Massimo Moratti’s refusal to invest in the squad has cost Inter Milan the League
Jose Mourinho – in his only second season with the club and last – won a historic treble with the Nerazzurri. While Inter won the league title for the fifth time on the trot, it was the Champions league victory after a 46 year dry spell that made him a firm
fan favourite.
The charismatic Portuguese left the club of his own accord as the hot seat of Real Madrid came calling. Nerazzurri fans, players and the staff were left devastated but there was precious little they could do as Massimo Moratti went hunting for a new manager.
Rafa Benitez was duly snapped up. While even Sir Alex Ferguson would have found slipping into Jose’s shoes extremely difficult, good things were expected from the Spaniard. At least much better than what he delivered anyways.
As things stand, Inter Milan are an impossible 13 points off the top with a game in hand. Even if the Blue-blacks win the game against Cesena, which they will in all probability; they will still be 10 points off arch-rivals AC Milan. With 16 games played
and 22 games to go, AC Milan are red hot in form and owing much to the sustained brilliance of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, it's unlikely they will drop many points.
Now, as it happened, Inter made a better start to their title defence than the rest of the Scudetto candidates. Samuel Eto’o in particular was in sizzling form. However, Nerazzurri were hampered by a terrible injury crisis where as many as eight first team
players were left nursing their respective knocks on the treatment tables. While Rafa shares the blame for all the injuries because of his questionable fitness exercises, it’s really the squad depth that was an issue.
Under Jose Mourinho, both Samuel Eto’o and Diego Milito were in inspired form and their attacking nous was perfectly complemented by Lucio-Samuel partnership at the back. One can say Mourinho was lucky none of his key players received injuries during a historic
season but it was also good management on his part. Now Rafa was never known for management skills. Once Walter ‘The Wall’ Samuel got crocked because of a season ending injury, Inter’s season was always going down. The injury was coupled with Diego Milito’s
woeful form and all of a sudden, Nerazzuri were a team in complete mess.
Massimo Morrati sold the mercurial Mario Balotelli over the summers and did not reinforce the squad. The troubled star, for all his rows with Mourinho, scored some critical goals last season and was a key player for the treble winning team. Moratti’s explanation
that Philippe Coutinho was the replacement for Balotelli is a naive excuse for failing to spend any real money. Also, Moratti knew Lucio and Walter Samuel were the only world class centre backs in his squad and there was always a chance of them getting injured.
They are humans after all. Even though Inter co-own the best young Italian defender in the peninsula in Andrea Ranocchia, they failed to bring the stalwart to San Siro.
The press and fans might be blasting the Spaniard for Inter’s derailing season, but it’s Massimo Moratti who is to blame for a dismal Nerazzurri team that we have seen take to the pitch this season.
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