Frank de Boer reveals the chaos at Inter with Mauro Icardi and Marcelo Brozovic got too much for him. “We had three months, but honestly it felt like a year.”
The former Ajax Coach was drafted in to replace Roberto Mancini just two weeks before the Serie A season kicked off and was fired 85 days later.
“Leaving Ajax after 25 years as player, coach and manager was hard, but sometimes you are saying the same things, you need a new challenge, like Pep Guardiola,” De Boer told the Daily Mail.
“But at Inter I had to deal with so many things away from football, you lose energy.
“Every time you thought, ‘Finally, a good result, everything has calmed down,’ then comes Mauro Icardi's book or Marcelo Brozovic is in the discotheque and you have to punish him.
“We only had three months but honestly, it felt like a year.”
Inter were fined on Wednesday for Icardi’s autobiography, as it included threats to bring criminals over from Argentina to attack ultras.
Brozovic was dropped for a couple of weeks, but the club never revealed why De Boer had taken disciplinary action – evidently the Croatia international had been out partying into the early hours.
“Attractive football and dominating in the opposition half, winning the ball back as quickly as possible. This is what I stand for,” continued De Boer.
“Discipline is everything, but it's about knowing when. One player at Ajax, Mounir El Hamdaoui, he stayed in the toilet for 10 minutes at half-time then gave me the big mouth. You think, 'If I don't do something here, they're going to play with my balls'.
“That was it, 'Okay, you're off'. You either win the group or lose it. They need to respect you.”
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