right coach to continue the dynasty that we all were hoping for.
Rafa Era
Rafael Benitez was the chosen one, not a bad name in European football with 2 Spanish league titles and 2 UEFA cup winners with Valencia, and a Champions League trophy with Liverpool against AC Milan. Benetiz asked the management for some names to impose his tactical ideas with the 4-2-3-1 formation which was opted during his time at Valencia and Liverpool. His demands were to get him Kuyt, Mascherano and Sanchez. Excellent names that would have fitted amazingly with any formation opted with inter. Morrati’s blinded faith with our veteran squad took another leap with the selling of our home grown wonder kid Mario Ballotelli, not a bad apiece of business if reinforcements were made to strengthen the team or at least our attack knowing that Pandev was our third offensive player, yes Pandev, how could a team like Inter have Pandev as his backup plan after 2 amazing strikers as Etoo and Milito. InterMilan’s management missed a great opportunity after being crowned the Kings of Europe to lure any player they want, and many top players offered themselves to play for serpents as Cavani and Mascherano, from here I knew the Grande Inter dynasty we were all hoping for would never come with such Board of directors. Don’t think I am defending Benitez, I hate him as every other Interista but I think he was treated unfairly.
Poor Reinforcements
After the winter break Benitez was sacked and Milan’s Leonardo was hired with a couple of reinforcements added, the addition of Rannochia and Pazzini, two very good signings but Pazzini could not play in the Champion League after playing in the preliminary rounds with Sampdoria. What management knowing that they were going to face fierce competition from the likes of Barcelona, Real, Manchester, Bayern and many more buy a player that cannot play in the champions league? And with the decline of Milito’s performance we were solely dependent on the magic work of Eto’o. Nonetheless we won the Coppa Italia, finished second in the Serie A, reached the last 8 of the champions league after a humiliating exit on the hands of an inferior Schalke team with a 5-2 loss in our dear Giuseppe Meazza stadium.
After the mediocre results I was sure Morrati and Branca were summing up a plan to get Inter to the status as the most feared team in Italy, but how wrong and blind I was, how could I even forgot that we had Massimo Morrati as the owner and President of our beloved team and his trusted assistant Marco Branca as the head of the technical staff of Inter. First they hired Gasperini as the new coach after the departure of Leonardo due to a lucrative offer made by the Qatari backed PSG of France. Gasperini made it clear that he was going to run a 3-5-2 or a 3-4-3 formation, so most of our summer deals were made according to his plans.
Lack of Marquee Signings
First they decided to sell our 37 goals hitmanSamuel Etoo to Anzhi Makhachkala, once again not a bad piece of business, but where are the replacements?? An ageing Diego Forlan who was surely past his glory days and Zarate a very talented player nevertheless notoriously known for his actions both on and off the pitch with his previous teams. Without strengthening our attacking department of last season that didn’t score a single goal against either Juventus or AC Milan, Moratti once again gambled with the future of the team, thinking any deal done can be both financially lucrative and pitch effective as the Etoo, Milito and Sneijder deals… well guess better Dear Morrati, Mourinho had the last words of the deals done in the 2009-2010 season.
Our midfield wasn’t in a better shape consisting of an ageing squad with an average age above the 30 years mark. The capture of Poli from Sampdoria was an excellent signing but with his young age he still haven’t reached the stage where he could fill the role of two of the best defensive midfielders of their generation Javier Zanneti and Cambiasso, and is yet to play because of his continuous injuries. Another midfielder, the unknown Alvarez of Velez Sarsfield was signed by inter with the an astonishing sum of 11.75 million euros. he has shown nothing exceptional so far to justify his price, the player lacks the speed and technical abilities to compete in a strong league as the Italian league.
With the defensive department needing the most number of reinforcements, once again in Branca’s fantasy world Lucio, Samuel, Chivu and Cordoba could still live up to his expectations even after our disastrous defensive display of last season. Many young names were talked about during the summer transfer period, such as Coates of Uruguay and Van der Wiel of Ajax but unfortunately no big names were signed except for Jonathan a substitute from the Brazilian Santos, which still have to prove his worth of playing for one of Europe’s finest teams. Once again none of the names purchased above were the names wanted by Gasperini, he asked for Palacio and Lavezzi, as usual Morrati and Branca decided to choose an opposite path to that of the coaches demands, and blame his formation for being the source of the problem, well if they knew his playing style before signing him, so either let the coach force his ideas on the team or don’t hire him at all.
Many may argue that I am not mentioning the FFP rule that will be applied next year, well we started messing up after the treble winning season, with the appointment of weak coaches that the management could easily control and easily fire if anything goes wrong, to the very weak mercatos that are weakening the team instead of strengthen them up. Morrati please step down from your throne as the ultimate dictator of the club and let some experienced personal to take over, cause the fans won’t be willing to wait another 10 years for a scudetto and another 45 years for a Champions league trophy.
This article was written by hadibase