Inter Milan - Season Review - Serie A - iSport

The arrival of the most charismatic manager at Inter brought big hopes with it. But did it really change Inter's forturnes? Srikant Iyer believes Mourinho's arrival hasn't brought the change that Inter fans were hoping for.

When you consider Inter’s season this year, you must end up concluding their season to be a success. Yes. Let’s start with that this time, in this season review. It’s quite natural for an outside football enthusiast to think that winning the league you play in should make for a pretty damn good celebration in June. And celebrate they did. Edging out Atalanta in a swashbuckling 7 goal fest, star striker Ibrahimovic scoring twice to win the Capocannoniere award and ending the season in style, four Scudettos in four consecutive years.

The players run a lap of honour, celebrating with the Interisti who stood with them through the tough times before, the miraculous transformation since Calcipoli still paying rich dividends. They paid tribute to Luis Figo, for having given incredulous service to the Milan based club, as he set to retire. Mourinho would be glad, he’s had success where ever he’s gone, another big star on his CV, another huge bragging right.

But are you Inter fans really happy?

Many of you still are. After all the long draught of glory in the early Moratti era is yet to be quenched. But some of you are thinking, “So we won another league title. We were overwhelming favourites weren’t we? We have the best squad don’t we? We’ve won it thrice already with the same squad.”

In terms of improvement, Inter haven’t made any. After a 2-0 win over Parma at the end of last season in 2008, they won their 16th Scudetto, their first which they “truly earned”, with Juventus and Milan without their penalizations after Calcipoli. Mancini had a similarly strong squad, which still retain their impressive backbone in Julio Cesar, Ivan Cordoba, Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso, Dejan Stankovic and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Yet people weren’t happy. They wanted the Champions League but went out dismally. Domestic domination yet European despair. With mutual consent Mancini was shown his way out and in came an outspoken charismatic young manager who would soon be the highest paid manager in the world with 7 million Euros a year. Mourinho had won the Champions League with Porto; he knew what it took to earn that Big-Eared trophy. In come Amantio Mancini, Sulley Muntari, Quaresma and the explosion of a talent that is Balotelli. The coffers weren’t empty and Moratti made sure the rest of the world knew that.

They defeated Roma to win the Super Coppa in penalties, their first silverware of the season! The signs are encouraging. The season started with a trip to Stadio Ferrari to play against a tricky team in Sampdoria, while Ibra scored to lead, a second half comeback by the opposition saw them settle for a draw. A dubious and lacklustre game at home turf against Catania saw Inter scrape through their first victory of their season in round 2. Then the Nerrazzuri woke up to realise their quality, winning convincingly, 2-0 against Panathinaikos in the CL and then 3-1 against Torino. Mourinho was finding his feet in this tactical league. While at first an attacking trident was preferred, with Ibra flanked by Quaresma, Figo or Adriano, a few injuries and player issues (for Adriano) saw this getting reluctantly scraped by the Special One, who saw this system pay rich dividends in Chelsea.

In Week 7 Inter completely dismantled last year’s runners-up Roma, turning them over 4-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in probably their best game of the season, to open up a two point gap at the top of the table. The inconsistencies remained as the win was followed by a stuttering one goal victory of Cypriot minnows Anorthosis in the Champions League, which preceded goalless draws at home to Genoa - who had lost all previous away games - and away to Fiorentina. The points continued to accumulate but not in wholly conventional circumstances.

A Muntari goal led them to a win against the new charge Juventus which then spurned a run of victories domestically albeit a few upsets in Europe (losing to Panathanaikos 0-1). Inter saw themselves comfortably at top by the winter break. Ibra proved to be their focal point and an inspiration on field while new signings found it difficult to keep their place in the first team, Especially Quaresma, who had some horrendous performances to pay for.

Referee favours were pointed out to have helped them greatly unlike their competitors. Accusations of favours were thrown here and there. Their insipid but robot-like consistency in victories along with these accusations brought out memories of the Capello-Juventus juggernaut which similarly steamrolled through to domestic domination but endured hiccups in Europe.

The results came in while Milan and Juventus continuously faltered.

Inter's indifferent qualification from their group in Europe saw them finish second, and thus were drawn against a group winner, Manchester United. Had Inter won what was a very winnable group, they would have avoided the group winners and theoretically been handed a simpler draw, the press now built up another Mourinho-Ferguson bill up.

They were comprehensively beaten over the two legs. While managing to survive the game at home, Old Trafford proved to be their Waterloo, the first major blemish in the Mourinho campaign. Another year without European glory. With Man Utd going on to the finals, the difference in cohesiveness as a team was there to see even if quality of personnel could be debated. In between the Manchester United games, Inter's Coppa Italia bid was ended when they crumbled 3-0 away at Sampdoria in the first leg of the semi-finals - a score that they could not overturn in the return leg.

Now without any cups to consider, Inter, somewhat disappointingly tread on to compile an unattainable lead in the Serie A. Winning it was never in question with Milan and Juventus scurrying to 74 points, a total unworthy of any European league title. Thus the analysis of the season gone by had begun. After their 17th Scudetto, many were left pondering how much the side had actually improved since the Mancini era, if it did at all.

Mourinho’s typical creativity-stifling formation of a sturdy back four, tenacious midfield and a lone strong striker once again managed to fish out the points. Ibra improving greatly and continuing his quest for the Ballon D’or while Julio Caesar emerged to be a world-class keeper (even approved by Buffon!), with Santon and Balotelli proving to be greatly talented youngsters, there are quite a few positives to take despite a moderately successful season.

A few sticking points would be the fickle minded easiness with which Ibra wishes to play elsewhere and the average age of the squad which is very high with an eye on the future. New signings Diego Milito and Thiago Motta are excellent additions no doubt but are aged 30 and 27 respectively, not young additions for the long run. Typical Mourinho tendency to buy old players effective immediately on the short term is seen with their intent to bring in the ageing Drogba and Deco while young striker Aquafresca is likely to be sold off. If Ibra leaves, Inter will be left with a huge void, difficult to fill but Moratti seems to have convinced the lofty striker to stay for the time being. Continued ailed endeavours in Europe will certainly see him leave.

Since Madrid is splashing cash every place possible and the Manchester clubs and Chelsea have the money, star players seem to want to go everyplace except Italy, barring a few of course. However of all the clubs in Italy currently, Inter seems to have the largest gravity as they look to rebuild for European success at any cost. The Special one has not rubbed the right shoulders in the peninsula, not yet, and next season he’ll have to be wary because Moratti and the Nerrazzuri are hungry and will definitely need to be fed...