Inter, it will be a clean sweep. Correa, the defense in the balance and Lukaku: many close to farewell

There’s a whole Inter to be… redone. To be rebuilt, partly out of necessity and partly by choice. The movement has already started, regardless of how this season ends in which Champions League qualification is a minimum and non-negotiable goal. Given the almost empty pockets, the operation is complex for the executives, also because there is no shortage of cases to be handled with care…

Inter’s rescue unit is called upon to intervene on several fronts, starting with a dossier so large that it concerns renewals: there are even 9 Nerazzurri players who will expire at the end of June and only half have concrete possibilities of renewing. Roberto Gagliardini, for example, will say goodbye without regrets, just like Danilo D’Ambrosio, whose contribution in recent years has been decisive above all off the field. If we add the two most important loans of last summer, the expensive one from Romelu Lukaku and the almost zero one from Francesco Acerbi, we would reach 11 rounds: an entire team that wobbles without contractual certainties. But if the blue defender is perhaps the happiest surprise of the season, the future of the Belgian is the anxious thought of the coming months: between now and the end of the season, the club will evaluate the performance of the Belgian and then give the sentence. Up to now, between long physical problems and a complex recovery, the balance hangs in the negative, but if Rom really came to his senses, then there would be no doubts about the extension of the marriage. Inter know that the doors are open with Chelsea and that there is scope for negotiating the loan-encore, even looking for a small discount compared to the 8 million plus 4 bonuses paid in the summer. For this to happen, however, goals and minutes will be needed: all that has been missing so far.

Tucu and Denzel

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Joaquin Correa, on the other hand, has run out of tokens until the last, which are rather expensive, given that its price in 2021 was 31 million in total. San Siro knows how to be ruthless when he wants and the buzz at every touch of the ball by the Argentine certainly doesn’t help him get out of the black hole he has entered. For this reason, Tucu knows that at the end of the season he will be decisively placed on the market and Sevilla, who know him well, are already thinking about it. The missed World Cup didn’t help Correa’s stability, who could have rejoiced with all his people and, instead, due to yet another injury, had to cheer for Messi on TV. In Dumfries, on the other hand, Qatar had the opposite effect: the Dutchman in orange was a high-speed train, while since he has been back for the Nerazzurri he has become pale as a ghost. The data in training worries a little, but never like Denzel’s mental stability: the fact that his agent, Rafaela Pimenta, continues to offer him in the Premier League, so far without success, has unconsciously (and hopefully temporarily) a little removed from the Milanese toils. However, he will have to say goodbye by 30 June: his sacrifice for budgetary reasons has been decided.

One department above all will change its skin, partly out of necessity and partly by choice: the Nerazzurri defense is a world undergoing complex transformation also because almost all of it will expire at the end of the year. The only one who can look beyond, to a not too long future, is Alessandro Bastoni, with a contract expiring in 2024: in order not to repeat past mistakes, the club wants to remedy the situation as soon as possible. He has already started drawing up a draft of the agreement, above all after verifying the common will to walk on the same road. If anything, the problem is the other defenders, stuck in the same date: June 30, 2023, inexorable, looms large for everyone. Especially for Stefan De Vrij and Milan Skriniar, columns of the old wall that served to build the Conti shield. And who last year helped Inzaghi add two cups to the Viale della Liberazione bulletin board.

Milan leaving

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The Slovak’s case has now assumed the dimension of the catchphrase and, within the company, a thought has solidified: it could become really risky to keep him for another six months in Milan, especially if his head is already under the Arc de Triomphe. As the PSG coach Galtier winks at every opportunity, the only variant in this story is time. The when. Skriniar will certainly take up residence in Paris, we just have to decide whether he will drop his bags now or at the beginning of July. Inter would now gladly choose option A and continue to push for this to happen, despite the obvious risks in a farewell to the current season. But a decisive move by the French is needed which (yet) hasn’t taken place: the 10 million that the Parisian club intends to invest are considered few. Very few. However, it would be enough to double the stakes and at that point Milan could travel to Paris by the end of January: end of the soap opera with all due respect to everyone.

How many deadlines

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From this year, however, De Vrij has lost the owner’s stripes: he is no longer as untouchable as he once was. Indeed, he was decisively overtaken by a surprising Acerbi, whose loan has the usual deadline, the same as Stefan’s contract. The 34-year-old blue knows he won’t be able to return to Rome after the storm with the Lazio fans and the Nerazzurri have already voted to buy him out: four million would be needed today, considered too much by Zhang’s club. But, net of the difficulty in sitting down at the table with Lotito, the Nerazzurri are optimistic at least on the Acerbi dossier. Precariousness, on the other hand, does not suit the Dutch companion, unhappy with the scarce use of him and intent on looking around him. Inter also sent him a renewal offer at slightly lower figures compared to the 4 million plus that Stefan now earns: an answer will arrive at the headquarters shortly and we will therefore understand the margins to be able to negotiate. It is a strategic passage because, at Inter’s goal, there is a risk of overcrowding: other defense colleagues who are about to expire are also destined to say goodbye. Not only D’Ambrosio, also Samir Handanovic will leave Milan after these strange months spent as second goalkeeper. The final decision is still missing, but the idea of ​​starting a new life as an aspiring coach takes off in the captain’s head. Matteo Darmian, on the other hand, has shown rare reliability: given the disappearance of Dumfries, he has found an agreement for a two-year renewal.

No one knows more than Simone Inzaghi that his and the club’s fate will depend on those nine letters which, put together, have a romantic sound: Champions League. The eighth against Porto will only partially count in which Inter arrive with the spirit of those who know they can look their rival in the eye without fear: if the team hit the quarterfinals by surprise, they would fall into Zhang’s piggy bank among the 5 and 10 million, between receipts and UEFA prizes. But, above all, it would give a completely different nobility to the entire Nerazzurri season. Much more cautiously, however, the final tribunal of this complicated 2022-23 season is qualification for the next Champions League: to keep his job, the already won Super Cup would not be enough for the coach, and even a possible new triumph in the Italian Cup, without the certainty of 4th place in the standings. Indeed, the minimum objective should preferably be achieved with convincing performances, without additional worries. Failure to do so, on the other hand, would destroy the entire Nerazzurri sporting project. In short, not only the future of a technical guide is at stake, but the very horizon to which the Suning club will have to look.

Just two faces

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The responsibility in the hands of Inzaghi is high, even if in Appiano they are rightly convinced that they have the men and the means to bring home the game of the season. Despite the Romans and Atalanta blowing dangerously behind, the general belief is that for Inter it will be enough simply to be themselves, to play as Inter, to hear the European jingle again next season. The points squandered at the beginning of the championship are bleeding, but then, when the team seemed to have caught the wind, here is the strange slowdown in the new year. The ups and downs of 2023 complicated the plans because Simone’s training showed two antithetical faces to each other: against high-ranking opponents, such as Napoli in Serie A and Milan in the Super Cup, he showed audacity and courage, while when he faced humbler rivals, she found herself tender and unfriendly. From the slip of Monza to the thunderous fall against Empoli, passing through the difficult victories with Parma in the Italian Cup and Verona in Serie A, the leitmotif is always the same: lowering of voltage paid dearly. Changing the attitude is the coach’s priority, also because it will be necessary to constantly put hay in the standings to avoid surprises.

How much trouble

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Corrections from the bench are urgently needed at this moment in which the troubles seem to add up. The defense has turned out to be fragile as never before and not only because having so many players, all together due to expire, doesn’t help keep the tension high: the head, unconsciously, sometimes risks flying elsewhere. In addition, the Skriniar affair may not have isolated consequences: the prolonged push and pull risks taking away more serenity from a department that is already shaky on its own. So far, in fact, it has red alert numbers: the 25 goals conceded in total make the Inter defense the eleventh in Serie A, worse than Lecce. And if you just rewind the tape of a year, you understand the extent of the problem: in 2021-22, at this point in the journey, Inzaghi’s team had only conceded 15 goals. It was the second best defense in the entire league. A few meters further on, also keep an eye on the movements in the middle of the field: the delay in Brozovic’s return also has direct consequences on his teammates, squeezed beyond measure. Calhanoglu discovered himself to be an expert playmaker and made up for Brozo’s four-month absence (the Croatian hasn’t been a starter since 18 September, in Udine) and, at the same time, the coach was forced to always insist on Mkhitaryan, a free signing invaluable result. The Armenian is six consecutive games as a starter in 19 days and there is a seventh on the horizon, given that he should also play in Cremona tomorrow. He will stay together with the Turk and, probably, with Asllani, substitute for the suspended Barella. To bring the boat to port it will be necessary to measure out more forces than has been done so far: Inzaghi is also well aware of this.