Two days to go until Christmas and Rafael Benitez is out of a job. Little more than six months down the line from the Special One winning an historic treble, not even adding the World Club Championship to Inter Milan’s trophy cabinet could save the Spaniard from the sack. The spectre of Jose Mourinho still looms large over the San Siro, who traded the Nerazzurri for Real Madrid in the summer, enticed by the prospect of spearheading a new generation of Galacticos. Whoever stepped into the Portuguese’s shoes could not better the unprecedented feat the Special One achieved in Italian football last season.
This is by no means the first time that a football club has struggled in the wake of one of the most charismatic enigmas in the game’s departure. In fact you can make a persuasive case that Mourinho is an act that simply cannot be followed. His record as a manager speaks for itself. The statistics show just under a 55% win rate during his brief spell in charge of Benfica and the subsequent year at the helm of U. D. Leiria respectively, guiding the latter to their highest league finish in the club’s history. At both Porto and Chelsea the Special One won more than 70% of matches and at the San Siro a shade less than 63%. At the Bernabeu the Portuguese has lost just once in twenty five games, the heavy defeat by Barcelona at the Nou Camp which has handed Madrid’s bitter rivals the advantage in the race for the La Liga crown.
With numbers like this and Mourinho’s famous unbeaten home league record which now stretches back two months shy of nine years, you can see how trophies naturally follow. At Porto he won a league, Taca de Portugal and UEFA Cup treble in 2003 and followed it up with the domestic Liga and Champions League double in 2004. At Stamford Bridge the Special One brought back to back Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006 adding the league cup in the former, and despite missing out on a third consecutive top flight championship in 2007 the club won the English domestic cup double under his guidance. Before last season’s Italian league, cup and European treble, he also kept the Serie A title at the San Siro in 2009 after predecessor Roberto Mancini steered the Nerazzurri to the previous three crowns.
He was able in his last job to get the best out of an ageing squad and certainly out of Argentine powerhouse Diego Milito, who netted thirty goals in the treble winning campaign. This season it seems his strike partner and Africa’s player of the year for 2010 Samuel Eto’o will be the one to reach that margin. The Cameroonian record goalscorer has already bagged nineteen in all competitions, while Milito has a mere four. There’s no doubt that contributing sixteen last season was a substantial factor in Inter’s success, but now subsequently where the African has thrived under Benitez, the stocky Argentine has struggled.
The Spaniard did next to nothing business-wise in the summer after taking over. He sold on loan Nicolas Burdisso to Roma and thus lost the only experienced centre back on the club’s books with any pace. Shipping Victor Obinna out to the Premier League was a shrewd move though; getting him off the wage bill with West Ham picking up the tab for a player who has never come remotely close to fulfilling his potential should be commended if nothing else. Aside from this Benitez merely presided over rubbing stamping the permanent arrivals of some youngsters that had been brought to the San Siro under the co-ownership rules of Serie A during last season. Kenyan central midfielder McDonald Mariga and French winger Jonathan Biabiany might well be two to watch out for in the future, but the pair are not exactly mainstays in Inter’s line up and have failed to seize opportunities when they have been presented.
A. C. Milan have a thirteen point lead over their San Siro cohabitants going into the winter break. The Nerazzurri have won only three times in eleven Serie A matches since the 4-0 romp against lowly Bari in late September and it was that poor run of form that has cost Benitez his job. In the two months between the above fixture and the 5-2 win against Parma, Inter did not win at home, succumbing to three draws and a defeat at the hands of their live-in neighbours in the Milan derby. His failure to emulate his fellow Iberian’s success in Italy will further hit the Spaniard’s stock, which has arguably been in a steady decline since Liverpool lost in the 2007 Champions League Final. Reds fans will be quick no doubt to point out he guided them to the runners up spot in the Premier League in 2009, but they lost out to hated rivals Manchester United, succumbing to too many draws.
Who can say what Benitez will do next; with fifteen years in club management he could well try his hand at taking charge of a national side. Alternatively he might do what many foreign coaches do after being sacked in a top European job and return home. Perhaps he will play the waiting game and make a sensational return to the Premier League as he still has a house in the northwest. As far as Inter goes, former A. C. Milan coach Leonardo is the early favourite to succeed the Spaniard. Current Zenit St. Petersburg and former Roma manger Luciano Spalletti, ex-Nerazzurri player Walter Zegna and Marcelo Biesla who resigned from the Chile national team last month are all within odds of 10/1 with SkyBet. Some sections of England fans will welcome Fabio Capello’s name being linked with the post. Inter president Massimo Moratti will probably go for someone with Serie A experience to try and get the club’s season back on track.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all JC Football readers
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