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.

Inter's second pre season friendly against Mezzocorona ends 6-1

After a morning training session that included recovery programmes for Ivan Cordoba, Jonathan, Thiago Motta & Nelson Rivas. After the session it was decided that three players weren't 100% and wouldn't be involved in the afternoon friendly against Mezzocorona, missing was Yuto Nagatomo (slight muscle strain in the left thigh which he picked up during the morning session), Giampaolo Pazzini (groin fatigue, is this down to the fact he's still a newly wed? You decide!) & also Walter Samuel (who is still involved in a strength training program after last seasons injury)

So on to the afternoon match which i got to watch on a very grainy & slow live stream that tested my paitence several times by putting adverts on at random times during the match including as Inter scored their first three goals, luckily for me (& the sake of my computer, which i was getting close to throwing out of the window!) it came back on just in time for the replays each time. The fireworks started early before the match when in a mark of respect for the great Giacinto Facchetti who's 69th Birthday it would have been today, the players came onto the pitch all wearing the special 'Grande Inter' shirt with the number 3 on the back, which they then threw in to the crowd as a present for a lucky few Interista.

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'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!

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.........