You still keep shifting the blame to Spalletti, yes he has his portion of blame to bear, but, Icardi started his antics long before he got the armband stripped off. Beefing with CN, neverending contract negotiations, release of the provocative autobiography, Wanda tikitaka show, and so on...
- Curva Nord beef had ended like 2 years prior.
- Stupid autobiography was like 4 years prior.
- Wanda appearing on that show was an idiotic decision, but the only thing it did was make relationship with Perisic bad. The club actually tried to sell Perisic at the time but Marotta didn't like Arsenal's bid because he wanted to milk them 3-5m more (loan + option at 40m iirc, he wanted 45). So obviously before the captaincy stripping, which I repeat happened after a victory, the club believed that Icardi was to be kept and Perisic to be sold. A certain Perisic that refused to play in a knockout game versus Lazio that Icardi won us via PKs in the last minute and the process btw, which was the only goal we had at the time for silverware.
- Contract negotiations were a genuine issue. We had promised him a new contract by December and we did not deliver. Marotta froze the negotiations, something he has done to players recently as well, despite agreeing to pull the trigger. De Vrij recently, Brozovic (then Zhang made it even worse), Skriniar, Perisic and a lot of other of our high profile players have suffered from this behavior.
You know how many contracts Icardi has signed with us?
His first one, which was 950k per year.
His second one, which was two years later, at 3.5m, which was our cap with Kondogbia and Jovetic making as much.
His third one, again two years later, at 4.5m, as much as Nainggolan was also earning when he arrived a year after.
And he signed one last one with us, officially yet technically it was PSG's deal to go along with the loan+option.
The top players in the league were earning 6m or more. He was a top 10 player at the time and made something like a Top 25 salary. Even Napoli was paying Insigne better and Koulibaly was earning significantly more iirc.
You know how many contracts Skriniar has signed with us?
His first one (2017), at 1.2m per year with some small increases for the second year.
His second one (2019), at 3m per year. Two years after his initial deal, with 3 years remaining.
And he's been asking for a renewal since last season and we stalled negotiations, then broke them, then tried to sell him over three windows and now we're supposed to offer him the new deal after all. If he accepts, that is. Is Skriniar a bad person for wanting more? Is he paid adequately at 3m relative to his peers?
I'm highlighting this not because I want to ignite old arguments, but because there seems to be a lot of double standards going around due to baseless preference.
It's like Handanovic. The real Handanovic is a worse goalkeeper than the fantasy Onana. Just like the fantasy Radu was a better option for some last season until he made a blunder that probably cost us the league. Or like the fantasy Padelli was a better option until he conceded 90% of the shots that came our way.
For some reason, both Icardi and Handanovic have scarred a lot of our fans and they don't like seeing them. I guess it's probably because they were the only players worth to keep from the 2013-2015 period and it reminded these people of that era.
Why don't we dislike Skriniar for asking for a new contract? Because his wife isn't a telenovela whore that we don't appreciate? How's that relevant to how valuable he is to the team?
Getting an extension after 2 good seasons is the expected outcome in this sport the way it is structured nowadays. Unless you're paid premium from the get-go. Which we do not. We only did that with Lukaku and Eriksen.
I don't know the atmosphere in the locker room. I can only tell based on what I see on the screen, sitting here on my sofa. Just like how I judge the Icardi chaos. So, in my opinion Barella would be the best candidate. His impact on course of the game is immense. He is reactive, responsive, never looks indifferent. Always runs out of his skin throughout the whole match. Yes he can sometimes overreact and receive a red card, but he is not a stupid guy to do that every week. With captaincy he will probably slow down and act more cold-blooded. He is a family guy, you won't expect any off the pitch antics from him. Die hard interista, Italian. What else do you want, I think he is ideal.
Well, it should be between Barella and Skriniar, but after that there's a bit of a chaos. Also, how would Brozovic react if he's surpassed from the selection, since Italian teams tend to give the armband to the player that's been around the most and he's currently #2 behind Handanovic. Wouldn't that create a mess if Brozovic wants to be captain?
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Nostradamus
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