LOL @ the comment of us being worried over Adriano being lost at sea on a pedalo to celebrate our scudetto!
Inter pay the price for being taken seriously
With Adriano behaving like an England cricketer and their coach's future uncertain, life at the top isn't all it's cracked up to be for Inter.
James Richardson
March 20, 2007 02:16 PM
With the possible exception of Mrs Kray, and whoever was responsible for the Bush dynasty, nothing breeds trouble like success. Take Inter - once the happy-go-lucky, plucky losers of the Italian game, no sooner do they finally find a brilliant run of form than the headaches start appearing faster than green politicians. For example, when will manager Roberto Mancini sign that much talked-about contract extension? Has a Milanese estate agent really been instructed to find a suitable
casa for José Mourinho? And what of Adriano? Will the big man's discothèque-obsession really cost him his Inter career? And if not, how come he got into trouble yet again this weekend for fighting, in the early hours of Monday morning, with one of the few men in Milan actually bigger than him: an expatriate American basketball player?
Even lovable-as-a-newborn-lamb club owner Massimo Moratti is not immune. Caught vigorously pumping his right arm at all and sundry in the classic "Up yours" gesture during last week's derby defeat of Milan, this previously saintly
Presidente was this week openly mocked in the street during an informal chat with reporters. "Give up your sham
Scudetto!" urged a customer emerging from a nearby bar, referring to last year's won-by-default title. Moratti's polite attempts to defuse the situation only incurred further jibes. "What are you going to do, get my phone tapped?" jeered the heckler, at which Moratti (who emphatically did
not inspire the phone surveillance that brought down Luciano Moggi) could manage only an angry "take your phone and shove it" before marching off.
Scant consolation though it offers, this is but the price that Moratti and Inter pay for finally being taken seriously. And very seriously they must now be taken - Sunday saw them claim their 20th victory in their last 21 league games with a
2-1 defeat of Ascoli. Both goals were scored by the once chronically goal-shy Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with assists coming from a pre-nightclub Adriano. And with Roma held to a goalless draw that same afternoon in Florence, the result left Inter just 270 minutes away from sealing the
Scudetto once again. Of course, by then they'll probably be too busy worrying over Adriano being lost at sea on a pedalo to celebrate, but these are the kind problems they'd have killed for not too long ago.
Meanwhile, with Inter's title run anything but news, the real excitement
at the top is being generated by Lazio. Not only did Delio Rossi's side
beat Empoli 3-1 on Sunday night to claim sole ownership of third place, but on current form they may be shaping up to snatch second off their neighbours Roma.
Five weeks ago, the gap between the two Roman sides stood at a prohibitive 18 points; now it's now down to just nine. While Roma's domestic form has suffered from their focus on the Champions League (although, technically, they should have won this weekend at Fiorentina - Mancini may have looked clearly offside for his disallowed goal, but he was actually kept on-side by a Fiorentina player who'd run past the touchline and off the pitch altogether), Lazio are getting better week by week. The Empoli match was evidence of this, with the forward trio of Goran Pandev, Tommaso Rocchi and Stefano Mauri - whose move to the
fantasista role is widely hailed as the key to Lazio's success this season - combining to kill off their upstart visitors early with two brilliantly taken counter-attacking goals before Christian Manfredini belted in a third in the second half.
Lazio have now won their last six games (the club record is nine, set by Sven-Goran Eriksson's side in 1998-99) and given that they still have the derby with a Roma side they demolished
3-0 last time they met, the nine-point gap between them looks very closeable.
The next round in a fortnight's time sees Lazio at Udinese, whose
4-0 thrashing of Livorno may well have cost the losing team's manager Danielle Arrigoni his job by the time you read this. Meanwhile, Roma host Milan in what should be a real humdinger. After their
1-0 win over slumping Atalanta, Milan are now in fifth place, four points behind Palermo but with a game in hand. However, the
Rossoneri have yet to beat a top-placed side all season and they'll need to change that against Roma if they're to continue entertaining thoughts of cracking the top four.
All these delights await us in two weeks' time, as next week, Serie A is on hold while we all count down to the
Azzurri's big Euro 2008 qualifier with Scotland. Manager Roberto Donadoni has included a smattering of stars from Lazio, Sampdoria's up-and-coming striker Fabio Quagliarella and, naturally, Inter's one Italian player in his squad. Next Monday I'll be back to offer my view on the whole nutty crew's chances. They're world champions, you know.
Results: Sampdoria 1-1 Palermo, AC Milan 1-0 Atalanta, Ascoli 1-2 Internazionale, Cagliari 0-2 Chievo, Catania 1-4 Reggina, Fiorentina 0-0 AS Roma, Messina 0-3 Torino, Parma 1-0 Siena, Udinese 4-0 Livorno, Lazio 3-1 Empoli.