SempreInter.com editor Sia gives his thoughts on Inter sacking Walter Mazzarri and his replacement by Roberto Mancini.
After 1.5 years as Inter’s head coach Walter Mazzarri was finally sacked last week and was replaced by Roberto Mancini. The criticism of Mazzarri have been tough, which began last season even though Inter made it back to European competitions by holding on to fifth place. I personally criticized Mazzarri due to his inability to win three consecutive matches in a row. He failed to finish before Fiorentina even though Inter were free of European competition, had a good schedule and Fiorentina missed Rossi and Gomez through injury for the majority of the season. Mazzarri continuously failed to find solutions when Inter’s game plan struggled even though he was amongst the best payed coaches in the league.
Having seen all this, Inter fans had accepted Walter Mazzarri as their coach. He went through a tough period when Inter changed owners but the team never collapsed the way they did under Stramaccioni, which surely caused the end of that manager’s time Inter with. On orders from Thohir, Mazzarri started playing with Kovacic and Icardi. The next demand from the president was a four man defence but it would be hard to change during the season so it had to wait. This years pre-season arrived and the expectations on Mazzarri were big. Not because he is Mazzarri, but because he is the coach of Inter, which is known to be a tough destination for coaches. Seeing that Mazzarri was even able to survive benching Zanetti in the captains last derby, while securing a new contract and after a fine mercato it was time for the coach to deliver, without excuses.
Very few of you will have read Mazzarri’s book. And if someone is thinking about doing it, please don’t. If you did you would certainly be surprised with Mazzarri’s ego. With quotes like “if a team is worth 50 and I make it perform 100, I’m Walter Mazzarri” and “There I was together with Guardiola, two footballing masters discussing philosophies”. My favorite Mazzarri quote took place when newspapers reported that Mazzarri voted for himself in the competition known as “The golden bench”, which is the award given to the best coach in Italy every season. His reply was: “The golden bench? I deserve the platinum bench”. It’s funny seeing how Conte won the scudetto, Montella did great with Fiorentina and so on. Having won very little, Mazzarri’s ego and the way he sees himself is very interesting and a serious part of his failure at Inter relates to this problem.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t consider Mazzarri a totally incompetent coach. Quiet the contrary. I’ve never wanted him at Inter but when he replaced Stramaccioni, I can’t claim that I didn’t look forward to it. A coach known for his skills. A general who would fix our defense and get the most out of the team at his disposal, and at times he’d even get it to perform more than they ever knew they could. Just as well as he had done at Napoli, Reggina, Sampdoria and others, he would do for us. What made Mazzarri fail was that he though Inter was a team with the same mentality as his previously mentioned teams, and here is where I come back to the way Mazzarri sees himself.
Mazzarri sees himself as gods gift to football and is more than happy to brag about how he kept Reggina from relegation even though the team had been punished with a point reduction. He is more than happy to speak about how well he did with Napoli and Sampdoria and it almost seems like he considers it the same thing as winning league titles and European cups. Mazzarri’s hard work, the fine results and the ability to always get his teams to perform better than what was expected is what took Walter Mazzarri to Inter. At Inter, his biggest mistake was thinking that he could do just as he had done earlier. Mazzarri, just as one of his predecessors Benitez thought, that he could adapt Inter to the coach. Instead of adapting to Inter and becoming a part of the Inter world, Mazzarri did just the opposite. At Inter, no supporter really cares what Mazzarri did with Reggina nor do they consider it a great success. At Inter, the coach needs to perform now, which has it pro’s and con’s.
I’m very well aware of the fact that Inter doesn’t have the same squad as earlier, I know that teams like Roma, Juventus and Napoli are much better than Inter but I’m not expecting a scudetto. The minimum I expect from a coach is that he gives me a reason to dream about Inter being capable of beating any team on our day. I want the coach to give me a reason to be on Inter.it 19:59 on a match day pressing “F5” 100000 times to see if there’s any surprise in the starting eleven. I expect a coach to speak for me, so that you and me and all the Interisti in the world can identify ourselves with the words of our coach.
Mazzarri didn’t succeed in any of this. He was more than happy to blame his losses on everything from Kovacic, to the heat(!) and the rain(!?!?). And all of this happened even though he was the most protected Inter coach I can remember. In the end, the situation could no longer be tolarated. Meazza was deserted, the few that were there whistled Mazzarri and something had to happen. Even though Mazzarri would’ve succeeded with Inter, his successor would’ve had to change everything that Mazzarri had “built”. He would’ve had to change playing systems, start working on new tactics and so on. Just as we saw in Napoli, the club would rather buy a new starting line up to avoid suffering from the post-Mazzarri effect.
I never thought Inter would have enough money to sack Mazzarri. But I had one opinion which was very clear. If Mazzarri would be sacked, it had to be done before the derby and the match against Roma. It would’ve been very strange to give Mazzarri the matches against Milan and Roma to perform, and then sack him if those games would’ve gone well. The derby is a match that lives its own life, and Roma away is one of the toughest matches of the season and it seems like Thohir agreed on these thoughts.
Mazzarri was sacked and Mancini came in during the national team break which bought him little time to prepare the team for a tough run of games. Whatever has happened, I’d like to thank Mazzarri. However, ever since Mancini came back and was officially named as Inter’s coach, it feels like the air I’m breathing is healthier and as if my life has been brightened up. It feels like I’ve left a dark cave and reached the light. Mancini is back and the enthusiasm and hope has returned with him.
I don’t think that Mancini will lead Inter to a league title or a CL-spot. But I expect him to give the Interisti at San Siro their enthusiasm back. I expect him to make us fans have naive and stupid dreams again. I expect him to battle for the team in the media and communicate competently. I want Roberto Mancini to become a part of the environment he is in and make me proud of having him representing us. But mainly, I expect Roberto Mancini to be a better man to build a spine that can work as a base for the coming Inter successes. Starting from the derby this weekend.
Welcome back Mister Mancini. Make us dream again
