Let me start by saying that I believe that Jose Mourinho is the best manager in football today. But this is a game of results and if Inter do not qualify for the group stages of the Champions League, will it be time for Mourinho to go?
The ‘Special One” was brought to Inter for European glory. Inter did not need any help wining domestically, as its current four consecutive Serie A title streak shows.
Mourinho was brought in, and highly paid, to end Inter’s 35 year old drought in the Champions League. Not since 1965 have Inter been able to say they are the best in Europe. Mourinho was supposed to fix that.
It has been over a year since Inter last won in Europe and based on the performance the other night, I do not know when that streak will end. Three draws in three games means that Inter are not even in line for a Europa League spot at the moment. If you were Massimo Moratti what would you be thinking?
Would you get rid of Mourinho (and who would you get to replace him) or would you keep him for another season if Inter win the league again this season?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes, get rid of Jose and bring in someone with experience of winning Champ Lg, like Frank Rijkaard.
Having said that, I must also state that although Inter won 4 Serie A titles in a row undeservingly. Remember that Calciopoli gifted Inter the trophy in 2006. In 2007, w/o Juventus and with Milan, Lazio & Fiorentina all deducted pts, Inter only had to beat Roma to win trophy with a ridiculous 22 point difference.
Juventus returned to Serie A to challenge for 2008 trophy. But they were in such a weaken state because many of their players had left and have not returned. Even then, Inter managed to win trophy with only a 2pts lead over Roma as the quality of Serie A improved with the return of Juventus.
In the season of 2008/09, Juventus managed to recover most of their strength and challenged Inter for trophy. Although Juventus did not succeed but they managed to show the world that they are back in business by getting 2nd place.
Let me posed back a question to your statement “Inter did not need any help wining domestically”. Did Inter get any undeserved advantages in winning those trophies?
Great points Norman on how Inter has won its last four titles. Rijkaard would be an interesting choice to replace Mourinho. I wonder what Eto’o would think of that move?
Sometimes people are too inpatient… To me there is no question that Mourinho should stay for at least one more season or even more… When he came in last year, I could guess he didn’t want half of the players on the team, yet considering not best economic situation and being new in a new country and club, he made a decision to keep every single player from Roberto Mancini’s era!!!! How many coaches would do that?
Also to bring his qualities to the team, he got only 2 players (Muntari and Quaresma; Mancini was already set to come by Moratti)… Considering Quaresma experiment failed he had only Muntari + old Inter team… So to not get a desired result last year is understandable….
This year transfers were also not perfect…. All summer he tried to get Carvalho and Deco (although I am glad Deco didn’t come), and some other players… Lucio, Snejder and Eto’O came in very late not participating in summer practices with the team…. He was also sure Ibrahimovic will stay for at least one more year too, and Inter played through Zlatan (by the way, Ibra is having another great year in Barcelona, his role has changed, and he is becoming even more lethal player now) 95% of all attacks…
Now also considering the injuries to some players (Thiago Motta, Eto’O, Milito, Snejder, Cambiasso were all injured at some point), he still didn’t have enough time to build the Inter he wants. So to expect unbelievable results from him TODAY is almost unrealistic…
At the same time, in 30-45 minutes stretches of some games we saw the Inter it can be… We beat Milan 4:0, Genoa 5:0…. So I am ok with giving Mourinho more time. I do want to believe we will not wait for much longer for the Champions League!
One more point: all I wrote here… considering I believe we beat Dinamo Kiev next week, we advance to the next round and play decent up there… But if we lose in Kiev and after in Barcelona too, I might change my mind completely!!! One thing is not winning the Champions League this year (or getting even close), and another thing to become a laughing stock in Europe…
Rijkaard played for Milan for too long, there is no room for him in Inter…. There is really not too many good options out there… If anyone should replace Mourinho, it could be Rafa Benites, Guus Hiddink maybe…. Laurent Blanc could be an interesting choice, especially because he also played for Inter…
I loved Diego Simeone as a player, and he started his coaching career at a high level winning Argentian championship with a team that didn’t win either never or for a very long time… but he finished badly with them at the end… So he needs to prove somewhere else the championship was not a fluke…
Another of my favorite players Paulo Sousa is a coach now too, but he needs even more work and results before being considered for Inter… Although Roberto Mancini didn’t have any experience before Inter either… So who knows?