Inter series #1

For the month of February (at least) I'll be switching back over to Paramount so I can watch my favorite league (Serie A) and European competitions. Therefore, I'm going to focus on Inter as they confront a difficult month with a number of challenging fixtures.

I would argue that since about 2010 the Milan clubs have been a microcosm of Italian football. People talk about Juventus, but they're run more like a German club, or one of the smarter English ones. Italian clubs in general have been stifled by mismanagement and a federation stuck in the previous millennium. I won't go deep into the history, beecause that's not the point of this post, but the league was by far the best in the world in the 80s and 90s, awash with world class talent and temporary riches. Gradually, however, English football grew and took over financially at a time when Italian football owners could no longer invest quite as much. A big part of it was financial fair play, which is a misnomer, as there's nothing fair about it. I digress. Point is, the quality of the league continued until the late 00's before taking a nosedive in the 2010's. The only respectable club for the past 10+ years has been Juventus, and their dominance is reflected by the domestic titles they've amassed in that period. Inter and Milan have gone throw various owners and subsequent "banter eras". Basically, not playing in Europe, finishing in embarrassing positions in the league given the history and fan bases, random players who had no business playing for such successful clubs. That finally began to change at the start of this decade, and for Inter it hinged upon Beppe Marotta coming in and bringing Conte to replace Spalletti.

I know this is a bit disjointed, but I want to go over a bit more of what happened in the 2010's. The beginning was great for Inter, as Jose Mourinho led them to an unprecedented triple, culminating in the 2-0 Champions League final win against the mighty Bayern. The all-time great coach departed for Madrid after that, and combined with the financial issues, the club spiraled quickly. There are 3 other clubs I want to mention regarding Serie A in this period. Roma, Napoli, and more recently Atalanta have made noise in the league, providing a challenge to mainly Juventus at the top. Roma has its financial issues from time to time and is a selling club, but the other two are stable and generally run quite well, so they're not suffering the same fate as much of Italy.

I'll now cover the Conte era and then get into this season under Inzaghi. Basically, the club ranged from 9th to 4th in the final table for 6 seasons, Spalletti came in for two seasons and they finished 4th both times, and then Conte came in. Conte is a master builder of clubs. He comes in when things are shambolic and stabilizes the situation, or when things are stable he'll elevate them to a serious level, usually winning trophies. Spalletti set the team up in a 4-2-3-1, yet Conte came in and switched to his patented back 3, turning over the squad for the better. He brought in Lukaku, Eriksen and Barella for the first season, and the team finished 2nd. Conte then added Hakimi to finalize his squad and took the title off Juventus in style. That's a simplistic way of putting it, but it is what it is. That's the past now. Post title, the financial situation became and issue and Conte walked. Hakimi and Lukaku were sold and Eriksen could no longer play in Italy after his heart attack. Inzaghi was brought in and players needed to come in. Marotta brought in Dumfries to replace Hakimi, Dimarco came back from loan to provide depth at LWB/LCB, Hakan took the place of Eriksen, and both Dzeko and Correa were brought in to replace Lukaku. I'll also add that in the current transfer window the club has added Gosens at LWB and Caicedo for striker depth.

In terms of style, I would say Conte and Inzaghi have similarities but also some key differences. The football is generally more attacking now, or more aesthetically pleasing, if you want to put it that way. Before it was about dragging the defense out of position to attack directly, playing to the strengths of Lukaku. Actually, I'll likely do another whole post about this, so no point going in depth right now.

Long story short, I've always found myself drawn to Inter. Many of the other clubs aren't serious, and I didn't like the arrogance fans of Milan (European success) and Juventus (domestic success) have shown since I started following the football. Inter was a nice mid-point where you have the odd successful run but also aren't inundated with glory hunters to quite the same extent. I like Atalanta more than Inter, even now, but it's disheartening to think that they're unlikely to win a trophy. The upcoming matches are daunting, yet exciting. I don't think they'll beat Liverpool, but that will be fun to cover. Prior to that, they face Milan, Roma in the cup, and then travel to Napoli. After the first leg against Liverpool they host Sassuolo and travel to Genoa. That's a game every 3-4 days for the better part of a month, against a number of good teams to boot. What more can you ask for?