What happened last week during Lazio-Milan cannot be dismissed as non-news. Furlani tried, as is right in his role. It is simply an acknowledgement of what is happening in the red and black. Because, and it is almost incredible to say, nothing has happened. Fonseca simply made technical choices. That is, leaving out Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao, not for a behavioral issue, not for problems that arose. Maybe yes, they did not train well, but this is not given to know. After Friday’s training, the Portuguese coach simply announced the formation. Chukwueze-Loftus Cheek-Pulisic in the three-quarter lineup, right or wrong. Terracciano in place of Theo. Well, maybe we should ask ourselves at least a few questions about this.
Can a footballer be offended if he is sent off? Since we were young we tell ourselves that it is better to get angry when you are excluded, because it means that you care. This time obviously there was the vulgate of those who complain because Theo and Leao are professionals and have to accept what happens. That is not the case. Or at least, it is not by royal decree. One can also accept the decision but show all one’s disappointment when necessary, without any scene. Translated into doubloons (of the transfer market): Leao has a long contract but Mendes has looked for offers everywhere, Theo wants a top contract but he already earns 5 and is not satisfied with 6. For both of them we are heading towards a fairly obvious problem, especially with Fonseca as coach.
Iling and Barrenechea, on the other hand, were “forced” purchases. In the sense that Aston Villa, in order to avoid sanctions from the Premier League with consequent repercussions on the Champions League, decided to buy them as compensation. It’s something serious, it means that business is taking the majority of the football stack. The reality is that it has been doing so for a long time, but politics (FIGC, like UEFA or FIFA) tells us that it is not like that and that they are only looking for a way to regulate football. It’s not true, they are decoys, because the law has been made and the deception has been discovered. This time it was an English club, the time before it was Lille with Osimhen, who asked to include three absolutely useless and unusable players, in order to make a certain capital gain. Financial fair play is like the battleship in a Fantozzi film. But it is the fig leaf to tell the fans that something is being done, when in reality no one is doing anything at all.
But in all this, Oaktree owns 100% of Inter? And what happened to LionRock? Because at a certain point it was even removed from the list of companies operating in the Cayman Islands. It would be nice to understand, but these things fly over the heads of the fans, even though they are litmus tests of what is happening economically to the companies. Because there is a side, the sporting one, which is visible to everyone. Then the economic one which actually serves to imagine what the corporate future will be. That Oaktree is solid, no doubt. But it would also be nice to understand what happened to those who hold (or held, more likely) 30% of Inter. And who was in it, if they put money in, if it was a natural transition or a monetary transaction.
Last but not least, Claudio Lotito. “Football has a social function, it takes kids away from the suburbs. Today, however, there are mostly foreign funds, which have no social interest. We need to make the most of the people who want to amplify the value of sport, this must be fundamental”. Oh, sure, of course. A club managed in an autarchic manner, which has brought very few players from the Primavera to the Serie A – in twenty years of presidency – and which compared to the Cragnotti era is decidedly in decline in the construction of talent is looking for “Italian” supports. It would seem to be a political moment rather than a football one, because when we talk about “values” they are very similar to those that come into your pocket year after year. Lotito is extraordinary, a president who for his (reiterating his) Lazio has been a godsend. Setting yourself up as a champion of a movement would really seem a bit too much, unless you really believe in it. But it would mean succumbing to ideals that, in 20 years of Lotito, have always been merely individual and not collective. Someone explain to us, even knowing that our request will go unanswered and that Lotito, somehow, will find the way.