Ras' Football World

Inter has ended 2021 on a high as Winter Champions. Personally, it is not a title that I cherish as it means nothing in the grand scheme of things. I would have been happy finishing the year in second or third but within touching distance of the top but I will take whatever good that comes my way. Dark Clouds In The Summer We impressively clawed back a deficit on AC Milan and Napoli who both had perfect records in the early months of the season to get to where we are now. Inter didn’t enter the season with an air of optimism after losing our manager, Antonio Conte, one of the best wing-backs in the world, Achraf Hakimi and when we thought that is all we would lose over the summer, we lost our most prolific striker in the last two seasons, Romelu Lukaku. We had also lost a key player in our title charge over the summer in the European Championships, Christian Eriksen, due to a heart issue. Composure Of Inzaghi The jury was out on Simone Inzaghi on how he would manage this Inter te...

 Michael Carrick ended a 15-year stint at Manchester United as a player, coach and interim manager at the end of Manchester United’s win over Arsenal. It came as a surprise to me but it was the right thing for him to do and it is nice for him to leave on a high. Michael Carrick, the player, I felt got better as he aged like fine wine. Today, we deeply miss a player like him in our midfield. He was a great servant to the club, a classy top-quality player but under-appreciated. If he was an Italian, Spanish, Argentine or Brazilian player, he would have been appreciated better. Carrick, The Coach As a coach, he worked under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at a time when the club lacked stability and there were higher than usual expectations placed on the team to deliver silverware. In his time at the club, the club failed to deliver any silverware and the jury is out on player development; there might have been one or two players that have improved but not enough to bring t...