Six months ago, Inter Milan seemed to walk on the water. The Simone Inzaghi club, then unbeatable coach of the integral bench, fueled dreams of historic tripled, with the Scudetto, the Coppa Italia and a Champions League at hand. But football goes fast, sometimes too fast: the slap inflicted by PSG in the European final, combined as a title flew to Naples, brutally brought the Nerazzurri to Earth. Since then, the decor has radically changed. The unexpected departure of their coach, a hectic transfer window and an atmosphere of internal floating nourish the idea that Inter does not approach this new season with the same aura of invincibility as in recent years. “”It was three weeks of work. The matches were as important to me as the training, thanks to all the efforts and the work that we provided during the summer retirement. These were hard working days and I saw positive things, just like less well done things, but it's normalRecently explained Cristian Chivu. In some observers in Italy, an impression dominates: Inter Milan is no longer the natural favorite it seemed to be, and a part of uncertainty settles around its status in the hierarchy of calcio.
Three very paradoxical months
According to our information, the climate around Inter Milan is far from serene at the start of the season. Several groups of supporters are already pointing out of the Nerazzurra direction, accused of having let a certain confusion settle after the precipitous departure of Simone Inzaghi for Al Hilal, which occurred in the aftermath of the defeat in the Champions League final. This episode has opened a period of doubt rarely known by the club in recent years. If nearly 100 million euros were spent on the transfer market to recruit Andy Diouf, Ange Yoan Bonny, Luis Henrique and Petar Sučić, these arrivals are perceived as risky bets in the amount deemed too high, said an internist manager internally. Successive failures in the Koni files of Winter, Giovanni Leoni or Ademola Lookman only made this feeling of floating, far from being helped by the search for a central defender who always drags. Added to this is the more discreet role than the usual of vice-president Javier Zanetti, while Giuseppe Marotta, now president and minority shareholder, seems to have entrusted the sportsmen's keys to Piero Ausilio, whose future in Milan remains uncertain in the face of the pressing interest of Al Hilal.
The observation is therefore worrying: Inter, which had built in recent seasons a stable and coherent project thanks to a strategy made of clever and often inexpensive blows, seems to advance on sight. This model, embodied by the continuity of Inzaghi and a millimeter management of the transfer window, seems to have cracked, to the point that the club begins this new exercise in an atmosphere of transition not assumed. Managers and tifosi are struggling to discern a clear line in sports reconstruction, strengthening the idea that the team begins the season with more uncertainties than certainties. This impression of floating contrasts strongly with the recent habits of the club, where stability and lucidity in sports choices had made it possible to maintain Inter among the major actors in Serie A and on the European scene.
However, everything is not dark in the Nerazzurro horizon. The arrival on the bench of Cristian Chivu, former emblematic defender of the club and respected coach of the youth teams before his visit to the PARME bench, arouses a rare membership. Appreciated by supporters and players, he is perceived as a figure capable of restoring a clear identity in the locker room. According to our indiscretions, in just three months of work, the Romanian tactician has been able to establish a climate of trust and strengthen the cohesion of the group, to the point that the executives – Bastoni, Dumfries, Barella, Frattesi and Captain Lautaro Martinez – were fully aligned behind him, also adjusting the conflict involving Hakan çalhano. Maintaining this essential framework is a positive signal sent to the public and could constitute the stability basis that Inter cruelly needs. From now on, it is on the ground that the team will have to demonstrate its ability to overcome doubts and transform this uncertain transition into an opportunity for renewal.
