We are Inter!

[Handoyo]

Some of you old folks may remember this article that Jimmy wrote 6 years ago. While it may not reflect the current situation completely, I still think it's a very good read and quite appropriate to address current doubts.

You can read the article here.

 

[Bes]

We still get to hear that we were boring and that Dalmat sucks. We got the no clean sheet in our face, after the first match we have played with that back three.

Quaremsa.

Defenitly you've chosen a very good article and it's what's happening right now...
Sighs.

 

[Anne Marie]

Han or anybody help, please

I cant find Jimmy articles about 2002 season

The link show up few articles, only since 2004.

 

[Ehsan]

It's still there. Maybe the page didn't finish loading for you because the hosting goes down sometimes.

Try a hard-refresh of the page.

Anyway, here it is:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]'We are Inter!'

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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](Written 7th October 2002)

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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Now we have a weeks break from Serie A and the CL and it is time to start reflecting of the season so far. What´s there that is missing? What´s there that is wrong? Why do we get no respect? These are things that needs to take into consideration and be discussed. We need to stop and think of what Inter is all about.

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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Let us take point for point. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]First place - No respect [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This is for me a very surprising thing. In the Serie A this season we have won 4 out of 4 matches. Which is the team that everyone speaks about? Milan....

I can´t help feeling a bit annoyed and relieved about the whole thing. Annoyed - because I feel we are being completely neglected in the talks of being impressive and has done great results so far. Relieved - because we are still the underdog and the ones who they expect more from. If that is now relieving. I don´t like that media and non-Inter fans expect more from us. That means we have to play awesome football for 90 minutes AND win the match with big figures. Is it realistic? Of course not. We can´t play like that, because we aren´t that kind of team. Cuper said it perfectly. Let Milan play how they want, we are Inter. We are not a ball possession team and hasn´t been for AGES!

I believe the relatively poor performances in the CL has contributed a lot to the bad publisity we receive. I actually thought that many of our players would get the recognition they deserve with playing in the CL, like Cordoba, Dalmat, Cristiano, Il Capitano and etc. Instead we have performed honestly - like crap.

It has completely backfired, but we still are on second place. We still beated Ajax. But who spoke about that? Just us. The only one who cares if we win or lose. In the eyes of the spectators that doesn´t carry the Inter heart, we were just lucky and boring. We didn´t deserve the three points. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]4 wins out of matches. What else do we have to do? We need a midfield. That´s what else we have to do. Do neutrals bothers about that Cristiano is missing? No, because they don´t know who he is. He hasn´t gotten the chance to show off in the CL and prove what an important player he is for us. When I was defending Cristiano during the summer, many people said that we bought Almeyda as a replacement for Cristiano and that now we could swap Cristiano for Nesta. What has happened? Almeyda hasn´t been able to make a pass correct and not won many balls either. A magnificant cross to Crespo - that is all.

What has been said now at various discussion forums? "We need Cristiano back!"
Ironic isn´t it? The most talked about defensive midfielder during the summer and even the most critizised one because using that as an argument for why we should make the swap. Now the most wanted player in the squad. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Returning to the no respect topic. Inter fans hasn´t been any saints either. We continuesly win our matches over and over again, and yet there are talks of firing Cuper. How spoiled are we? How much do we demand? Can we expect some harmony within the squads when our fans are acting as bloody spoiled brats? We finally got rid of Ingrato who showed to be extremely spoiled, and instead we receive hundreds of fans that acts like spoiled brats. It saddens me really. What I have always said: If you want to see an attractive team, root for a Spanish team.

Because we are INTER! And with Inter, it comes with pride, no matter what how offensive we play. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Then what happens? We pull off an awesome match against Chievo offensively, and who gives us credit now? No one...

They still continue to talk about Milan and Juve. Why? Because we don´t win with 4-0 in every match? Or that we just made it to 2-1? 2-1 and a hell of a good performance by Inter, and still no credit. Still no neutral fans that congrats us to a very impressive win. We still get to hear that we were boring and that Dalmat sucks. We got the no clean sheet in our face, after the first match we have played with that back three. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Say what you want, but we are INTER and we get the results. And in the end, it´s the points that counts and not the number of goals you score. We know this from the beginning and doesn´t bother with thinking about trashing our opponents just because we wanna look impressive for the spectators. We leave that for Milan, so they get the hype. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But no doubt, that Inter has caused very unneccessary heart attacks because not being able to finish off the match earlier. So if Okan and Almeyda had scored against Reggina and we would have won with 4-1 we would have been more impressive? Seems like that is what football is all about. Score as many goals as possible and play as offensively as possible, and you get the respect. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hector Cuper - A new man [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]He has changed a lot this year. Moratti forces him to switch his favourite formation, and I´ll be damned - the man actually pulls it off to! How´s that for a coach? After 5 years with 4-4-2 in Europe he switches the formation, and the dude still gets the results. He even realises what kind of positional play that it requires. Is he the best coach in the world? Many say no. Why? Because he´s too defensive. Just tell me one thing: What did Lucescu do for Inter? That´s the most offensive coach we have had for years. And together with Tardelli, the worst. Do we wanna witness Taribo West all over again where he throws the jersey? Or do we wanna witness the heart and grinta that Cuper brings out of every player? Cuper tells the players the magic words: We are Inter!

And the players gets it, and they know that when Cannavaro concedes a penalty in the last minute, that we have to score once more because of the honour. What happens? Recoba scores a goal in the next attack. We show everyone that we are Inter and Inter gets 3 points. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We lose to Lyon and what does Cuper do? Takes the blame for it together with every player that played the match. While the fans booes Dalmat, Cuper says that the whole team has to take the responsibility including him. Can we argue with that? No, we can´t because it´s as realistic as possible. Individual errors from normal worldclass players like Cannavaro and Cordoba costed us the match, but if the rest of the team can´t help them, what´s the use?

Second half in the same match, Canna score and throws up his arm in the air with a huge grinta. I can bet my ass that his words were: We are Inter!
And up with the arm. But being Inter is not enough sometimes. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The man does it again! [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Luigi Di Biagio - The biggest mystery in Inter. Before the Sporting match, I personally wanted him on the bench for his poor performances. Di Biagio steps onto the pitch and takes the leader role. He scores the first goal and show us the way. He runs like crazy and is having the match of his life. The same day as he was questioned as a starter. What a phenomenon. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And this sunday it was his day once again. Being questioned once again and some wanted the youngster Beati to replace him as a starter. But Di Biagio doesn´t take offence and shows why he is playing for us. The man scores two goals and is cool as ever. He becomes the 3800th goalscorer for Inter. "Benvenuto Jacobo" says his shirt when he celebrates. I can bet it meant: Never question me

He scores once more and show us the way once again. 2-0... He shows up his finger that it is meant for the Inter fans. Up yours! I am Di Biagio and I score when no one else does and leads this team! Treat me with respect and I´ll give my all on the pitch.
What a guy! I might not be his fan, but you can´t help falling in love with a player that when he´s the most critizised shows how fickle some of us are. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Irony once again - Marco Materazzi [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Sell him, he is our biggest weakness!" [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Those were the words before the season started. Everyone wanted Nesta to replace him. Instead, what happens? The freak plays the most for us and is being the best defender too. Outplayed Bierhoff, something that Stam didn´t do. And still there were some that wanted Stam instead of Materazzi.

He hasn´t picked up a yellow card so far. The defender with the reputation of only being a butcher and no class whatsoever. Then when you think that Materazzi has done it all for us, he steps up and become the assist king too. With the most precise long ball to Vieri, and Vieri´s outstanding shot, he assists us too. But still, he doesn´t get respect. But we are Inter and get used to it. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Is it irony or simple igorance to see that Materazzi has been our best defender so far, when we have signed one of the best defenders during the 90´s - Fabio Cannavaro?
Cannavaro who has costed us many goals so far, but here is a guy that gets the respect. WHY?!?!?! Yes, because he hasn´t been with us for that long and he is the captain of the most talked about NT. No one dares to disrespect him. But don´t get me wrong. Canna is slowly winning my heart too.

But I don´t like the disrespect that others do because of Canna. "Throw Cordoba out of the lineup and put in Canna!"

Cordoba who is our vice-captain and one of our most loyal players. Where´s the respect? Or that we should drop Materazzi because he made a bad match against Croatia.

The point is that we are Inter and we don´t go by the names, but of performances and importance in the team. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
With these last words, I would like to say that we are on top of Serie A without impressing that much, but we haven´t played any junior teams and we can improve a hell of a lot more. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]WE ARE INTER! [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Jimmy Fredholm[/FONT]​

 

[Anne Marie]

Thank you

My puzzle was why we fired Cuper, and that all I wanna fully understand:|

 

[Handoyo]

I thought you followed Inter from 1999? The sacking of Cuper shouldn't have been puzzling at all. I remember writing an article about it, although I was a complete noob and wrote like a teenage popcorn fan.

 

[ibra9]

good articles

 

[ibra9]

i think i also confused why we fired Mancini?

in the 4 years with him, Inter won 3 scudetto, 2 coppa italia, 2 super coppa.

If they want to go to Champs league, buy more players! i think moratti need to apologize to the mancini and hired him again

 

[Handoyo]

Bandiera pls read this

Although of course irrational exuberance is not good either. I brought this article up in late 2008, where we struggled quite a bit during the early part of Mou's era. We won the League that season quite comfortably.

Although of course, this article was written back in Oct 2002, where apparently we won 4 of our first matches and faltered afterwards. Still, not too bad of a season, only getting knocked out on the CL semi EuroDerby I through away goals. And a heck of an improvement compared to Inter 14/15.

 

[bandiera]

My problem isn't that we don't have an attractive gameplan. It's that our gameplan is pass the ball to Jovetic and to depend on individual brilliance. That is a very reasonable concern to be having, it's not a personal issue like wanting us to play a specific brand of football. This article is basically saying "it's worked so far so stop complaining". You could also say that about Stramaccioni's first few months. Obviously I'm not going to say we're that bad, but there are reasonable parallels to be made.

 

[Devious]

My problem isn't that we don't have an attractive gameplan. It's that our gameplan is pass the ball to Jovetic and to depend on individual brilliance.

That's exactly Mancini for you

It's not smart nor attractive and definitly it wont always pay cause we'll face teams that will be smart enough to shut down Jovetic and we'll be in alot of trouble. However this is Mancini's style, the management signed him knowing well that this is what he's gona do.

I think the only bright side I can think of that by the time we get to face those smarter teams I just mentioned, we might be able to discover our new players potentials ala Kdog, Lijajic, Persic and even Melo besides ofcourse Icardi to save our asses instead of Jojo.

At the moment we are not quite the big team we should be, but think about it as we are the underdogs, a previous season's midtable team that will fight this year just like a typical midtable team just ti get a third place atleast for a CL spot. We are not contending for scudetto after all.

 

[Bluenine]

My problem isn't that we don't have an attractive gameplan. It's that our gameplan is pass the ball to Jovetic and to depend on individual brilliance. That is a very reasonable concern to be having, it's not a personal issue like wanting us to play a specific brand of football.

It would be a "reasonable concern" if this is the case at the end of this season. But we are just 3 games into the season, with 7-8 new starting players most of whom haven't even started for Inter yet... what did you expect??!

Our defence looks more organised and fit for this style of football. Attack is still largely dependent upon individual brilliance, but thats ok at this early stage. It will take at least 6 months for this new group of players to gel with each other. <<--- This is a reasonable point of view. Yours is too negative, way too early.

 

[TheNetworkZ]

It would be a concern if it didn't work, but it is. We're not even close to being in the position of wanting to play attractive football or anything of the sorts over something that gets us results. This season is literally CL or bust.

 

[Bluenine]

It would be a concern if it didn't work, but it is. We're not even close to being in the position of wanting to play attractive football or anything of the sorts over something that gets us results. This season is literally CL or bust.

No, its not. My response got a bit long, so I posted it as a separate article: Is it CL or Bust?

 

[TGDella]

So what's the plan post CL qualification? Is thohir looking to take a kind of 'Keynesian' approach, spending our way out of the current shitty period through obligations to buy down the lines (essentially debt) then reign in the spending after we qualify and finances are better, so debts can be repaid? If this is the plan i can see some holes. To stay competitive domestically we ll need squad reinforcements for depth, or to actually challenge in CL we'd certainly need to acquire more quality in midfield and relegate current starters to cops back ups. So rather than not qualifying meaning bust, busy could come from us getting to CL, performing poorly and missing qualification for the next season. Then there could be a dangerous exodus of talent.

 

[Bluenine]

So what's the plan post CL qualification? Is thohir looking to take a kind of 'Keynesian' approach, spending our way out of the current shitty period through obligations to buy down the lines (essentially debt) then reign in the spending after we qualify and finances are better, so debts can be repaid? If this is the plan i can see some holes. To stay competitive domestically we ll need squad reinforcements for depth, or to actually challenge in CL we'd certainly need to acquire more quality in midfield and relegate current starters to cops back ups. So rather than not qualifying meaning bust, busy could come from us getting to CL, performing poorly and missing qualification for the next season. Then there could be a dangerous exodus of talent.

I suspect the scenarios next summer are:

1. If we don't make the CL - then all transfers will have to be funded by sales, like we did this summer. This I have explained in more detail in my article here.

2. If we make the CL - In this case, we have about €50m of potential CL money to spend + whatever we make with sales. That should give us a big enough war chest to improve our starting lineup and depth, i.e. 4-5 quality buys.

The tricky bit will be if we finish 3rd this season and have to play qualifying. Does Thohir take the risk and spend big anyway to ensure we qualify to the group stage? Or will he try and do a Lazio, i.e. wait till we make the group stage before spending? The 2nd approach is very risky and can derail all the good work (like Lazio found out this summer). The sensible thing to do will be spend the money to upgrade before the qualifying round, and if we fail to qualify then quickly make a big sale (Icardi?) to balance the books (or do that in January).

 

[TGDella]

But surely a pretty big chunk of that 50mil will go to paying our various obligations to buy and such clauses which we accumulated over this summer?
(Sorry, meant to post all this in your more recent thread but I'm in too deep now!)

 

[wera]

So, when are we getting our own stadium?

 

[Bluenine]

But surely a pretty big chunk of that 50mil will go to paying our various obligations to buy and such clauses which we accumulated over this summer?
(Sorry, meant to post all this in your more recent thread but I'm in too deep now!)

If Thohir stays consistent with his policy of only using organic cash flows for transfers, then yes, we will have to sell a big player (like Icardi) to fund new buys / obligations even if we make the CL.

However from a FFP perspective, as I explained in my article, these obligations are easily met by savings from expiring contracts (Vidic, Palacio, Nagatomo, Mazzarri), so the CL money can be used to fund new transfers.