Horncastle: Simeone is going back to Milan sooner than he thought
“I’ve always said and I’m not afraid to say it, some day I will return to Milan,” El Cholo revealed on TV in Italy last week. “I did well there and I’ve got great memories there.” Tuesday night’s 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena was enough for Atletico to reach this season’s Champions League final on away goals. San Siro awaits them on May 28.
Simeone is going back to Milan sooner than he thought. His answer to Mediaset, though, was not about the Champions League final. It regarded the Inter job. Simeone has never hidden his desire to coach his former club. He first went on the record about it while at Catania. “I believe it’s only a matter of time,” his former teammate, the original Ronaldo, opined on Monday. “I’m sure of it.”
“I talk to Zanetti on the phone,” Simeone admitted in the same interview. They had dinner, as friends, at El Botinero, the restaurant Inter’s vice-president owns with Esteban Cambiasso, during the international break last November. “I knew he would become a coach,” Zanetti explained. “He’s got great personality and passes that on to his players.”
We are approaching peak Cholismo. Depicted as Che Guevara leading the revolution against tiki-taka by La Gazzetta dello Sport the morning after last week’s 1-0 win against Bayern at the Calderon, the pink’s front-page went viral. As if they hadn’t already been whipped up into enough of a frenzy by Simeone’s declaration of intent, supporters of Inter began to fantasise.
You felt a little for Roberto Mancini. He hasn’t quite been cuckolded. It’s not 2008 all over again when Massimo Moratti went behind his back and met Jose Mourinho in Paris. But it’s never nice to see your partner fawning over another man.
Mancini was big enough not to be jealous about the whole thing even if Simeone could perhaps have been a little more considerate about the situation it might create around his old Lazio teammate. “Diego used to play for Inter and I believe it’s only right that he thinks like this,” Mancini insisted. “It would be a wonderful thing,”
As for his own future, Mancini, looking ahead to next season, alluded to still having another year on his contract when he said: “Well, the two of us can’t coach [Inter].” Perhaps to remind Interisti that they don’t know what they’ve got until it’s gone, he then admitted for the first time that he was open to the Italy job. “Not everyone gets to coach the national team. It’s a different kind of role but can be just as beautiful [as club football]. When your country calls, I think you have got to accept.”
Unless Mancini walks away, Inter are not going to change manager this summer and the club has made it known where its loyalties lie. Asked if we’ll see Simeone back at Inter, another of his former teammates, Dejan Stankovic, now team manager at the club, insisted: “Maybe in two or three or 10 years time. Right now Mancini is our coach and I am not thinking about the next one.”
A similar line emerged from Atletico. Enrique Cerezo, the club’s president, reminded Interisti “he has got another three years on his contract and there isn’t anything else to say on the matter other than that he is staying with us for a long time.”
Besides, why would Simeone leave? Atleti are a club in his image. He is omnipotent. His success along the Manzanares means he has an influence on things like transfers that he wouldn’t at other clubs. Atleti have attracted the sort of investment Inter are seeking. They are moving into a new stadium. Simeone, we’re told, had the chance to go to England. Instead El Cholo declined the opportunity and there is reason to be confident that when he does make his next move Inter will be ahead of Premier League clubs in his order of preference simply on account of the value he places on having an emotional connection with the team he coaches.
That bond is an X Factor and you can’t just strike it up with anyone. It’s why there is a debate about whether he can replicate what he is doing at Atletico elsewhere. His heart has to be in it. The cynic will say he is just playing to the gallery and indulging Inter but his affection for them [and for Lazio] is genuine. For someone who pushes boundaries, the romantic paradox about Simeone is that he seems quite provincial. Maybe don’t hold you breath on him going to Inter in the immediate term, but by all means watch this space.
James Horncastle @JamesHorncastle
