Mancio Tells it Like it Is

By: Martha | July 15th, 2007

Whee! Roberto Mancini talked to the press this morning after Inter’s early training session, and he was so refreshingly frank that you wonder if he didn’t perhaps get a bit too much sun while they were in Sardinia last week.

Asked about Adriano’s public appreciation of the faith the club has shown by not offloading him this summer (Don’t count your chickens yet, Adriano.), Mancini’s response was “He doesn’t need to thank me. He doesn’t need to thank me when I leave him out. He will play if he deserves to … If he trains hard and seriously and leads an athlete’s life, he will definitely return to being what he was a couple of years ago. I don’t think he will thank me if this doesn’t happen.” Damn, Mancio! Honestly, if he’s like that to Adriano’s face, too, I can’t believe the guy has the balls to turn up at training drunk or hungover and look his coach in the eye. I mean, that quote makes me feel guilty, for God’s sake.

The other high point of the interview were the questions about how Mancini plans to handle Inter six-man strike force. Specifically, he was asked “Is it a problem for a coach to have six strikers?” His response — our clear front-runner for quote of the summer, if not the season — was short and sweet: “The problem is for the strikers — there are six of them.” Bwwahahaaaa! Next question?

And suddenly we begin to understand how Mancini successfully manages a squad packed with internationals: He treats them like adults and expects the to respond in kind; if they don’t, he seems to ignore them. Why … that’s so crazy it just might work!

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Category: Inter, Rumors & News, Serie A

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shehan

inter just lost the copa america. a damn shame because they were favorites too!
Joe

"Rooting for them to win the Italian championship is sacrilegious."

I save that type of venom for Juventus of Hellas Verona. It's all a personal deal, I guess.
Martha

And I'm ignoring you, Chris, in my classy Inter way. (If you're interested, Mancio addressed the "More Italians!" issue in the very same interview I talked about in this post. I'm sure you'll find it unsatisfactory, but here it is, for your reading pleasure.)
Martha

Look at you with the double entendre, RT! You'll become one of us if you're not careful. (And I thought I was the only one who noticed how much time Mihajlovic and Stankovic spend together.)
chris g

Poor example or not, it doesn't make rooting for Inter any less wrong.

Unless you're Argentinian, of course.
RT

Mancini seems almost giddy when describing Jimenez and the possibilities he brings. Perhaps only Veron's return or Mihajlovic coming out (of retirement) would excite the coach more than the Chilean seems to.

But yeah, I think we can be confident the Jimenez is at Inter to stay.

And Inter had to rely far, far too much on Dacourt last year, who himself struggled to stay fit. So maybe Kovac is an attempt at amending this problem, and also why we used to see Inter linked with Madrid's Diarra.
Martha

Brilliant, RT, thanks for the tip -- I'll start digging for names so I'm ready when he arrives. I like that they're seriously looking to strengthen the midfield now (assuming they don't try to send Jimenez off in Roma immediately in some sort of sketchy exchange deal), that's not exactly a youthful group.
Martha

Chris, that was a terrible example. Something like "rooting for the Spurs to win the NBA Championship" would have been a much better example of a team have a lot of foreign players. (Not that there's anything wrong with it.) Picking a team IN A DIFFERENT LEAGUE ENTIRELY just confuses the issue. Furthermore, I bet 85% of the Argos are American. Riddle me THAT!
RT

Martha, I know next to nothing about Kovac, except that he's relatively tall and quite blonde. The closest thing I can find to an English language scouting report is wikipedia, which is pathetic.

However, Spartak were in Inter's Champions League group last year, and I believe Kovac was generally used as a holding midfielder in that tournament. Perhaps Inter saw things they liked. I think he also played against Italy in the World Cup.

Oh and I saw somewhere that he had a 'high profile romance' with some supermodel, which may be of future use to you.
Francesco

I've always thought of Mancini as a cocky, arrogant, prick (and it's not just because he's the Inter coach and I'm a Milan fan, I've always thought of him in this way since he was a player).
chris g

Toronto is in Canada. (In case you didn't know)

Super Bowl is the culmination of an American league.

Meaning, Inter is about as Italian as Boca Juniors.

Rooting for them to win the Italian championship is sacrilegious.
Martha

"Rooting for Inter is like rooting for the Toronto Argonauts to win the Super Bowl."

I admit it, I have NO idea what that means. Being really dumb? Outrageously optimistic? An alien? (Because two out of three, I am.)
chris g

"the wrong color"

Are you kidding me? Rooting for Inter is like rooting for the Toronto Argonauts to win the Super Bowl.

I don't like Milan at all but I have a whole hell of a lot more respect for them than I do Inter, even despite Calciopoli.
Martha

Hey, over here we respect players and coaches regardless of their affiliations. For example, my Rino Gattuso adoration will not be arbitrarily crushed simply because he wears the wrong color. We're all about class over here. (And yes, that is the royal we.)
chris g

What is this an ex-Lazio lovefest weekend?

I thought you were better than that.
Martha

Totally agree, Joe -- he's classy and confident without being a complete dick, and that a line a whole lot of coaches have a hard time staying the right side of.
Martha

And that video is awesome -- his innocent face is already ready for prime time!
Martha

Kovac is much older than I thought, and it's surprising to me that Inter are picking up someone from an Eastern European league at his age. What do you know about him, RT? Is he some sort of undiscovered gem, or a late-bloomer?
Joe

i really dislike inter milan but i have to say that i root for mancino. he just exudes confidence without that irritating arrogant bit. nice to see someone bust adriano's balls. good lord what a coddled dipshit
RT

Yeah, I really enjoyed how candid Mancini was in his interview. It's nice to get some straight answers every now and then. And nice of inter.it to actually translate it all, as they often don't in the summer. Lazy bastards.

And between comments from him and Moratti, the new signings of Jimenez, Nelson Rivas, and Radoslav Kovac have all essentially been confirmed. Still trying to figure out if Inter want the Czech as a midfielder or defender...

My youtube introduction to 'Tyson' Rivas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...