“Cowardly tactics, embarrassing substitutions, no balls, SPALLETTI OUT!”
The cries can be heard all throughout Milan and over to the other side of the world. Inter, once again, have come to terms with the fact that their current manager is simply not the right man for the job. Post 2010 has not been kind to Inter in terms of stable coaches coming through the ever so consistently rotating front door.
From Benitez to Leonardo, Gasperini to Pioli and everything (I know there are plenty more) in between, Inter fans could have been forgiven for thinking that there managerial curse was coming to a slow and steady end. After returning to Europe’s premier competition for the first time since the 2011/12 campaign, Luciano Spalletti had restored faith throughout the Inter faithful. A host of new signings were ready to come in, with huge expectations and clear cut objectives of reaching a UCL place comfortably this season, whilst also putting as much pressure on league holders Juventus and hopefully returning a trophy somewhere in between?
Well unfortunately here we set, beginning of February, out of the Copa Italia, out of the UEFA Champions League in the first round (despite collecting 6 from 6 points in the first two match days) and now, despite still sitting in an illusive 3rd position in Seria A, the fans and members of the board are growing concerned with Inter’s progress in the back half of this campaign.
As mentioned, that current 3rd standing in Italy is deceptive. Had it not been for our noisy neighbours and Roman rivals inconsistent run of form throughout patches of the season, Inter would be finding themselves outside the UCL zone, which in turn would have shown Marotta’s hand and given the former Juventus director plenty of motive and substance to sack Spalletti.
However, following the disaster of a week which has seen Inter lose 3 out of 3 matches, affirming the inevitable wINTER crisis we have all come to enjoy so much, we are not outside the qualifying zone for the champions league. In fact, we are still 4 points clear of fourth, and 5 clear of fifth which, when you analyse the moral surrounding the San Siro at the moment, is nowhere near as catastrophic as the mood would suggest and is probably the only thing keeping emperor Spallo in a job right now.
With that being said, its almost impossible to look past the depleted, unmotivated and borderline pathetic performances dished out by some of our players. Lets start with Capitano. Removing the ‘Il’ is fundamental, as many fans will agree that this man is not fit to lace the right boot of Javier. His borderline childish antics both on and off the pitch are becoming a joke. Hanging his head in shame, throwing his arms up in a tantrum, not to mention the ridiculous amount of time dedicated to social media and tabloid drama, fuelled by the insecure antics of his partner/agent Wanda Nara.
Icardi is only the creme of the crop in a long line of inadequate athletes currently occupying our roster. Vecino can really count his lucky stars that he was in the right place at the right time not once but twice at the penultimate stages of last year to be classified as cult figure of hope within the club. Outside of this, he is in my opinion, the worst and least contributing midfielder we have signed post treble. Completely ineffective on the ball, not to mention his poor perception of space and making any form of offensive runs, he needs to go, yesterday. Marcelo Brozovic is made to do a two man job every single fixture to accomodate for a very ineffective Vecino.
Roberto Gagliardini can be thrown into the mix here while we are at it. The man can’t perform against sides that are on his level e.g. Torino, Sassuolo, and his former Atalanta. Gags is a mid table quality central midfielder and the sooner we ship him off to a club on his level, the better for both parties.
Ivan Perisic is world class, lets not get it twisted. But what interest do we have in a world class player who only seems to want to showcase half of his ability for Inter, with the other half already on a plane ready for a Premier league club to take him to the next part of his journey. He too should have been sold at the start of the season, with an adequate replacement waiting, but in wake of a brilliant World Cup it isn’t hard to see why the club was so reserved about letting him go.
Raja Nainggolan. Where do we start here. The 40m euro man! Santon + Zaniolo + 25 million euro. Zaniolo has showed that he is worth Raja’s fee alone already, to say we have been ‘jipped’ by Roma in this deal would be a gross understatement. Raja’s 18/19 campaign has been a disaster. A poor run of form coupled by injuries, nights out and a supposed phone call where the ninja basically confessed to the mess he has caused in Milan, and that he would jump at the opportunity to return to the nations capital. The fact that Spalletti advocated for this man so hard, basically sacrificing Rafinha for him to come through, is something vexing the entire Inter fan base at the moment.
Borja Valero, D’ambrosio, Andrea Rannochia (despite his amazing spirit and love for the colours), Dalbert even free signing Asamoah are all players who I deem inadequate at this point of their career to be putting on our jersey, for the sake of this article, lets end it here.
Am I Spalletti in or out? I would say he has reached his ceiling, and has taken this group of players as far as he possibly can. Because I think I believe it is time for Inter to reinvest in a manager with a hell bent mentality for winning. Someone who has been on the trophies end before. Someone like Conte or Mourinho.
That being said, there are 11 players on that pitch wearing the jersey. And as of now, Samir Handanovic, Milan Skriniar, Marcelo Brozovic & Stefan De Vrij are the only names that have shown their worth as adequate Inter players.
