Rafa fails to find festive spirit
The Season of Goodwill combined with seasonal bickering. Football clubs are no exception, which perhaps is why they have developed this nauseous habit of describing themselves as families.
As they put up the decorations in Milan this week, the Inter family should have been hugging each other and admiring that nice new piece of silverware on the sideboard. True the Toyota Cup is hardly a work of art, but $5 million translates as €3.77m, and every bit counts when you’ve spent as much as Massimo Moratti.
Given the lousy couple of months Rafa Benitez has experienced, you would think he might just have breathed a sigh of relief and gone off to enjoy a pleasant Christmas meal with Mrs B — prawns, sea bass, roast lamb... that sort of thing. Instead he launched a most surprising broadside against the club in general, and Moratti in particular.
“They promised me that they will sign three players in August but we did not sign any players. So I am expecting at least four players to be signed now,” said the Spaniard.
“Inter need to bring in new players because we have had a lot of injuries and need healthy competition for places... I need full support for me to carry on with the job.”
In well-disciplined families children normally wait till at least St Stephen’s Day before making a fuss about their presents — in Spain most presents are held over to Dia de Los Reyes Magos, the Day of the Three Wise Men, January 6.
Somewhat previous of Rafa then, especially as Mrs B is Italian and will have informed him that January 6 — known as La Befana in Italy — is the day the witches fly and an old lady comes down the chimney bearing gifts for those who have been good, and a lump of coal for those who have misbehaved.
January 6 is also when Serie A ends its winter break.
Inter have two matches in hand over league leaders Milan, but they are in seventh place, 13 points behind, having won only three since September. Next up is a real six-pointer, against Napoli, who are currently third.
Napoli might not be great on their travels, but this is a match Benitez has to win — always assuming Moratti doesn’t fire him first.
The Gazzetta dello Sport expects an imminent departure, others are not so sure. What Moratti wanted was a steady hand at the helm to follow Jose Mourinho’s tempestuous time. That he definitely has not got.
Of course injuries are one reason Inter have endured such a miserable run. They look much tougher with Julio Cesar back in goal and a full complement up front.
Rafa’s response now is to blame Mourinho’s training methods for the spate of muscular problems since last summer. That seems unconvincing. The complaint about the lack of new blood makes more sense, but Inter have been carrying rather too many players on inflated salaries. Had Benitez been more successful with his many Liverpool recruits, Moratti and his advisers might also be easier to persuade.
Naturally the complaint about training methods has not gone down well in Madrid. Mourinho is a man under even more pressure than usual in the wake of that thrashing by Barcelona, and his Christmas greeting was terse.
“I thought Benitez was going to thank me for the title I gave to him,” he remarked, as he launched his own broadsides — against the referee in Sunday’s game against Sevilla, and against his own Director of Sport, Jorge Valdano..
Real just squeezed home against Sevilla thanks to a late goal from Angel Di Maria when they were down to 10 men. It was a typical backs-to-the-wall Mourinho match: tempers frayed, cards galore, a referee struggling to keep control and a post-match polemic.
The criticism of Valdano for his “lack of support” is obviously calculated. The Argentinian has never liked Mourinho, despite praising his record. But any further nastiness has apparently been swept under the carpet.
Mourinho, Valdano and Real president Florentino Perez were all smiles at yesterday’s Christmas lunch. The body language seemed okay, Valdano set next to Iker Casillas, Mourinho next to Perez. The bosses were all in suits, along with guest of honour, Alfredo di Stefano.
Casillas wore a hoodie, and Mourinho rather pointedly was wearing a polo shirt beneath his jacket.
“Look at me” it seemed to say. “I’m with the players, so make sure you back us 100%.” Somehow you can’t quite see Rafa bringing that off.
