After a promising start to the season, Inter Milan are really struggling at the moment with only one win in their last six league games, and three of their last eleven. Hopes of catching leaders Juventus are fading and Inter is in a battle to grab one of Serie A’s three Champions League places.
So it is not surprising to hear that Inter’s young coach Andrea Stramaccioni is under pressure to keep his job.
According to Sport Italia, Inter have already been in touch with former Bordeaux and France boss Laurent Blanc about taking over from Strama during the summer.
Blanc, who was linked with Roma earlier week, is a respected figure at Inter given that he played for the club between 1999 and 2001.
But one influential Inter director Tronchetti Provera is not ready to give up on Strama yet. Provera was quoted in Gazzetta dello Sport the other day saying:
“Stramaccioni had a strikingly good start to the season. He managed to get more out of the side than everyone expected. But now, we all need to eat some humble pie, even as promising a young coach as Stramaccioni himself. Mourinho back at Inter? I believe that Mourinho is a fantastic coach, but we have Stramaccioni now, and he’s doing well. I’ve a lot of respect for Mourinho, but I’m backing Stramaccioni.”
There is no doubt that Strama is having growing pains as a manager. And this is to be expected. A year ago he was Inter’s youth team manager before being promoted to replace Claudio Ranieri.
But Strama is not solely responsible for Inter’s recent slump. Injuries have really hurt the team, especially up front, not to mention the clubs strange battle with Wesley Sneijder. A fight that denied Strama Inter’s best player for three months before he was sold he Galatasaray earlier this month.
This is a transitional year for Inter and it will be interesting to see if Inter President Massimo Moratti, notorious for his lack of patience, sticks with Strama and lets his develop and grow into the job or whether he will throw up his arms in frustration at the end of the season and blow everything up once again.
