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.
Pazza Inter has never been more apt than in the last few days. Inter has never been just a normal club. From their scatter gun transfer dealings at the height of the Moratti era, to the failures to conduct any long term planning after the success of the treble, to the infamous 5th of May 2002, Inter has always been run from the heart than the head, which made the whole Icardi autobiography mess unfortunately unsurprising. After all, it wouldn’t be Inter if something seemingly completely unnecessary and avoidable was messing up the season.
We all remember the incident. I was rather shocked to be honest. I was used to the teams languishing in the bottom of the table fighting battles with their fans, or perhaps Roma whose fans seem to take any possible opportunity to storm the training ground to protest one slight or another, but I always felt we were better than that.
Inter were on a string of poor results, the fans were upset and demanded more, Fredy Guarin, who I believe was in the midst of one of his classic runs of poor form (although if I remember rightly the game or two after the incident he put in some of his best performances in an Inter shirt), while the team struggled to string a sequence of results together. After another disappointing loss to a mid-table battler, some players moved toward the away fans end, which at this point was a seething mass of rage as supporters expressed their honest opinions on the lacklustre performance.
Guarin, as he was prone to, slapped his badge in an effort to say, ‘hey guys, we are trying but you gotta realise we ain’t that good. Give us a break. We love playing for this club and to be honest can’t quite believe they agreed to firstly sign us, and secondly, in my case, pay me 100,000 Euros per week’!
As Guarin remonstrated, Icardi began to strip, not just his shirt but, somewhat surprisingly, his shorts too, supposedly to give to a young supporter, right in front of the angry mass, because, well, that is what you do in that situation isn’t it? The gift was swiftly and unceremoniously returned via one of the ‘supporters’ which led to Icardi, a man of renowned ego and petulance to lose his rag.
As the supporters hurled insults so too did Icardi, apparently claiming to be preparing a hit squad, or some kind of mercenary Argentinian rapid strike force, that would make sure that the next kid lucky enough to get his own Icardi worn shirt would keep it. Even the intervention of inspiration and role model captain Andrea Rannochia proved ineffective in calming the raging Argentine. (One wonders whether we would have witnessed such events with Zanetti in charge.)
Soon however the fuss was over. The boys put their handbags away for another week and everyone got back to work, the mob in their 40 hour per week jobs, looking forward to the next match, and Icardi to Wanda, his mansion, and the training ground.
But Mauro Icardi is not one to let sleeping dogs lie. While other sports heroes, celebrities and people worthy of recording their life in an biography wait till the end of their career so as to gain perspective on it, or at least after they change clubs, Icardi, with the wisdom of a broken brick believed the story of a 23 year old striker who had yet to achieve anything other than helping his team qualify for the Europa League, top the scoring charts in the 2014/15 season alongside internationally renowned goal producer Luca Toni (before watching compatriot Higuain score 20 more than him the following season), and hooking up with his friend’s ex-wife, needed to be told. If this is the benchmark for being able to write a biography, publishers are in for a busy year. I am eagerly awaiting the imminent release of the movie. Should be thrilling…..
In order to fill the pages of the book, Icardi needed to pull up virtually everything that has ever happened in his life, including regurgitating the events of that loss against Sassuolo in which he proclaimed himself the swashbuckling hero protecting the rights of children to bear his shorts against rabid mobs of gangsters. One can imagine him walking into the silent dressing room afterwards, his teammates looking solemnly over at him as he strode through the door. Captain Rannochia would have surely stood up and started a slow clap, before the rest of the team joined in as it erupted into a rousing cheer for the new hero.
It seems inexplicable that Icardi would be so stupid to think that he could write what he did without there being any sort of blow back. Can someone be so cut off from reality, so separated from fact and any kind of impartial opinion, that no one thought that this section might be a problem? As someone who has written a book I know that there are several people who read and review it before it goes public, did none of them think that this might be a problem? Or did they simply see an opportunity to promote the book through controversy?
And what of the club? Did they know that Icardi was writing the book? Did they not bother to ask to see a copy before it went anywhere near the public domain so as to see off any potential problems? They are after all paying him an inordinate amount of money to for him to not just play football, but to represent the club as a global ambassador. Surely one of their players, the 23 year old captain no less, writing a book should have set off alarm bells. After all what else was he going to right about to sell the book, than things that happen inside the club?
So now, Pazza Inter rolls on. The fans scream for the captain’s departure, rival clubs circle, licking their lips at the opportunity to pick up a proven goal scorer, approaching his prime for a reasonable price, the focus of the players is torn from the job at hand at an important juncture of the season and the people in charge seem unable to properly manage it all.
Icardi for his part seems, and this is incredible, genuinely bemused by the whole situation. He lives in such a bubble, so disconnected from those who support the club, so surrounded by yes men, and a wife/advisor that is about as useful as a bag of ice in Antarctica, that he could not see this coming. His apologies appear to be sincere which will hopefully help the reconciliation process but it may take some time.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing as a supporter is knowing that if things do not work out, Icardi, as a top class young striker who by all accounts is professional and dedicated on the training pitch, will simply go to another club, get paid more and probably play in the Champions League while the club, and the fans, will have to hope whoever gets bought in can fill the large hole at the top of the pitch. Pazza Inter, huh?
Words: Sam Olsen – Follow him @SamOlsenBYWV
From icradi riot, all I fear is if we forced to sell him cheap… 🙁
Large hole ?!!!
If you mean a large hole of inconsistency than you are right Sam Olsen.
Because it would be really hard to find another striker at least in the price tag that Icardi is being evaluated now that inconsistent as he is.
The match with Juventus was something out of this world, even I don’t like him at all because he has the lowest human values that you can ever find in a person but for Inter’s sake i hope and i prayed he would keep up his pace for the first time ever in his career.
But here we are 4 matches have passed and Icardi is nowhere to be seen !
We saw even Perisic frustrated at him for not opening before the goal. I’d love to be wrong but this is just the truth. Icardi is one of the most inconsistent players that we have right now.
From 10 matches he does 2 good matches, sometimes 3. So that leaves us with a striker that performs properly barely the quarter of the season, and he might have perhaps 2-3 astonishing performances throughout the season.
So I agree, it will be really difficult to fill this large hole of inconsistency if Icardi leaves, especially if we pay 50-60 millions for the striker that will replace him !
I see what you are saying but looking purely at the statistics Icardi was the top scorer a couple of years ago, amongst the top last year and is near the top this year, as well as scoring a majority of our goals. And he is only 23 years old. Considering a strikers peak is considered to be 27 or 28 I would say that he still has a lot to offer.
So far Inter have not found a striker or player getting anywhere near that amount of goals. Add to that there is a real demand and low supply of consistent strikers in Europe at the moment. Why would Juventus buy a striker for 90 million euros who has maybe two or three top seasons in him?
It will not be so easy to replace him, even with 50 or 60 million. Remember Kondogbia cost about 40 and is yet to really show what he can do.
The way I see it is we have a striker that is consistently near the top of the scoring charts, is 23 and it likely to improve. Losing that, for me, would leave a considerable hole.
Well football is not purely about statistics because you can dominate the match like we did in the last one for 70 minutes and still lose.
Icardi has stats, that is more than true. But he’s far from being consistent and i’m not saying just regarding goals. Because a striker has to do so much more than goals.
Just look at the work Suarez,Benzema,Aguero do not to mention Ibrahimovic because he’s a special category.
They are team players. While with Icardi it’s the opposite except the match against Juventus and a few matches during these seasons he has never been crucial for the team except when he scored, and he scores in 2-3 matches out of 10.
So it will not leave even a considerable hole !
He isn’t that productive at all, of course he will score because he’s the main striker and the system of our play has been to supply him with chances all the time. And he has been anything but efficient.
If some other striker had that kind of service not only he would score more but he would be so much more productive for the team.
Just look at Milito and Ibra. They didn’t go after goals only, they did what was better for the team even if that meant scoring less goals while with Icardi is only about goals and important matches.
And in other matches he just disappears unfortuantely…
couldn’t have said it any better “[Icardi is] surrounded by yes men, and a wife/advisor that is about as useful as a bag of ice in Antarctica”……
I don’t understand why there are so many news and rumours about Icardi replacement. Why did we spent so much money on gabigol then. Icardi is a good player indeed but to childish and with bad influence to be a captain. If needs to be replaced gabigol should take shirt number 9
And people here will blame the fans again, defending a cunt
Well done Sam.
Nobody is bigger than the club, even icardi and the ultra fans, and at this point, at this difficult time I would back and defend Icardi because we really really really need him, and he has appologised of what he said, and the ultra MUST accept that and make a peace because that’s the only thing that this club needed most right now is to forgive!! Oh god why does everybody hard to forgive, de boer cannot forgive brozo and kdog, the ultras cannot forgive icardi, are we living in the perfect world? why cant we forgive and get along and stay focus for the game and not wasting energy with this stupid and ridiculous issue
23 year olds should be careful writing books. Footballers should avoid writing books. 23 year old footballers should NEVER write a book. Cause chances are it’s gonna be retarded as fuck. And presenting yourself as a big shot is probably gonna backfire and bite you on the ass. like it did. The most important clause in Mauro’s contract should have been to say away from press and social media.
23 years old can write a book (even though it not acceptable) however no club should allow 23 years old’s book be published without checking the content. . . Period
If you’re 23 and you’re a writer that’s fine. But if you’re a footballer you’re even still at the beginning of your playing career. Consider doing it when you’re done with football. He hasn’t even won anything yet, he’s been here for 3 years and 1 as captain. What exactly does he have to write about except his private life that we all want him to shut up about. That and dumb self-indulgent egocentric crap.
I agree with you. You simply misunderstood my comment. I was pointing who the responsible party is
LOL – Brilliantly written! And I agree with you 100 %! Maybe you could have mentioned the way the club (read the vice president Zanetti) handled the situation! Just before the Cagliari game he says that the club will talk to the player the following day,mentioning that stripping him from the captaincy band could be a possibility, creating even more focus and tension around the player vs the fans! Plus which kind of club/ firm let one of their most important employees go to work with the hole world come down around him!?? We all saw in the game that the player was totally off which wasn´t strange – and to let him take a penalty was simply stupid!
That is a great point actually. I come from New Zealand and the national rugby team recently had a major scandal with one of their top players who was caught sneaking off to the disabled toilets with a young lady and some interesting noises started coming from it. Naturally as per usual someone filmed it on their phone and the papers got hold of it. To make it worse the player was in his team uniform as they were on their way to play south africa. Anyway the player was stood down from the south african match straight away, a decision taken by the senior playing group rather than management and then faced a meeting with the rugby union a little later which suspended him for another match. In that time the papers have lost interest and some of the heat is off. Inter could have easily have withdrawn him from the Cagliari match to take some of the sting out of it, then deal with Icardi afterwards.
Yes, the whole matter was handled like by a group of amateurs!
And to add on top of that Inter are sitting at a lovely 11th place. If Inter were amount the top of the table, then I think this situation wouldn’t have as a huge distraction. Now the team somehow has to concentrate on beating Southhampton, because another loss in EL basically means Inter is done in that competition.
As usual now there are rumours that FDB might be replaced if the next couple games don’t come with positive results.
Teams such as PSG are also now being rumoured to try and buy Icardi this Winter mercato. Which I think in one way is good because his buy-out-clause is over 100 Million. That money could be used to strengthen the defense. Ive been an Icardi fan, and what he can on the pitch but he creates unnecessary distractions, and its getting annoying.
As a fan of Inter, I’m disappointed in the start of the season. I was hoping for better. Hopefully management will wake up, get rid of the deadwood, who we all know falls under that group, and buy some needed quality players. But it wouldn’t be Inter if, if Inter were their own worst enemy
I don’t see us beating Southampton, they will hit us on fast brakes and we won’t even know what happened. And I don’t know where will this team go from there, we’ll be in a very deep hole mentally.
Sadly I think you’re right..after losing to cagliari , not sure if they can beat Southampton
If we want to get rid of Icardi why would PSG (or any team) pay the 100M buyout clause? That doesn’t make sense. They’re going to low ball us.
Its a rumour, so I’m not saying its true. The only ones that know if they truly want to sell him is Inter.
I know it’s a rumor but I don’t think anyone on here should expect us to get anywhere near 100M for Icardi if we push to sell him… If we don’t want to sell and someone comes to us wanting to buy then that’s a different story.
Yeah have to agree mate. Not gonna get any buy out clause when the fans, club and player are in open war with each other. We would be looking at half that and that is only if Icardis form does not fall off a cliff before then
I agree. I9 is an idiot just like Brozovic. No way near the idols from time when I started to support Inter back in 97 onwards (Bergomi, Pagliuca, Moriero, Zamorano, Zanetti, Di Biagio, Recoba, Stankovic, Vieri, Crespo, Cambiasso, Cordoba, Julio Cesar and many more). What kidd is gonna start supporting Inter watching idiots like this?
Totally agree. There are too many dumb players in this team and the scariest part is the captain is one of them, he is maybe even the most stupid guy in the team.
This is when you rely on youngsters in a big team like Inter.. I’m not against having youngsters in the A team but in a reasonable number.. now you have plenty of kids who are ready to create more problems one after the other
Youngster from all over the world! I guess Italians will keep they feet more on the ground if they sign for a big Italian team – but when a young foreigner signs for a big foreign team the boy often looses his contract with reality. The same happened with many young Italians moving to Utd/Real at a young age… that’s why we should by Italian and fill up with older foreigners!
Very true
Yeah bro. And I wonder what’s to blame? Why such charismatic players are so rare in these days? Now it’s look like all players are paper toys and social media celebrities.
Just take a look at this 23year old idiot!!! He think he’s god! He has some Lambos and Ferraris, 5.5M per year, huge publicity and HE’S NEITHER A SUPERSTAR NOR AN IDOL FOR OTHERS!
Agree 100% with you, young boys getting multimillionaires for kicking a ball around without having an education or even brains to think for themselves – that’s for their huge group of “helpers” to help them with. Just look at Gabi, he bought what 3-4 people from Brazil with him to Milan, plus his familie! Not saying he’s a brain dead human being just that football is turning sick!
Yeah bro. And the saddest thing is they didn’t achieve any single shit before earning such amounts of money!
I agree it is a problem and too be honest I think I would have been the same if I was 23 and given such a massive amount of money with all those around me saying how great I was. Maybe Inter need to look into the support networks they provide to players for when they are away from the team. I wonder what they have in place. I remember the sad situation with Adriano when his life fell apart. All the most successful players have surrounded themselves with a stable environment away from the team.
The list of young promising talented players, who have moved abroad to a big club only to let the fame, prestigues, pressure and monye get to them and totally ruin their carrer is very long! Cassano went too young to Real Madrid f.x and returned as even a bigger ash—e than before.. Many Brazilians – like you mentioned it, have gone abroad and enede up as “party-animals” at the discotects (Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Adriano and so on…).
What kid is dumb enough to support Inter when you got Juventus winning everything in Italy ! remember little Pietro the dumbass inter fan and his sign “please win so that my classmates will stop picking on me” ? that says it all….
a kid with a slut mom and a homo pedhofile dad like you
so you do admit that your Inter knowledge is so limited that you CANNOT argue anything that I say because you know that I am 100 % correct so you have to attack me with something that has nothing to do with soccer because you know that Inter sucks ass ??
Dont worry, there are many kids who watched Inter 2006-2010. Juventus who?
let’s be honest….little pietro has been getting his ass kicked for the last 5 years now !!!
u still taking ancient history? let’s talk today…….who is the 5 time defending scudetto champions again ?