As the new season gets underway in Serie A, Nezzazurri fans could not be faulted for having a feeling of optimism. The demise of ‘champions’ Juventus to Serie B, the docking of 8 championship points of housemates, AC Milan & the awarding of the 2005/06 league title (their first in… well let’s just say eons).

You noticed, I haven’t even begun to drop names and speak about Inter’s summer imitation of Chelsea (2004 onwards) & Real Madrid (throughout Fiorentino Perez’s presidential reign). So now I am…

* Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Juve)
* Patrick Vieira (Juve)
* Fabio Grosso (Palermo)
* Hernan Crespo (Chelsea)
* Olivier Dacourt (Roma)

All world class names who would slot into any good first eleven in the world (well? maybe apart from Dacourt of course).

These are in addition to last season’s squad stars like:

* Adriano
* Estaban Cambiasso
* Marco Materazzi
* Luis Figo
* Alvaro Recoba
* Ivan Cordoba
* Javier Zanetti
* Dejan Stankovic
* Julio Cruz

Q: So, Inter favourites for the title?

A: Far from it! To be honest, I don’t think Inter could win the title even if they signed Ronaldinho, Wayne Rooney and Thierry Henry . Yes, football is a game won on the field. However, there is an array of off-field elements that could be as influential, if not more influential.

Here are these possible elements:

1. The Transfer Policy - Inter have always had a big squad, too big and often inbalanced in my opinion. Suffering a Madrid syndrome of name hunting at times, regardless of the team’s needs.

2. The Gaffer - For a club of Inter’s stature and rich history, they always seem to make the wrong choice for the top job. I like Roberto Mancini but I am not convinced he could lead Inter to the Serie A title… legitimately and on equal grounds anyway. Last season’s title by default is just not worth mentioning nor celebrating. 1988-89 is really the last Scudetto Inter have earned.

3. Lack of Luck - Inter can be classed as the ‘graveyard’ of football. Stars that come here, either do not perform or have career stalled for various reasons ie Ronaldo’s long term injury curse and Dennis Bergkamp somehow fading into insignificance.

4. The Shoot-Myself-in-the-Foot Tendency - They have a knack to losing the ‘unlosable’ games and watch this space. I will put myself out for slaughter and go on the limb to predict that by season’s end we will be writing about either AC Milan’s amazing repentance and redemption or Roma’s re-emergence and coming of age of its new era (post Gabriel Batistuta et. al.). So Inter may have to be satisfied with its collection of Coppa Italia and Italian Super Cups.

So while the blue half of the San Siro may be singing now, watch out for the fat lady, she’s waming up on the touchline. She seems to be have won her battle with lady luck.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 15th, 2006 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Inter Milan. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.