Inter's Summer Transfers - Do They Really Fit In With Gasperini's Formations?

With about a month left in this year's summer transfer window have Inter lived up to the promises made at the end of last season?  Unfortunately not! Don't get me wrong I believe that the players we have signed will be useful to us, but I believe that the biggest thing holding us back is Gasperini's formations. 

We have signed two wing backs, Nagatomo & Jonathan, yet in Gasperini's formations there is no place for wing backs meaning that these two and Maicon will be forced to play as wingers or full backs dependent on whether we're playing with a 3 man or 4 man defence.  It's not just the defence that is causing problems with fitting players in, our biggest signing so far is Alvarez who plays CAM or as a winger but so far this pre-season he's been pushed into a deeper midfield position or as right forward which in the match against Galatasaray he looked pretty uncomfortable in my opinion.  Also on the subject of midfielders out of position Gasperini's formations are also forcing Sneijder (one of the best trequartistas in the game) to play a deep central position which to be fair Wes is taking in his stride and playing well in, though it's hardly taking advantage of the talent available. 

The Ultimate Inter Line-up Of All Time - Who Made The Squad?

A couple of weeks ago while watching clips of old Inter matches on YouTube I started thinking about who would be in my ultimate starting line up of all time, this wasn't quite as easy as i thought it would be as the more i thought about it the more quality players from Inter's history came to mind and I ended up with a 8-10-6 formation which of course is ridiculous & I may as well have just written a post about all the greats of Inter's history, which would be a very long job so i decided to find out who my fellow Interista would say deserved to be in the ultimate line-up.  To keep things consistent i decided to go with the formation that i feel suits Inter's players the best, so i asked my followers on Facebook & Twitter what their ultimate line-up would be on a 4-3-1-2 formation and i got some great replies, though it soon became clear that certain players were on pretty much all the answers, meaning that again i ended up with more players than i needed so the line-up is made up of the most voted for 11.

Inter's 2011/12 SerieA Fixtures & Predictions

Last night the 2011/12 Serie A fixtures were announced and three of our biggest games will come on the 3rd, 10th & 18th weeks of the season.  The dates of these fixture could possible be changed depending on how the teams involved do in other competitions, but for this I am going to list all our fixtures for this season as the dates given and give a brief prediction of how i think the match will go.  Tickets for these matches are available by clicking the link above.

Inter's 4th pre-season friendly ends in an eventful 0-0 draw against Galatasaray

It was the fourth pre-season summer friendly for Inter yesterday against Turkish side Galatasaray played in the neutral venue of the rewirpowerSTADION in Bochum, Dusseldorf, which is a city of the largest Turkish community in Germany. It wasn't a surprise to see that the stadium had sold out all of it's 20,000 seats to see the Turkish giants take on the World Champions. The weather conditions were hardly perfect, with a temperature slightly above 10 degrees, heavy rain, a slippery pitch and a bothersome wind. It also proved to be that the Turkish team & fans were hardly perfect either with some nasty tackles & an incident involving the Galatasaray throwing flares in the second half. Both their players & fans were a disgrace considering this was supposedly a friendly, there is no need for fans of any club to be throwing flares on to the pitch & the crunching tackles coming from the Galatasaray players were out of order, if I didn't know better I would have thought this game was a UCL knock out match not a pre season friendly & I feel that the Turk club should be fined for the behaviour of their fans.

A salute to Marco Materazzi: "Tutti pazzi per Materazzi"

This summer has seen the end of Marco Materazzi's time as an Inter player & as he leaves as a free agent after 10 years of service to the Nerazzurri , I felt it was fitting to look back at the 37 year old defender's career & pay tribute to not only a great defender but a man who holds Inter in a special place in his heart like all good Interista.  Due to his unpredictable personality & overly aggressive play he is known amongst fans & other players as 'The Matrix' & 'The Butcher'.  So where did it all begin?

His early life & Career

'Matrix' was born on 19th August 1973 in Lecce, where his father Giuseppe played for U.S. Lecce, Giuseppe also was a coach & manager of teams including Pisa, Lazio, Sporting CP & Tianjin Teda, so from a young age football was in Marco's blood.

A week of Interviews for the Nerazzurri

The world's press has been focused on Inter in the last week or so with the Sneijder transfer saga & the Calcioploi accusations against Facchetti, but the squad at the pre season training camp at Pinzolo have been concentrating on building their fitness & adapting to new coach Gasperini's tactics.  Although the main point of the camp is to get the players and staff ready for the upcoming season there has been a very fan friendly feel to the whole thing with Intersta flocking in their thousands to get a glimpse of their heroes training & also there has been various evening events around the camp to entertain and enthrall the fans present including various appearances by Nerazzurri stars & Gasperini it has just emphasised the whole Inter family philosophy that we are so proud of.

Inter 6-1 Trentino. The new Nerazzurri show class

Inter's first pre season friendly went with a bang as Gasperini's flexed their muscles in a 6-1 win over local side Trentino this afternoon with usual suspects Pazzini & Eto'o scoring the first two goals in the 1st half. Trentino managed to claw one back with a high curling shot over Castellazzi. New boy Alvarez slotted home the 3rd and narrowly missed a wonderful long range effort from outside the box, Pandev gave Inter their 4th showing that despite being fairly slow & clumsy he can still put them away. The final two goals came from youngsters Castaignos & Longo. I have to admit I didn't see the match as I was working but from what I've seen on YouTube Ricky & Luc both are showing that they are fantastic purchases for the Nerazzurri as well as the established players showing that the 'Grande Inter' is still is alive & kicking. I realise that we were only playing a small fry local team but the squad seems to be connecting very well & for me this upcoming season is looking very promising.

Inter presents new boys Castaignos & Alvarez, then Branca talks Transfers

This morning saw the forth training session at the Pinzolo pre season camp, after warm up exercises & tactical practice Gasperini allowed fans in to watch the second part of the session, which was concerned with physical & athletic training. Following the session Eto'o kept a promise made to a fan & stayed for half a hour to sign autographs & have his photo taken. Then this afternoon Inter's new signings were presented to the assembled media.

Inter Squad official presentation

There was a "full house" for the official presentation of the 2011/12 Inter squad in Piazza San Giacomo, Pinzolo, this evening, just as the whole of Pinzolo and the Val Rendena are sold out in this period while the area plays host to the Nerazzurri's pre-season training camp. This evening there was chanting, passion, flags and a huge banner: "Giù le mani da Giacinto" (Hands off Giacinto). The Inter fans wanted to show their support for Facchetti, the symbol of this club, as the team was presented by Roberto Scarpini live on Inter Channel.

Inter's First Day Training at Pinzolo

When the Inter squad & new manager Gian Piero Gasperini arrived at the team hotel in Pinzolo they were greeted by hordes of Interista all waiting to get a glimpse of our heroes, they were all there, apart from those involved in the Copa America and Coutinho (Under-20 World Cup).
The new season for Inter & Gasperini starts here!

Ricardo Alvarez - Could he be THE transfer of the summer?

To be honest before Inter put in a bid for 'Ricky' i hadn't heard of him which isn't too surprising as he was playing for Velez Sarsfield in Argentina and i don't really follow Argentinian football, but when i heard the rumours that we had jumped in with a late bid when it looked like he was going to sign for Arsenal i decided to Google him & from what i found out i quickly realised that this could be an excellent signing for Inter.  As the video below shows he is a very talented lad who is versitile and has very good all control & vision.

Luc Castaignos - Inter's newest striker

Luc Castaignos was technically Inter's first signing this summer as the deal was signed on March 4th 2011, from Feyenoord, and should be an excellent acquisition for Inter as the Dutch striker has been receiving praise from around the world and he is being dubbed as the new Thierry Henry.

He was born on the 27th September 1992 in Schiedam, Netherlands and is the top scorer of all time for the Netherlands under-17 national team, though he currently plays for the under-19 national team. 

When the 18 year old arrived at the club hotel in pinzolo for his first training sessions with the Nerazzurri he gave an interview to the awaiting journalists :

"It's hard to find words to describe how happy I am to be playing for such a great club as Inter," said Luc. The Nerazzurri shirt will be a way of confirming his talent after all the goals and success he has had in Holland with Feyenoord: "It's true, I find it easy to score and if I'm playing for a great team it should be even easier." He already knows most of his new Inter team-mates ("Wesley Sneijder a bit better because he's Dutch"), but he also played against Luca Caldirola, last season at Vitesse: "I scored my first league goal against him... ".  Castaignos is quick and he sees the goal. "Am I like Henry? Lots of people have said this but I am Castaignos and he is Henry."

Calciopoli - New allegations outrage Inter & Interista across the world

As we all know the Calciopoli scandal of 2006 did untold damage to Italian football and the main culprits Juventus were punished by being demoted to Serie B & having the 2005 & 2006 Scudetto's stripped from them, the 2005 one remains unassigned & the 2006 one was handed down to the highest placed team who were judged to not have been involved (which of course was 2nd placed Inter).  But now 5 years on the scandal is hitting the headlines again after the investigation has received some alleged evidence that suggests that Inter & our legendary then President 'Giancinto Facchetti' was involved, which as we all know is a ridiculous accusation as the whole footballing world and especially Interista know that Facchetti was one of the most honest & decent gentlemen to ever grace the world of football.  So what do these allegations mean for Inter? Well the FIGC will meet on the 18th July to decide what to do, if we are found guilty from the report made by prosecutor Palazzi then the likelyhood is that the 2006 Scudetto will be revoked & join the 2005 one in being unassigned, but the Scudetto isn't the issue here anymore it is more about the personal and damning attack on the deceased Facchetti who obviously cannot repond to these allegations and is having his good name dragged through the mud.

Transfers: Yuto Nagatomo Signs For Inter

On Friday 1st July on the official start of the new season Inter have completed the full signing of wing back Yuto Nagatomo, who regular readers of my blog will know i've been backing since his first games for Inter when he signed on a loan contract in January, during his loan period with us he appeared 19 times in Serie A, Coppa Italia & Champions league games scoring twice.  The deal to buy out Nagatomo's contract with Cesena for 6.5 million Euros with a wage of 1.5 million per year for 5 years includes joint ownership of defender Luca Caldirola (who joined Inter at the age of 8) & striker Luca Garritano (who joined Inter at the age of 14) Caldirola who is a Under 21 international will be available for Inter's 1st team squad and Garritano who is a Under 17 International will be available for our Primavera team.

The UEFA Financial Fair Play Rules (FFPR) What Does It Mean?

There seems to be a lot of confusion from fans on what the FFPRs actually mean for clubs?  So i'm going to attempt to explain it for you all.  Most of the examples i'll use in this post are based around English Premier League teams just for the fact that the reference i'm using to write this uses them as examples but it applies to all the big teams across Europe.

Why is the FFP being brought into effect?
It has long been a major concern for UEFA that clubs are continually making losses year in, year out and are not playing by the rules of fair play, by the owners subsidising their clubs by injecting large amounts of cash that the clubs can't make on their own merits.  As a clubs largest expenditure is transfer and wage fees the FFP is being implimented to effectively put a cap on these expenses in order to bring more stability to the finances of the clubs because when all is said and done a football club is a business and every business needs to balance it's books, i.e not spend more than they earn.

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A Look At Inter's New Head Coach Gian Piero Gasperini

So after a week or so of wild rumours & intense speculation Inter finally have their new coach, not one of the big names that were either tied up with contracts at other teams or one of the two that said no to us then moved to other clubs (mentioning no names eh! AVB) but in the end Massimo Moratti decided on the mediocre coach who i was backing from the start if we couldn't convince a big name to sign.  The question on everyone's lips though is can he step up to the challenge of returning Inter to being the holders of the Scudetto while retaining our Coppa Italia title and putting in a good showing in the Champions league (Lets face it if we reach the quarters then that's good enough for his first season!)  So in this post i'm going to look at his history and how i see things going with Gian Piero Gasperini at the helm.........

Inter In Chaos!

Well here we are 18 days into the 2011 summer transfer window and instead of the strengthening of Inter that we all expected with not alot of movement being shown in signing new players while in the Nerazzurri camp it's starting to look more like a meltdown than a revolution. 

After committing to the Nerazzurri a few weeks ago Wesley Sneijder disappointed all the Interista and Massimo Moratti by stating that "Only God will decide where my future lies. " followed a few days later by a statement from Samuel Eto'o who also had committed to our beloved club that “Playing in England is an idea I have had in my head for some time and now what matters to me is finding a good team,” then followed the best news so far this summer that Leonardo was leaving to take up a directors role at Paris St Germain, which in it's self is great news as I've felt for a while that he wasn't up to the job at Inter but it has raised the question as to who is? And the cherry and icing on the cake is that it's been revealed that Lucio is considering a contract from Malaga after the powers that be at Inter refused to give him a two year extension to his contract!

2010/2011 Inter Season Review

So that's it the 2010/2011 season has come to a close & what a rollercoaster it's been, filled with victories, anger, disappointment & pride.

In this season review i'll go through what went right and what went wrong for the Nerazzurri this season.

After five years of superiority in Serie A Inter have lost the Scudetto to our cross town rivals AC Milan who have claimed the title for the 1st time in 7 years and as disappointing as this is the mood amongst Interisti isn't as bad as you'd think as for all the disappointment of losing the Scudetto there is still plenty for us to hold our heads high with pride for.

Eto'o & Milito seal Coppa Italia Final with a 3-1 win against Palermo

Inter end the season with their 3rd & 4th trophies of the season, this years Coppa Italia final was a battle to secure not just the Coppa Italia trophy but also a special trophy to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.