In his regular weekly column Inter fanatic Sam Olsen dives deep into the stories that matter to Inter’s fans looking to keep the spirit of discussion alive and well on the pages of Sempreinter.com.
The news that Internazionale had signed Zdravko Kuzmanovic in the final day of the 2013 transfer window gained little attention in the day’s football news as journalists focussed their attention on potential mega transfers lying in wait. The Serb was something of a journeyman, even at 25, with stints at Basel, Fiorentina and Stuttgart already under his belt and the news he was moving on, especially considering he was entering the final six months of his contract, for a nominal fee was of no surprise. Now, as he approaches his second anniversary at Inter, he has shown that he deserves to keep his place at the club.
Zdravko Kuzmanovic. Kuz. A player that most Interista have an opinion about, and probably a bad one at that. He has hardly set the world on fire since he arrived, unheralded, from Stuttgart for a mere one million Euros at the tail end of the 2013 transfer window. Indeed any reaction to his arrival was swallowed up in digesting the other business that Inter had conducted over that month and indeed that very day.
For much of the month the absolute shock arrival of an ancient Tomasso Rocchi for 300,000 Euros from Lazio had obsessed fans. It was as if Inter had some old debt with Le Aquile which obliged them to take the aging former hero and pay him 1.5 million Euros per year for being insipid. He was simply dreadful, and his signing is still one of the most bewildering and incompetent of Inter’s history. Fans did not have to wait for more terrible news to filter through that month as on the 22nd of January the club announced the sale of Wesley Sneijder to Galatasaray for a whopping 7.5 million Euros, an amount somewhat short of the 30 million+ valuation on the player only a few months earlier.
On January 30th, as fans stood shaken by the disaster of the window to that point, it was announced that the club had agreed to sell one of their only decent young players, Phillipe Coutinho, for a barely believable 10 million Euros. Thousands of hands were heard slapping against foreheads in tandem at the announcement and cases of people fainting in Milan hit an all time high. After signing perhaps the worst player available in the transfer market in Rocchi and selling one of the world’s best attacking midfielders for beans that would not magically produce a beanstalk of abnormally significant size; Inter had sold their only decent youngster for what seemed like seemed like, and what would prove to be, a pittance.
The following day the reason for the sale was made clear when Inter announced the signing of young Croatian sensation Mateo Kovacic for 11 million Euros. The announcement soothed some of the pain felt by fans but showed that the club could only afford one prodigiously talented youngster in their ranks at any time. As news of the Croatians arrival sunk in two other transfers were announced. Ezequiel Schelotto was bought in from Atalanta for 5.3 million plus half of youngster Marko Livaja after he was apparently valued in the same price bracket as the recently departed Sneijder despite being barely able to play football; and one Zdravko Kuzmanovic, the Serbian journeyman.
With all this going on it was no real surprise that fans paid little heed to his arrival. The club was in turmoil, rumour of debt and departures rife. Kuzmanovic had appeared under the radar, and nothing that he would produce on the pitch would change that.
At Stuttgart Kuzmanovic had become a key squad member after an 8 million Euro move from Fiorentina. He had slotted into the defensive/central midfield roll and in the 2010/11 season had managed a career high 9 goals and four assists in 32 matches. The stats proved to be a career anomaly however, and he would struggle to reach such heights again. That same season, as his club struggled in a battle against relegation, local paper Stuttgarter Nachrichten summed him up with this summary:
“8 Million Euro man Zdravko Kuzmanovic is a pantomime footballer, he’s always around but never quite there.”
The line proved to be simple but staggeringly accurate as Inter fans would find out to their endless frustration. In his first six months, as Andrea Stramaccioni struggled with a squad low on quality and stricken by injury, Kuzmanovic struggled to stamp his authority on matches, as Inter’s midfield were overrun. He often appeared a step behind the play, ‘always around but never quite there’.
Strama departed and Mazzarri arrived, Kuzmanovic found himself shelved for the first half of the season before taking up a place in the middle of the park as Mazzarri searched for a best eleven. Even during a string of starts however, Kuzmanovic failed to influence proceedings and only completed the full ninety minutes twice in 15 appearances in Serie A. By the end of the season Serb found himself back warming the bench for the majority of matches as Mazzarri finally bowed to growing fan rage over his inexplicable desire to repeatedly pick Kuzmanovic over Kovacic.
Partly because of his part in keeping Kovacic off the field and partly because of his inability to influence matches at all, Kuzmanovic was painted as precisely the type of player who was causing Inter to crumble. Slow, boring, uninspiring. ‘Always around but never quite there.’
The 2014/15 season started as the previous had finished, Kuzmanovic out of favour with manager and fans, finding time to grace the pitch only in the slog of the Europa League. He returned again during the final weeks of Mazzarri’s doomed reign as the club faced another injury crisis but struggled, as usual, to influence proceedings.
Sometimes however, a change in coach and style can reinvigorate a player, and there is evidence that Mancini may be the man to save Kuzmanovic’s Inter career. The Jesi born tactician has endured a mixed start to his second term at Inter but has shown he wants a faster more dynamic and more aggressive Inter on the pitch. This change seems to have revitalised Kuzmanovic who, although far from being a world beater, has appeared much more willing and able to influence proceedings. Mancini has utilised him both as a central midfielder and on the left and he has seemed more comfortable when not tied to a strictly defensive roll where his lack of speed so clearly and painfully exposed.
Although definitely not a player who should be anywhere near the starting line up, Kuzmanovic does provide an excellent option off the bench, someone with experience, who can cover a number of midfield positions and who can come on to shore things up and keep them tight, and should he continue his rejuvenation under Mancini he could yet prove vital to any late scramble for European places. Despite calls for him to be sold for much of his Inter career, he can play an important roll in the club, at least until Inter are able to focus on boosting the squad rather than the starting line up.
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