FM15 Michael Skidmore (total football 71) career update......A New Era Begins

[mydreamteam]

Destination Milano Italy.......The Club Internazionale

Inter_Milan by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Foundation and early years (1908–1960)

The club was founded on 9 March 1908 as Football Club Internazionale, following a "schism" from the Milan Cricket and Football Club (now A.C. Milan). The name of the club derives from the wish of its founding members to accept foreign players as well as Italians.

"Questa notte splendida darà i colori al nostro stemma: il nero e l'azzurro sullo sfondo d'oro delle stelle. Si chiamerà Internazionale, perchè noi siamo fratelli del mondo."

—9 March 1908, Milan[11]

"This wonderful night will give us the colours for our crest: black and blue against a backdrop of gold stars. It will be called Internazionale [international], because we are brothers of the world."

—9 March 1908, Milan

The club won its very first Scudetto (championship) in 1910 and its second in 1920. The captain and coach of the first Scudetto was Virgilio Fossati, who was killed in World War I.

Giuseppe Meazza made 408 appearances for Inter. He is the all-time top scorer of the club, with 284 goals

In 1922 Inter remained in the top league after winning two play-offs. Six years later, during the Fascist era, the club was forced to merge with the Unione Sportiva Milanese and was renamed Società Sportiva Ambrosiana.[12] They wore white shirts around this time with a red cross emblazoned on it. This shirt design was inspired by the flag and coat of arms of the city of Milan, which in turn derives from the flag of the patron saint of Milan, St. Ambrose and dates back to the 4th century AD. The new upcoming President Oreste Simonotti decided to change name to Associazione Sportiva Ambrosiana in 1929. However, supporters continued to call the team Inter, and in 1931 new president Pozzani caved to shareholder pressure and changed the name to Associazione Sportiva Ambrosiana-Inter.

Their first Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) was won in 1938–39, led by the great legend Giuseppe Meazza, for whom the San Siro stadium is officially named, and a fifth league championship followed in 1940, despite an injury to Meazza. After the end of World War II the club re-emerged under their original name. Following the war, Inter won its sixth championship in 1953 and the seventh in 1954.

Grande Inter (1960–1968)

The Inter team which won the Intercontinental Cup in 1965

In 1960, manager Helenio Herrera joined Internazionale from Barcelona, bringing with him his midfield general Luis Suárez, who won the European Footballer of the Year in the same year for his role in Barcelona's La Liga/Fairs Cup double. He would transform Internazionale into one of the greatest teams in Europe. He modified a 5–3–2 tactic known as the Verrou (door bolt) to include larger flexibility for counterattacks. The Catenaccio system was invented by an Austrian coach named Karl Rappan. Rappan's original system was implemented with 4 fixed defenders, playing a strict man-to-man marking system, plus a playmaker in the middle of the field who plays the ball together with two midfield wings. Herrera would modify it by adding a fifth defenders, the sweeper or libero behind the two centre backs. The sweeper or libero who acted as the free man would deal with any attackers who went through the two centre backs. Internazionale finished 3rd in Serie A his first season, 2nd the next year and first in his 3rd season. And then followed a back-to-back European Cup victory in 1964 and 1965. Herrera earned the title ll Mago, which meant the magician. The code of Herrera's team was the fullbacks Tarcisio Burgnich and Giacinto Facchetti, Armando Picchi the sweeper, Suárez the playmaker, Jair the winger, Mario Corso the left midfielder, and Sandro Mazzola who played the inside-right.

In 1964, Internazionale reached the European Cup Final by beating Borussia Dortmund in the semifinal and FK Partizan in the quarterfinal. In the Final, they met Real Madrid, a team that had reached seven out of the nine finals to date. Mazzols scored two goals in a 3–1 victory, and then the team won the Intercontinental Cup against Independiente. A year later, Inter repeated the feat by beating two-time winner S.L. Benfica in the final held at home, from a Jair goal, and then again beat Independiente in the Intercontinental Cup.

In 1967, with Jair gone and Suárez injured, Inter lost the European Cup Final 2–1 to Celtic. The same year, the club changed its name to Football Club Internazionale Milano.

After Helenio Herrera era (1968–1990)

Following the golden era of the 1960s, Inter managed to win their eleventh league title in 1971 and their twelfth in 1980. Inter were defeated for the second time in five years in the final of the European Cup, going down 0–2 to Johan Cruijff's Ajax Amsterdam in 1972. During the 1970s and the 1980s, Inter also added two to its Coppa Italia tally, in 1977–78 and 1981–82.

Led by the German duo of Andreas Brehme and Lothar Matthäus, and Argentine Ramón Díaz, Inter captured the 1989 Serie A championship. Fellow German Jürgen Klinsmann and the Italian Supercup were added the following season but to little avail as Inter were unable to defend their title.

Decline (1990–2004)

The 1990s was a period of disappointment. While their great rivals, Milan and Juventus, were achieving success both domestically and in Europe, Inter were left behind, with repeated mediocre results in the domestic league standings, their worst coming in 1993–94 when they finished just 1-point out of the relegation zone. Nevertheless, they achieved some European success with 3 UEFA Cup victories in 1991, 1994 and 1998.

With Massimo Moratti's takeover from Ernesto Pellegrini in 1995, Inter twice broke the world record transfer fee in this period (£19.5 million for Ronaldo from Barcelona in 1997 and £31 million for Christian Vieri from Lazio two years later). However, the 1990s remained a decade of disappointment, and is the only decade in Inter's history in which they did not win a single Italian Serie A championship. For Inter fans it was difficult to find who in particular was to blame for the troubled times and this led to some icy relations between them and the president, the managers and even some individual players.

Moratti later became a target of the fans, especially when he sacked the much-loved coach Luigi Simoni after only a few games into the 1998–99 season, after having just received Italian manager of the year award 1998 the day before being dismissed. That season Inter failed to qualify for any European competition for the first time in almost 10 years, finishing in eighth place.

Javier Zanetti was captain of Inter from August 1999 to his retirement in 2014

The following season, Moratti appointed former Juventus manager Marcello Lippi, and signed players such as Angelo Peruzzi and Laurent Blanc together with other former Juventus players Vieri and Vladimir Jugović. The team came close to their first domestic success since 1989 when they reached the Coppa Italia final only to be defeated by Lazio.

The following season another disaster struck. Inter impressed in the Supercoppa Italiana match against Lazio and took the lead through new signing Robbie Keane and Hakan Şükür—however, they lost 4–3. They were eliminated in the preliminary round of the Champions League by Swedish club Helsingborgs IF, Álvaro Recoba missing a crucial late penalty. Lippi was sacked after only a single game of the new season following Inter's first ever Serie A defeat to Reggina. Marco Tardelli, chosen to replace Lippi, failed to improve results, and is remembered by Inter fans as the manager that lost 6–0 the city derby to Milan in the 2000–01 season. Other members of the Inter "family" during this period that suffered were the likes of Vieri and Fabio Cannavaro, both of whom had their restaurants in Milan vandalised after defeats against Milan.

In 2002, not only did Inter manage to make it to the UEFA Cup semi-finals, they were also only 45 minutes away from capturing the Scudetto, when they needed to maintain a one-goal advantage away at over Lazio. Inter were 2–1 up after only 24 minutes. Lazio equalised during first half injury time and then scored two more goals in the second half to clinch victory that eventually saw Juventus win the championship. The next season, Inter finished as league runners-up and also managed to make it to the 2002–03 Champions League semi-finals against Milan, losing on the away goals rule.

Resurrection and recent history (2004–present)

Revival (2004–2008)

On 1 July 2004, Inter appointed former Lazio boss Roberto Mancini as new head coach. In his first season the team collected 72 points from 18 wins, 18 draws and only 2 losses, as well as winning the Coppa Italia and later the Supercoppa Italiana. On 11 May 2006, Inter retained their Coppa Italia trophy by once again, defeating Roma with a 4–1 aggregate victory (a 1–1 scoreline in Rome and a 3–1 win at the San Siro).

Inter were awarded the 2005–06 Serie A championship after points were stripped from Juventus and Milan due to the match fixing scandal that year. During the following season, Inter went on a record-breaking run of 17 consecutive victories in Serie A, starting on 25 September 2006 with a 4–1 home victory over Livorno, and ending on 28 February 2007, after a 1–1 draw at home to Udinese. On 22 April 2007 Inter won their second consecutive scudetto—and first on the field since 1989—when they defeated Siena 2–1 at Stadio Artemio Franchi. Italian World Cup-winning defender Marco Materazzi scored both goals.[13]

Zlatan Ibrahimović and Mario Balotelli against Palermo in 2009

Inter started the 2007–08 season with the goal of winning both Serie A and UEFA Champions League. The team started well in the league, topping the table from the first round of matches, and also managed to qualify for the Champions League knockout stage; however, a late collapse leading to a 2–0 defeat with 10 men away to Liverpool on 19 February in the Champions League threw into question manager Roberto Mancini's future at Inter, and domestic form took a sharp turn of fortune with the team failing to win in the three following Serie A games. After being eliminated by Liverpool in the Champions League, Mancini then announced his intention to leave his job, only to change his mind the following day. On the final day of the 2007–08 Serie A season, Inter played Parma away, and two goals from Zlatan Ibrahimović sealed their 3rd consecutive championship. Mancini was sacked soon after due to his previous declaration of leaving the club.[14]

Recent history (2008–present)

José Mourinho, winner of the first "treble" in Italian history in the season 2009–2010, with Inter

On 2 June 2008, Inter appointed former Porto and Chelsea boss José Mourinho as new head coach.[15] In his first season as Inter head coach, the Nerazzurri won an Italian Super Cup and a fourth consecutive title, being, however, also eliminated from the Champions League in the first knockout round for a third consecutive time, losing to Manchester United. In winning the league title for the fourth consecutive time, Inter joined Torino and Juventus as the only teams to do this and the first to accomplish this feat in the last 60 years.

Inter enjoyed more luck in the 2009–10 Champions League, defeating incumbent champions Barcelona in the semi-final, and then defeating Bayern Munich 2–0 in the final with two goals from Diego Milito.[16] Inter also won the 2009–10 Serie A title by two points over Roma, and the 2010 Coppa Italia by defeating the same side 1–0 in the final.[17] This made Inter the first Italian team to win The Treble, but Mourinho left for Real Madrid at the end of the season,.[18] to be replaced by Rafael Benítez.

On 21 August 2010, Inter defeated Roma 3–1 and won the 2010 Supercoppa Italiana, the fourth trophy of the year. In December 2010, they claimed the FIFA Club World Cup for the first time after a 3–0 win against TP Mazembe in the final.[19] Internazionale completed the Quintuple, becoming the fourth team in the world after Liverpool in 2001, Al-Ahly in 2006 and Barcelona in 2009. However, after this win, on 23 December 2010, due to his poor performance in Serie A and separated by 13 points from the leader Milan (although Inter played two games less, because of the FIFA Club World Cup appointment), the team announced Benítez's departure.[20] He was replaced by Leonardo the following day.[21]

Leonardo started with 30 points from 12 games, with an average of 2.5 points per game, better than his predecessors Benítez and Mourinho. On 6 March 2011 Leonardo set a new Italian Serie A record by collecting 33 points in 13 games, the previous record was 32 points in 13 games made by Fabio Capello in the 2004–05 season. He took the club to the quarter finals of the Champions League before losing against Schalke 04, and also won the Coppa Italia. He resigned at the end of the season and was followed by not so successful new managers Gian Piero Gasperini, Claudio Ranieri, and Andrea Stramaccioni.

On 15 October 2013, an Indonesian consortium led by Erick Thohir signed an agreement to acquire 70 percent of Inter Milan shares with an acquisition value of $501 million

history by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

The New Era Begins

job1 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

job by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Season Expectations

expectations by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Thats The Background The Next Update I Will Take A look At The Squad And The Tactics

Thanks For Looking And Hope You Will Enjoy My Career Updates

Michael Skidmore

https://twitter.com/totalfootball71

[mydreamteam]

Inter_Milan by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Internazionale Pre Season Update 14-15

The Squad

Goalkeepers

Due to a bid from Arsenal for our number 1 keeper Handanovic for £16m rising to £19m which I accepted, Juan Carrizo will be our number 1 with loan signing Manfredini being our back up. I did the deal because we have 24 year old Italian keeper

Berdi out on loan until the end of the season and I see him coming back and challenging to be our first choice.

Goalkeepers by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Defenders Central

I decided to add Eder Alvarez Balanta to the squad for £6.5m rising to £7.25m with add ons, I feel he will bring a nice balance to the defensive unit as I want to use Gary Medel in a holding role in midfield. We have good experience at the back and think we have enough in there for the season ahead.

Defenders by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Defenders Full Backs

Again good cover in the full back area with players who can also play as wing backs, Nagatomo as expressed his desire to play Champions League Football after I turned down a bid from Manchester City, I convinced him we could qualify for the

Champions League next season which he accepted.

Full Backs by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Defensive Midfield

All 3 defensive midfielders can play in both the holding role and central position which gives us a good solid blend in the middle along with my idea of playing with Gary Medel in the holding role. We have Yann M'Vila on a season long loan from

Rubin on £34.000 a week wages so I will be monitoring if we are getting value for money and may terminate the contract early if not.

Def Mid by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Midfield

I feel we are strong in the more advanced positions and think Kovacik, Hernanes and Guarin will be pivotal to our season and have already looked good in pre season. Mateo Kovacik looks a real talent and as just signed a new contract with a

release clause.

Att Mid by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Forwards

With the capture of Manolo Gabbiadini we have very good options up front, I have also promoted 17 year old Federico Bonazzoli up to the first team squad and have been impressed with his performaces in pre season. Icardi looks quality and

should be my number 1 starting forward. Palacio and Osvaldo complete the front men with Osvaldo with us on a season long loan.

Forwards by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

The Tactics

I want to play an attacking game and will use 3 tactics during the season with an emphasis on pressing high up.

3-3-2-2 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

4-1-4-1 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

2-2-3-2-1 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Season Expectations

Expectation by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Transfer Window

transfers by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

alvarez balanta by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

pjaca by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Gabbiadini by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Handanovic by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Internazionale Results July 14 August 14

Results by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Bonazzoli by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Europa League

Europa Lge by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Michael Skidmore

https://twitter.com/totalfootball71

[mydreamteam]

Internazionale Update.

My tactical vision is inspired by EL Loco Marcelo Bielsa, his tactical mind is built upon hard-working, ball-winning players high up the pitch creating an high press system with well drilled players. I currently think at the start of this season Inter are like Marsielle in France in terms of were they are expected to finish in their respective Divisions. However Bielsa has got Marsielle playing thier best football for years. If possible I would like to mirror Bielsa's success with the high press attacking philosophy. I am working on ball retention with one of my tactics and hope to implement it along with the press during this next month of fixtures.

My expectations this season are to qualify for the Champions League, reach the Europa League knockout Round and get to the semi finals of the Copa.

As you can see above we lost our opening League game at home to Palermo after fielding a rotational side after the Europa League playoff game because I picked a strong side to get the job done in the Thursday night game. It's something I need to sort out with just the 2 days between the Europa games and the following League game.

Next Update September 2014 games.

[mydreamteam]

Inter_Milan by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Internazionale Update September 2014

We have had a mixed month starting away at Atalanta and had to grind a result out despite taking an early lead via Hernanes 11th min penalty, we had plenty of possession and returned back to Milan with a 1-0 victory.

Up next was the opening Europa League game at home to Czech side Viktoria Pizen We looked very comfortable and ran out 2-0 winners thanks to a goal in each half from both Icardi and Kovacic.

3 days later we beat Parma in the league with an own goal in the 1st half followed by a stunning strike from Osvaldo in the 2nd period to round off a good 2-0 win. Then we deserved to lose our next game away to

Sampdoria which I have to take the blame with the tactics I deployed, we went down 2-0 and never looked liked scoring. It was a bad day and our 2nd defeat of the season after losing our opener against Palermo.

So it was back to the drawing board and a home game against a struggling Verona side who had shipped 11 goals in 4 defeats however we struggled to turn our possession in to goals but 17 year old super sub

Federico Bonazzoli turned the game for us with a 69th minute penalty and then a second goal 5 minutes later to give us a 2-0 win and much needed lift to end the month.

Results

Sept 14 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

in

League Table

Table Sept 14 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

October 2014 Fixtures

We have got 6 games coming up in October starting with 2 away trips the first to Poland as we visit Legia in the Europa League and then a visit to Rome to early leaders Lazio.

After the International break we have 2 home games against Torino and Russian side Rostov before ending the month on the road to at Sassuolo and Udinese.

Fixt Oct 14 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Michael Skidmore

https://twitter.com/totalfootball71

[mydreamteam]

Inter_Milan by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Internazionale Update October 2014

Results

I am pleased with the results and performance this month, I changed our tactics a little and so far I am happy with the way we are playing(see below for new tactic). On to the games and first up was the trip to Poland

for the Europa League game against Legia, we came away with a draw thanks to Manolo Gabbiadini's first goal for the club. We then visited the League leaders Lazio and raced into a 2 goal lead within 12 minutes

with goals from Kovacic and Hernanes but Lazio hit back and drew level in the 2nd half before Joel Obi gave us all 3 points in an exciting game. We then entertained Torino at the Giuseppe Meazza

and put in a fine display of High Press Possession football leading 1-0 at the break with a goal from Mauro Icardi which soon turned in to a 2-0 lead thanks to an own goal before Yuto Nagatomo rounded off a

superb individual display with our 3rd in time added on giving us a good 3-0 win.

Russian side Rostov visited us on the Thursday and again we we scored 3 in a 3-1 win with goals from 3 forwards Icardi,Bonazzoli and Osvaldo giving us top spot in the Europa League at the halfway stage of the group. We then had another Thursday night hangover and could not find the net in a goaless draw at Sassuolo. To finish the month Rodrigo Palacio and Yuto Nagatomo gave us a good 2-1 win at Udinese.

Results Oct 14 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Europa League Table

Europa Lge by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Serie A League Table

Table Oct 14 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Player Of The Month.......Yuto Nagatomo

The Japanese International has been outstanding this month and been key to our performances playing for me in a Wide Playmaker Role on the right, his movement as been terrific cutting in and running at the opposition fashioning

chance after chance and getting on the scoresheet twice this month including the winner at Udinese.

Yuto Nagatomo by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Tactic....4-1-3-2 Our New Shape And Player Roles

4-1-3-2 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Roles by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Fixtures November 2014

We are on the road 4 times this next month with games at Rostov,Napoli,Viktoria Plizen and Empoli. Cagliari and Cesena are the visitors to the Meazza.

Fixtures Nov 14 by calcioplayerstats, on Flickr

Michael Skidmore

https://twitter.com/totalfootball71