Just as Mourinho hit it lucky when he arrived at Chelsea, so now he’s hit it lucky again at Inter Milan. Then, as now, he inherited a terrific team. At Chelsea, the much-maligned Ranieri had already brought on John Terry, a graduate from the youth team. Ranieri signed Lampard and Gallas before the Abramovich days, and then Joe Cole, Makalele, Cech and Robben before he was fired. Not a bad inheritance.
Now at Inter Milan, Mourinho has inherited the second great Inter team, one that can be compared with the team of the mid-1960s that won Serie A three times (1962/3, 1964/5, 1965/6) and the European Cup twice (1964, 1965) and famously lost to Celtic in 1967. Since then Inter Milan fans have had to watch the glory years of AC Milan (European Cup- and Champions League winners five times since 1989 and finalists eight times) and Juventus. Now Inter Milan’s time has come again. They have won Serie A three times in succession and have built a formidable team. The defence is part-Italian (Materazzi and the goalie, Toldo) and part-South American (Walter Samuel, Zanetti and Maicon). The midfield is part-French (Olivier Dacourt and Patrick Vieira) and part-Portuguese (Figo, Maniche and Gomes) and up front are the Argentinians, Crespo and Cruz, and Ibrahimovic, the Swedish striker. Both Roma and Juventus scored more goals last season but no one conceded as few. Like Manchester United and Chelsea, their title defence was built on an iron defence.
That, of course, is how Mourinho likes it. 1-0 is his kind of score. There is just one snag, as there was at Chelsea when he left it. Inter are an old team. 17 out of 27 in the squad were born in the 1970s. All the big names (except for Cambiasso and Ibrahimovic) are over 30. Some (Figo, Zanetti, Materazzi, Toldo) over 35. This might be OK for the leisurely pace of Serie A, but as Liverpool showed in the Champions League last season, it is no match for a faster side.
And here’s the rub. Lampard and Drogba, the two players Mourinho’s most likely to want to bring over from Chelsea, are not exactly spring chickens. Mourinho never had a youth policy at Chelsea. he didn’t have to. He either inherited star players from Ranieri or bought his own — he spent over £60 million in 2004 and again in 2005. He bought players at their peak (or, like Shevchenko, past it) and erxcept for Essien and Mikel they were not spring chickens as Grant’s luckless successor will find out.
So you can see why Mourinho jumped at the idea of joining Inter. A good team, on a roll. All the basics are in place and there’s money to top it up with some of his favourites from Porto (Deco? Carvalho?) and Chelsea (Lampard? Drogba? Essien?). Portuguese would go well with the contingent already there and African or English might add something new to the Mediterranean/South American mix. But there’s a second problem. Where are the goals going to come from? They didn’t score in either leg against Liverpool and Crespo and Cruz are past their best. No wonder they want Eto’o and Mourinho’s got Drogba’s number for one last big payday. It’s not exactly building for the future, but who cares? Inter and Mourinho want success and they both want it now.
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