Giuseppe Mourinho where are you!?

April 5th, 2011 | by: Marco | Comments Off

Let me put to rest the rumours – I do admire Jose Mourinho. I think he is the quintessential embodiment of what a modern football manager should be. His tactics are solid, his ego is massive and he plays the media like a harp. Three characteristics that I believe are relevant and mandatory in today’s football world when it comes to success. That aside, this is where my admiration of Real Madrid’s tactician ends and my loathing of Italy’s current crop of managers begin.

Today, I along with many people, witnessed a humiliating defeat of what has been Serie A’s top team for the last 5 years. Inter’s 5-2 defeat to Schalke wasn’t so much a humbling encounter but rather a catastrophic failure of the Calcio ideals we’ve been exemplifying over the last five years. Our entire ideology and principals were shaken to their very core. Perhaps they aren’t ‘our’ ideals per-se; but rather the ideals and values exemplified by the pompous pencil pushers and bureaucrats in Italy. The events that unfolded today were simply a reaffirmation of what you and I have been preaching to the world for nearly four years. This day was not a catastrophic day for us; rather it was a catastrophic day for the people in positions of power in Serie A; the people who have backed this methodology that average people are in fact extraordinary talents in Italy. Case in point Inter’s manager Leonardo; RB Maicon and Fullback turned CB Chivu. Three examples in today’s match of what is seriously wrong in the world of Calcio.

For the purposes of time; and for the sake of not repeating myself, I only wish to discuss manager Leonardo.  It is said that “only in Italy can someone like Leonardo with little experience, go from coaching one top flight team; to getting dismissed; months later travelling cross town to manage their bitter rivals.” In fact this is not a saying at all; but rather something I concocted during the course of my third pint this afternoon. In a country where we are reluctant to give young players the benefit of the doubt in favour of playing a 40 year old Zanetti; we are sure quick to jump on the bandwagon of young inadequate managers – despite their mediocre record. Case in point; Leonardo. He didn’t necessarily impress at Milan; Mourinho when coaching at Inter sure did have his number. I was in Foxborough for the exhibition encounter between Inter and Milan during the Summer of 2009; when Mourinho manhandled Milan’s newly minted Leonardo an embarrassing 2-0 loss.

Regardless, even though he was very average with a team like Milan; Leonardo in 2011 received a promotion of sorts and became manager of Italy’s best team. I say this objectively as this is the only Italian team that is capable of winning in Europe at this time. (perhaps no longer) Sure he earns his team victories at the start of his Inter tenure. But the last two games have demonstrated to me a wealth of stupidity on the manager’s part. His slow thought process when it comes to making the necessary on field adjustments is just the tip of the iceberg. What I found really puzzling was in his retort to an awful performance against Milan on Saturday; he came out today with the exact same lineup (with slight adjustments) despite the fact that Chivu earned a red card and Cordoba looked steadier at the back. Individual tactics aside; I can argue that Italy is relying on average managers like Leonardo, Del Neri, Ranieri, Montella, and yes even Allegri to coach their top flight squads.  Without a doubt Juventus, Milan, Inter and Roma should be making frequent visits to the Champions League Quarterfinals.

What the heck has happened to the Capello’s, Lippi’s and Trapatonis? Manager’s that in their time; at their pinnacle top level Spanish, English, and German clubs would fear encountering? For the most part these men, at their peak would never have turtled against a team like Schalke!

In many ways, Calcio and Hollywood are parallels when it comes to where they’ve been; where they are; and where they’re headed. The Brando’s, Pacino’s, De Niro’s of Hollywood were iconic embodiments of the art of acting. Today the heirs to the their thrown as Hollywood’s great actors are people like Shia Lebeouf – hardly an Al Pacino. Yes, I have just gone to the extent of comparing Marcello Lippi to DeNiro and Leonardo to our favourite Transformer, Shia Lebeouf.  The parallels between Hollywood and Calcio don’t end there mind you; look at the modern day versions Robert De Niro. Have you seen him make classics like Goodfellas or Godfather II lately? Just like De Niro’s Meet The Fockers I; II; III; the Lippis, Capellos, and Traps have gone completely off the rocker in their most recent incarnations.

The moral of the story isn’t that we need different managers or Italian managers. What we need in Italy are people that know what they’re doing and people that are the top in their field behind the bench holding the strings. The Shia Lebeoufs we are currently throwing millions of Euros  at are humiliating us on the European stage. We need people onboard who know and understand the European game – we need to regain our respect on the World stage; by continuing down this lonely road we will not be earning the accolades we yearn for. Instead we will continue to see such productions like Transformers 3 and Inter v Schalke on a regular basis.