In an open letter to new Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho, Gabriele Marcotti warns him of the task ahead at a club well known for being a “dysfunctional basketcase,” and says that “the special one” will really need to live up to his self-given moniker to succeed at the San Siro. After all, departing coach Roberto Mancini was sacked last week after winning the Serie A title over three successive seasons, but that wasn’t enough without a European trophy.
Even a European Cup may not guarantee that Mourinho reaches the end of his three-year contract. “No Inter coach in recent history — and that includes Helenio Herrera, who won the European Cup twice — has left the club on good terms,” writes Marcotti. Mancini’s team, meanwhile, was knocked out of Europe once due to a fan throwing a flare that hit an opposing team’s goalkeeper, and twice on the away goals rule, despite dominating both series. Last season his team was reduced to 10 men after some “dubious officiating.” None of these extenuating circumstances saved his job, so the kind of excuses that Mourinho used at Chelsea for European failure (“ghost goals,” for example) won’t work with Inter’s notoriously impatient president, Massimo Moratti.
Mourinho also takes over “an aging team with a huge squad,” including six strikers earning a combined annual salary of $40 million, “which makes them hard to move on.” That the new coach is rumored to be keen on signing Frank Lampard, 30, and Deco, 31, would be fine, because “they’ll fit right into a group that already features six thirtysomething midfield players.” The column concludes with hand-wringing anticipation: “You wanted a challenge and by heck, you got it.”