Chapter 237 Italian Super Cup settled in China
In early August, Inter Milan went to the Netherlands and Portugal to play several friendly matches.
In these games, Mancini gave plenty of opportunities to the young players in the team, hoping to test their strength and then determine their position in the team in the new season based on their performance.
In the first match against Ajax, the performance of these young players was average and the two teams ended up in a 1:1 draw. Ajax also used a substitute lineup, so Mancini was not satisfied with the result.
In the second game against Porto, Mancini arranged a lineup of half main players and half substitutes.
With the leadership of the veteran players, the performance of these young people has indeed improved a lot.
In the first half, thanks to the heroic performance of new signing Torres, Inter Milan scored two goals in a row and established a large advantage early on.
However, in the second half, Porto suddenly accelerated and took advantage of Inter Milan's defensive mistakes, scoring two goals in a short period of time and evened the score.
At the end of last season, Bonucci, who was promoted to the first team due to too many injuries in the team's defense, performed extremely poorly in this game. Both of Inter Milan's goals conceded were directly related to him.
Mancini was also very dissatisfied with his performance and immediately replaced him with Samuel.
Bonucci was very frustrated when he left the field. Obviously he knew that he had lost the trust of the head coach and it would be difficult for him to play again in the new season.
For young players, professional football is so cruel where thousands of people compete to compete on a single-plank bridge.
There may only be one chance, and if you seize it, you will soar to the sky, but if you fail to seize it, you may lose the chance to make a living as a professional footballer.
There are countless players participating in professional youth training, but probably only one in a hundred can eventually play professional football.
After several warm-up matches, Inter Milan exposed many problems.
At present, it seems that this newcomer on the front line is very strong and his playing style is very sharp. As long as he can maintain his form, he can definitely become a sharp dagger on Inter Milan's front line.
The only thing worth worrying about is whether his condition is stable. After all, young players are prone to this problem.
To this end, Mancini plans to introduce another center forward who is slightly older, more experienced and cheaper, and can serve as a substitute for Torres and Cruz.
If any of these two players gets injured, he can take over at any time to avoid the embarrassing situation of having no one available in the team.
Therefore, Inter Milan chose to loan Crespo, a veteran who had previously joined Inter Milan, from Chelsea.
Crespo is very famous and once broke the transfer fee record in football.
A man who can become the top scorer in football must be very strong.
He has both rich experience and experience in Serie A. Born in 75, he is only 31 years old this year and is still in his prime, which perfectly meets Mancini's requirements.
Although he performed poorly under Inter Milan's former coach Cooper, and was obviously no match for Drogba after going to Chelsea, he gradually became a substitute for Drogba.
But Mancini has full confidence in him and believes that he can make good use of this top striker.
Crespo's arrival means that the last piece of the puzzle of Inter Milan's front line has been completed. The only question is whether he or Cruz will be the substitute...
Cruz was the main contributor to Inter Milan's championship last season. Without his magical performance, Inter Milan would not have been able to stage a stunning comeback.
It stands to reason that such veterans should be given more trust.
But Crespo is so famous that Inter Milan spent a lot of money to loan him back from Chelsea, and they also have to bear his high salary.
It would be a waste of money if we keep him on the bench.
So Mancini finally decided that the forwards will take turns to play in the new season. Whoever is in better shape and scores more goals will be the main player. For him, there is no such thing as value or fame. It all depends on the player's personal performance.
If you perform poorly, no matter you were once the world's top scorer, you will still have to sit on the bench and watch the water dispenser.
After solving the problem on the front line, what Inter Milan needs to strengthen now is the midfield and defense, especially the defense.
Although Vieira, a strong defensive midfielder, joined the team this season, Zanetti went to Juventus, Veron returned to Argentina, and Pizarro was bought by Roma for 1200 million euros.
Inter Milan's midfield has lost a lot of blood and needs some reinforcement.
There is no shortage of players in the attacking midfielder position. In fact, because of Lin Feng's stable performance, Stankovic and Veron's playing time was greatly compressed last season.
After Veron left in the new season, this position is finally less crowded. Stankovic has finally made it as the mother-in-law.
As for the defensive midfielder position, Mancini was worried about the injuries of last season, so he consciously began to arrange Zanetti to play as a defensive midfielder and train him in the direction of a versatile backcourt player.
In order to avoid accidents, he also signed Gonzalez, who came from Palermo, for free, thus solving Inter Milan's midfield and backcourt problems.
The biggest problem at the moment is on the defensive line. In the warm-up matches for the new season, Inter Milan has lost goals in almost every game.
Although it was just a friendly match and winning or losing was not important, the unreliability of the defense line has been deeply engraved in Mancini's mind, making him eager to strengthen it.
In fact, the overall strength of Inter Milan's defense this season is not weak. With Zanetti, Samuel, Materazzi, Grosso, Maicon and Cordoba, this lineup is quite good even among the giants.
But Inter Milan's problem lies in the fact that the central defenders are relatively old and the substitutes are weak.
Once Samuet, Materazzi and others get injured, Inter Milan's defense will be left with no one available.
This situation has already occurred last season. Once bitten, one will be afraid of the rope for ten years. Mancini is afraid that the situation of last season will happen again this season, so he wants to strengthen the defense line, especially the center back position.
So Mancini began looking for a suitable central defender.
This time he targeted two people, one of whom was Bayern's main central defender Lucio.
The Brazilian is very offensive and also very strong on defense, making him the perfect choice for him.
But Bayern's attitude is quite firm and they seem unwilling to make a substitution. If Inter Milan does not spend a lot of money, it will be difficult to bring Lucio to Inter Milan.
For this reason, Mancini had to settle for second best and chose Barzagli, who currently plays for Palermo and served as a substitute for the Italian team in this year's World Cup in Germany.
Last season, in Inter Milan's away defeat to Palermo, Barzagli's performance had already made Mancini very interested in him.
At this time, the defense line was confirmed, and he thought of the opponent first.
But Palermo is not willing to let him go easily, especially when Barzagli has been selected for the Italian national team. As a representative of the new generation of Italian central defenders, they naturally know that rare goods are worth the money.
Especially since Grosso has already been sold to Inter Milan, if Barzagli is sold too, Palermo’s defense will be completely dismantled.
But Mancini also understands the thinking of small and medium-sized clubs like Palermo. The other party says they don't want to sell, but their attitude is not firm, which means that the money has not been paid.
So Mancini didn't bother to talk too much with the other party and directly offered 800 million euros, a fixed price. If it works, then sign the contract. If not, then forget it.
Palermo’s psychological price is actually only 600 million euros, after all, Grosso was priced at this price before.
But they didn't expect that the other party would directly offer 800 million, which was completely beyond their expectations.
So Palermo agreed at the speed of light, and quickly packed up Barzagli and sent him to Inter Milan to report, as if they were afraid that Inter Milan would regret it if they were a second late.
Looking at the other party's attitude, Mancini knew that his offer was too high.
But Barzagli is only 25 years old this year. If he does not suffer any major injuries, he can guard Inter Milan's defense for at least seven or eight years.
Only 800 million euros to buy a seven or eight year guarantee for the defense line, this deal is simply a bargain!
Both parties were very satisfied with the deal, and their relationship was further improved. Inter Milan also opened its doors and loaned a large number of young players to Palermo at very low or even free prices.
This interaction between the two sides, which clearly goes beyond normal relations, has caused rumors in Serie A that Palermo is Inter Milan's younger brother.
Inter Milan naturally denied this, saying that they were not younger brothers or not, but that they had done a lot of business and became more familiar with the team than other teams!
Similar situations occurred in Genoa and Naples a few years later!
Before the Calciopoli scandal, Inter Milan did not like to form cliques, and they thought that other top clubs were the same.
But after the phone-gate scandal was exposed, Inter Milan was shocked to find that I was the clown. Other teams all had a group of younger brothers and followers, but they were alone.
Therefore, starting from this summer, Inter Milan has consciously taken advantage of Juventus' relegation and the turmoil in Italian football to cultivate forces close to itself in order to help them consolidate their position in Serie A.
Inter fans are undoubtedly happy this summer, with the team making big moves almost every week.
Looking at the increasingly luxurious team lineups, the fans can no longer hold back and wish the new season would start immediately so they can go to the scene to enjoy the team’s heroic performance in Serie A and the Champions League!
But things went against one's wishes. Affected by the phone-gate incident, the start time of this year's Serie A was very late, and it did not start until September 9th, and Inter Milan's first game had to wait until September 9th.
It’s only the beginning of August now, and there’s still a full month until the start of the Serie A. We have to wait!
“Aaaah, I’m dying without Inter Milan’s games to watch!”
"Buddha, God, please give me a game to watch!"
"It's so boring to watch it on TV, it would be so great if I could go and watch it in person!"
"The big brother above thinks too highly of me. With my net worth, I can't afford to go to Europe to watch a game, so going to watch a game live is a luxury for me!"
"It would be great if Inter could come to China to play!"
"Tsk, if they come, it must be a warm-up match sponsored by domestic sponsors. There is nothing interesting about this kind of warm-up match with local teams. Firstly, Inter Milan will not use all their strength and may not even send out their main players. Secondly, these local teams are all scumbags. Inter Milan will just bully them when playing against them. What's so interesting about bullying!"
"That makes sense. When Ancelotti led AC Milan to Shanghai for a friendly match a few years ago, AC Milan didn't send many main players at all, which disappointed the fans who spent a lot of money to buy tickets to watch the game!"
"The most infuriating thing is that AC Milan not only didn't send its main players, but even resorted to favoritism and let Shenhua win in the match. AC Milan, the European champions, was actually suppressed by the local Shenhua. Can you believe it?"
"Haha, Ancelotti knows how to behave!"
The fans discussed it over and over again, and finally one voice emerged:
It would be great if the Serie A teams could come to China to play a real, formal game!
With the popularization and rapid development of the Internet, by 2006, the influence of public opinion on the Internet had become enormous.
The fans' calls were so loud that they naturally attracted the attention of some businessmen with a keen sense of nose.
These people saw the business opportunity here and immediately sent people to make connections, get the relevant documents and permissions for the venue and hosting of the competition, and then immediately took these conditions to Italy to negotiate with the Italian Football Association, inviting the Italian Football Association to arrange the Super Cup match in China.
They were obviously well prepared. They not only described to the Italian Football Association the various benefits of hosting the Italian Super Cup in China, but also the great prospects of cultivating fans, seizing the market, and increasing the commercial value of Serie A.
He also expressed his willingness to offer a sponsorship fee of 500 million US dollars just to sponsor this game!
"If this Italian Super Cup is successful, we will continue to sponsor you for the next three years at a price of 2000 million US dollars!"
The Italian Football Association originally wanted to refuse. Cultivating fans and seizing the market are all related to Serie A. What does that have to do with their Football Association?
Naturally, they don't bother with things that don't benefit them at all.
But when they heard that the other party was willing to sponsor 500 million US dollars, and even had up to 2000 million US dollars in sponsorship fees, the officials of the Italian Football Association were stunned.
Due to the separation of management and operation, the Italian Football Association only has management rights for the league, but not operational rights.
Although Serie A earns a considerable amount of money from overseas broadcasting every year, all of this money is divided up by the Serie A Professional League and never goes into their pockets.
Because of this, their income is not high. Five million US dollars is nothing for Serie A, but for the Football Association, it is a huge sum of money!
Not to mention there are so many long-term benefits, so the Italian Football Association agreed immediately without even thinking about it.
The Italian Football Association immediately stated: Money doesn’t matter. The main reason is that we are attracted by the huge market of China with a population of billion. We are considering the overseas expansion and promotion of Italian football and the longer-term interests of Serie A. It is definitely not because of the five million!
In fact, after being hit by the Calciopoli scandal, the Italian Football Association does need to do some concrete things to prove its ability and wash away the label of laziness that the public has attached to them.
The two sides hit it off and officially decided that the 2006 Italian Super Cup would be held in China!
(End of this chapter)
