Be wary of anyone who talks about a Ferguson or Wenger-style project. It is no coincidence that the examples in these cases are taken from England: in Italy the excellent Sir Alex, who won his first title at Manchester United after four seasons of little or nothing, would have been celebrated by popular acclaim within a couple of years. We live in another culture, there’s no point in making fun of ourselves. In addition to being wary, those directly involved, if compared to the “Ferguson model”, would be better off knocking on wood if nothing else. Having moved from the Premier League to Serie A, the comparison usually brings bad luck.
Ergo, a Simone Inzaghi it is best to stay away from illustrious precedents. At the same time, Inter would be better off holding on to a coach who seems to have all the characteristics to represent something different. Playing with words, in yesterday’s Corsera, Paolo Tomaselli wrote about cycles and cyclones. The Nerazzurri’s journey towards the Scudetto was this, a sort of tornado that overwhelmed the (?) competition. Inserted in the context of a technical project that has reached its third year, but within which each season has been a sort of year zero in terms of the number of sales and purchases, it is already rightfully part of a winning cycle. Only time will tell how long it will last and what it will bring to the board, a gentleman indeed in the long term but in the short term very fickle in alternating panegyrics and sentences.
Why is Inzaghi the perfect coach for a project that is such in fact and in name? Making the team play well is not enough. He has probably expressed the best football of the last ten years, but there have been and will be those who make their teams play well. Enhance individuals, up to a certain point: not everyone succeeds so well, but this too can hardly be considered an exclusive quality of the Piacenza Demon. Doing all this in an economically complicated context and without raising your voice: that’s it, little fire. After taking home the scudetto, Inzaghi could have raised his voice and let pebbles fly left and right. He could have done it already with the Champions League final, won in a season in the middle of which he was treated like the village idiot. Moral: at the first available opportunity he not only avoided, but also sent his deputy Farris in front of the cameras. The us instead of the I, a gesture that is worth more than Inter’s 81 goals in this championship. And which tells not only a human side to be praised, the most beautiful and even the most banal aspect if we want. But above all the awareness of being part of something larger, the most important cog but still a cog in a corporate and professional machine that is much more complex than it seems when thinking about twenty-two boys in shorts chasing a ball. It is a vision that goes beyond indisputable technical-tactical qualities.
The ability to form something organic, which Marotta has built since his arrival at Inter and Inzaghi seems to have innate, is perhaps the best explanation for Inter’s last months. The synthesis found between the management, starting with Ausilio and Baccin, the team and the technical department, despite the objective difficulty that the physical absence of president Zhang entails, is an even better result than a championship celebrated in the midst of three hundred thousand people. It is a synthesis that will have to be summarized again in the next few days, when as usual we will meet to discuss the path to take for the future. Beyond Inzaghi’s renewal, which will perhaps be a little longer and arrive a little earlier than usual, it will be an inevitably different match from those of previous years. Because the last twelve-fourteen months have given strength to the coach, who has also had requests in the past but has not always been able to see them fulfilled (let’s simplify: Acerbi yes, but with how much effort? Milinkovic-Savic no). The point is not that Inzaghi will have won on any issue: there are economic and market contingencies that impose a direction, and in the end (Correa) when he was satisfied without any ifs or buts but he wasn’t even right. The point is that precisely that synthesis, with delicate balances but which for now work best and which perhaps will move a little more towards the coach’s side (but the no to the revolution and the yes to a couple of very targeted additions seems already shared, essential offers permitting), is the secret behind this Inter. And in this context Inzaghi, like his staff, like Marotta, Ausilio and Baccin, fit in perfectly. Just don’t give him, to protect him more, than the Italian Ferguson: if he lasts and wins for ten years… it will be nice to tell about it.
