Midfielder has returned on loan to the club where he made his Serie A debut, and showing Internazionale what they’re missingAfter watching his Internazionale team throw away a two-goal lead against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday, Antonio Conte lamented a shortage of top-level experience in his playing squad. “Who am I supposed to call on?” he demanded. “Nicolò Barella, who came here from Cagliari? [Stefano] Sensi, who we signed from Sassuolo?”These were unworthy remarks from a manager whose club splurged more than €150m on transfer fees in the summer window, delivering him several of the players he wanted most. Barella had been one of Conte’s top priorities. Sensi was Inter’s stand-out performer through the first two months...
Antonio Conte’s side won the Milan derby and while he still has much to work on at Inter the San Siro worry lines belong to his Milan counterpart Marco GiampaoloAntonio Conte never went home on Tuesday night. He was too angry – too “seriously pissed off”, in his own words – to imagine that he could get a good night’s sleep after Inter’s Champions League draw with Slavia Prague, so he went directly from San Siro back to his club’s training ground instead. The only way to work through his frustrations, was to work.“Head down and keep pedalling.” That was the mantra Conte gave at his introductory Inter press conference in July, and which he has returned to several times...
Arsenal and Manchester United have offloaded players whose 2018 swap deal conspicuously failed to live up to expectationsThe Liverpool teenager Bobby Duncan appears to have bucked a growing trend by leaving to join Fiorentina in Italy. Whatever the rights and wrongs of a dispute with the European champions that led to the player’s exit, Fiorentina are at least getting a promising young talent at the right age.Most of the recent Italian imports from the Premier League have been just the opposite, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan joining Alexis Sánchez in Serie A after failing to convince he was worth a regular place at Arsenal. Related: Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan joins Roma in loan with option to buy Related: Alexis Sánchez says he ‘didn’t...
The champions may have landed De Ligt, Rabiot and Ramsey but all has not run smoothly for Maurizio Sarri this summerItalian football’s summer break began in much the same way as the season had ended: with Juventus way out in front. By 1 July they had concluded the free agent signings of Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot. Then they did something far more audacious: signing Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax for €75m.Even for a club that signed Cristiano Ronaldo one year previously, it felt like a landmark deal. When did an Italian side last win a bidding war for one of European football’s most coveted young talents? At 19 years old, De Ligt had already started in a Champions League...
Gian Piero Gasperini’s great entertainers made club history, while Inter edged Milan to a top-four place tooIn Milan, Florence and Ferrara they waited. In Rome and Reggio Emilia, too. The final six games of the Serie A season had been scheduled to kick off simultaneously, to ensure a level playing field for teams chasing a Champions League berth, as well as those fighting against relegation. But somebody, somewhere, was late.Referees tutted and glared at their watches, waiting for the signal to commence. Ultras completed their planned choreographies and wondered what to do next. Players bounced and bellowed at one another in overwrought voices. It was not exactly quiet before the storm, yet there was a moment of exquisite tension shared...