Inter kicked off its 2015-16 season yesterday against Atalanta who in the past have proved to be a bit of a bogey team for us especially when we travel to play them in Bergamo and have beaten us in the San Siro in the recent past too. I was disappointed and upset to see Mauro Icardi as the captain of the side. I feel it is an insult to all the great Inter captains that came before him that this immoral man was chosen as captain. I can't stand seeing him in our colours and now he is our captain?! Roberto Mancini, what were you thinking?! Samir Handanovic, Gary Medel, Rodrigo Palacio and even Juan Jesus were better placed to be captains than Icardi.
I was happy to see the back of Icardi after 10 minutes and our new number 10, Stevan Jovetic came on. I feel he has the right attributes to inherit the number 10 jersey. What ensued before Jovetic came on, after he came on and until the moment he scored was a boring spectacle. I am watching the match from 2.45am, in the wee hours of the morning. What I saw just lulled me to sleep several times during the game. We played better last season in certain games and lost. Geoffrey Kondogbia, big fuss was made of signing him like as if we had signed the reincarnate of Ronaldo, was not worth the fuss. Thus the title of this article. I could be harsh and I know I am. It's only one game in, I expect him to take his time to adjust to the country and the Italian game. He is still relatively young and I can't expect him to be consistent yet. It is no fault of his that Inter's directors were silly enough to spend so much of money to sign him despite knowing that the club has Financial Fair Play to adhere to. No fault of Kondogbia. I still feel the fuss was created because we beat Milan to his signing but that's nothing to be overjoyed about. We should be beating Milan on the pitch and in the standings not in the transfer market. The midfield was crying out for creativity, creativity that was lost from the silly sale of Mateo Kovacic. It is not silly for the money Real Madrid paid for him. In the financial sense, it made sense but seeing it from the football side of things, it is silly.
Did we really need to sell him and Shaqiri? Mancini had said as much that the club were forced to sell Kovacic and Shaqiri because they needed the money and for what? Because we had paid a huge amount of money for Kondogbia among others. We had Medel. We can give Gnoukouri space to play. He had a poor game but he is a youngster, he is bound to be inconsistent. He can only grow. We should have kept Marco Benassi and brought back Thiago Motta for his experience and winning mentality. We could still sign him though. If there were anyone we should have sold it would have been Fredy Guarin and/or Hernanes. Anyways, I can't undo whatever has been done but clearly the midfield was lacking creativity. Marcelo Brozovic was clearly our best player. He did well again but I guess he is missing his Croatian team-mate, Kovacic as I have seen him to have played better than he did. The club had said they would not sell Icardi and Kovacic. I am not naive to believe whatever the club says. I know if needed, they would be forced to sell someone and they would but the smarter option would be in selling Icardi. You can always replace him with another striker that can score goals. He is no world-beater. Icardi is no Ronaldo, no Ibrahimovic, no Milito or even Adriano in his prime. He is a good finisher who relies on supply. He can't create chances on his own.
Our defence was largely untroubled so I can't say much about it. All I can say is that Miranda and Jeison Murillo have added quality to the defence. It looks like a good battle now for the other central defenders in the first team. Personally, my pick is on a Ranocchia-Murillo partnership but that's just me. I am not one of the technical directors at Inter, I am not the owner at Inter, I am not the manager at Inter. I am just a fan that has lost his connection with the players on the field. I love the club and would still support them even at 2.45am but I got to get used to accepting the players on the pitch wearing the Nerazzuri colours. As a fan, I just got to get behind whoever that is wearing our jersey on the pitch hoping that they do well for the club regardless of my personal opinions on them. Like many other fans, I would like to be in a position to make big decisions at the club but that is just an unreachable dream. My marriage with Inter is that of compromise with a tinge of unhappiness and despair. The best thing this season so far one game in is still the jersey.
By the way, I am glad Juventus lost and happy Milan lost too but I don't take much joy from Milan's defeat especially after watching an awful performance from us. If it was Fiorentina that played us instead of Atalanta, we could have lost too. Maybe all the expectations around the Milanese sides are false ones to have and both sides still have a long way to go before they return to their majestic best.
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