Quick note: Yes, you are still reading an Inter fans website. This article in some way is Inter-related but mostly is about another team. I know I will probably jinx our entire season just with this few chapters but at least wait until the end of the last Serie A game before sending the snipers my way! Please, feel free to comment and let me know what I got wrong! Cheers!
The season has just ended and the transfer market has yet to come to life, but at least the coach puzzle is officially closed for all the major teams in Serie A: Conte at Inter, Fonseca at Roma, Giampaolo at Milan, Ancelotti at Napoli and finally Sarri at Juventus. The feeling, however, is that the only team to have really strengthened itself is the Nerazzurri, which with just Conte’s grit and mental strength could have added at least 10 or 12 points to his ranking.
The disappointment of Juventus fans is quite emblematic. If the eternal rivals seem to have found their ideal General in Conte (it sucks even more that he comes from their ranks …), they find themselves with a singular feeling, discomfort. Sarri is a coach with little history and even fewer victories (although the biggest is the more recent!) but with a good soccer. Only two seasons ago he was the archenemy, one of the few to have questioned the Bianconeri domination. To Ronaldo and his companions he should bring an idea of football that is more aesthetically pleasing, construction from the back, counterattacks, automatisms to be assimilated but in the long run lethal. And goals, many goals, at least in Serie A, with CR7 as the main beneficiary.
But are these really the factors required by Juventus fans to consider the next season better than the Allegri era? If we think of their motto “Winning is not important, it is the only thing that matters” then I would say no. Without the most ‘important cup, the possible supremacy of another Serie A or Italian Cup, albeit with a nice soccer style, could be considered, absurdly, a defeat. In Turin, everyone focuses only on the big-eared cup, it’s a massive All-in, hysterical, paranoid, with no return. The team is about to age, new transfers are heavier, for names and costs, They must win now, immediately, or never. Because ‘it would become difficult to sustain a reconstruction or even to maintain what is there, without the proceeds of a final or at least a semi-final, minimum …
Yet we have seen that in the run-up to the Champions League not only billionaire purchases or the multi-award winning coaches (see PSG or Guardiola)count.. It also takes a good deal of luck and mental strength. Certainly Cristiano Ronaldo has repeatedly demonstrated that he has these qualities. The other Bianconeri leaders, due mainly to biographical reasons, have had to abandon or are about to do so. The possible transfers (too many) certainly have great personalities and would increase their chance of victory, but are they economically sustainable? especially without the victories in Europe? Is this destined to be the beginning of the end for the old lady or will she be able to start a new cycle?
It is still too early to imagine what will happen from here to the beginning of the championship, let alone to the end of the championship! However, this discontent and the tension between the Juventus supporters are anomalous, the frustration for the failed success in the Champions League could be toxic and ruin what has been built so far by the post Calciopoli. Could it be that Marotta’s move to Inter has really been the biggest market transfer in recent years, even more than CR7? Are we destined to live in a Nerazzurri domain? Or will Naples finally crown their big dream? Let’s see what will happen in these couple of months, maybe other fundamental pieces will have been added to our board. At the moment, Inter fans should be really happy: for the first time in many years, the situation in our team seems to be way more controlled and stable compared to the other big sisters.
