The Inter coach is not repaid by the loyal Argentine. From Allegri to Lippi, many have been betrayed by their protégés
Beware of loyalists, they can sometimes betray. Without even wanting to. It’s a story that repeats itself, more or less compelling, even in football. The mechanism has been seen and reviewed, yet it reappears at every latitude and on a cyclical, almost ineluctable basis. Let’s take the most recent episode, with Simone Inzaghi and Joaquin Correa as protagonists.
Desired
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The Argentine forward is in his second season at Inter, having arrived on the express recommendation of Inzaghi, who appreciated his usefulness and versatility at Lazio, even if accompanied by frequent breaks due to injury. When Joaquin was in decent physical condition he was able to make his contribution to the Lazio cause. The balance at Inter is completely different: except for a couple of games with discrete high points, the rest is completely inadequate. So much so that the Nerazzurri staff wonder whether it is appropriate to insist on the South American striker. The same extra-large doubts accompany Romelu Lukaku, increasingly unrecognizable on his return to Milan. But the Belgian giant has a different background from Correa, branded with the multi-year guarantee given by Inzaghi. Here we are at the usual catchphrase, with the coach putting his face on it: “I assure you that with me he will do even better than when I coached him the first few times”. The little game, supported by an unknown how much automatic movement of affections, sometimes succeeds, but often gets stuck.
Few tracks
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Correa was in the Argentine national team which then deservedly won the World Cup. So one from Seleccion, not one discovered on the suburban pitches, for now produces embarrassing performances, which only complicate the life of Inzaghi, his passionate mentor. Such trust is not repaid. With Lukaku at an all-time low, Inter is based on the experience and skill of Dzeko, 37 years old in March, and on the flashes of Lautaro Martinez. Of Joaquin, at 28, the standard age of maturity for a footballer, few and disappointing traces, which do not even justify the 33 million spent in the summer of 2021 for the purchase. With the call in… Correa di Inzaghi.
Dear Paul…
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Football literature has other stories of lack of gratitude between untouchable chariots and coaches. Even Massimiliano Allegri, albeit for completely different reasons, has never been able to count on his dear, dear Paul Pogba, who returned to Juve to make up for it after his sad departure from Manchester United. Here injuries have ruined the return story, everyone is waiting for a sign of recovery from the Frenchman. Always Allegri, from AC Milan he enlisted Mattia De Sciglio in black and white, a good soldier who, however, never managed to definitively become a pillar of the black and white defense. Another totem of the Lady, Marcello Lippi, when he left Turin for the first time in 1999, in the following season at Inter he brought back Angelo Peruzzi, Vladimir Jugovic and Paulo Sousa, three starters of the team that had conquered the Champions League in 1996. In and of themselves, players of indisputable technical prowess, but four years old and several kilometers older. Result: first vintage intermittently, the second closed by Lippi in October in full crisis.
the morale
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A master always believes he can recreate the same magical conditions with his disciples: laudable intention, but everything flows, nothing is as before. Even when you lead the national team. Enzo Bearzot in 1986 in Mexico, then Lippi as coach in 2010 in South Africa, are closely linked to those who had given away the World Cup four years earlier. How dare you leave one of your Imperial Guard at home? Italy that wins does not change. But then the scenarios are transformed, the muscles as well and the motivations as well. The almanac also says so: the only national teams that have won two titles in a row are Pozzo’s Azzurri, in 1934 and 1938, and Pelé’s Brazil, in 1958 and 1962. So it’s nothing strange that the encore fails. What, in short, is the moral? Even with gratitude, if you overdo it, you risk getting into trouble. It’s true in life, it’s true on the field and on the bench. Meditate, mister, meditate…
January 12 – 10:06
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