Former Inter midfielder Esteban Cambiasso discussed his time with the Nerazzurri, crazy stories that united the squad and the Treble winning campaign in an interview in yesterday’s paper edition of the Rome based newspaper la Repubblica.
“Every change worked because every change improved the team.”
He discussed the summer that saw Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho take over the Nerazzurri.
“Mancini’s merits in creating the winning foundations were great. But it is true that after four seasons the relationship with the team was a bit tired, we could say a marriage with a waning passion.
“And Moratti had perceived it. I learned about Mourinho’s signing on holiday. But I expected it. Change was in the air.”
The former Argentine midfielder commented on how criticisms that Inter were “too foreign” did bother and affect him.
“There was one thing that was brought up every game. Who cares if a player like Stankovic is Italian or not? What counts is his Inter spirit, and a player like him attached to the shirt is a very rare commodity.
“I confess that the criticism of Inter being too ‘foreign’ disturbed me.”
Cambiasso spoke about the secrets of the squad and the motivations behind all of the players.
“Let’s talk a little about those guys. All it took for Samuel was one unlucky season at Real Madrid for them to send him away. Samuel!
“Walter was never a chatterbox, but there was no need for words to understand how much he wanted revenge.
“Lucio, Bayern had kicked him out. Then Sneijder. Eto’o had been treated like a pawn for Ibra.
“Motta and Milito had been part of great teams, but as side characters. Maicon had won in Brazil with Cruzeiro, he lacked affirmation on the scene as we had been there for a few years.
“Pupi, Deki, Julio, me, we had only brought league titles. The secret of that team is to be found in the men, and in their motivations.”
The former Argentine midfielder touched on the controversies of former coach Jose Mourinho, and how he is a calculated man.
“Tonnes were studied at the table. Mourinho premeditates everything, he never looses his mind, especially when he seems to go really crazy.”
He spoke about a famous incident against Sampdoria and his sending off.
“I was careful not to push, hard in substance but acceptable in form, and I told the referee that he had ruined the game.
“My sending off was due to the report of an inspector who wrote that they saw me hit Gastaldello in the locker room tunnel.
“It was not true, Gastaldello himself wrote a letter to the court in which he told the truth that we had not even crossed paths. It was not taken into consideration.”
Finally, Cambiasso spoke about Mourinho’s departure from the Nerazzurri in Madrid after the conclusion of the Champions League final.
“You won’t believe it, but there wasn’t a moment when the team was alone with him. After the award ceremony there is such a mess in the locker room that I wouldn’t even know where to place him.
“If I have to judge based on the hug with Materazzi in the garage, when he burst into a tearful cry, I believe that Mourinho avoided an official farewell.
“Leaving that Inter cost him a lot from a point of view that he generally hides. The human one.”
Cambiasso spent ten years of his career with the Nerazzurri, from 2004 to 2014. In that time he won a variety of honors with the club, including five league titles, four Coppa Italia and the Champions League.
