When he arrived at Inter, at the age of 39, the financial situation was healthy, but the club, searching for an identity, had no real style of its own. Mancini succeeded Alberto Zaccheroni, who had resigned, becoming the 11th coach to take up the post at Inter Milan since the beginning of Moratti's presidency, and the seventh in the last five years.
In his first season, with a huge squad of 34 players to manage, he steered Inter to an Italian Cup victory, the Nerrazurri's first domestic trophy for 16 years. "It was very important for us to win this cup. After so many years of winning nothing, it gave both the players and the management a real boost," Mancini said.
Buoyed by this initial success, he reversed the previous Inter policy of signing big names who consistently failed to produce solid results. "A team consists of defenders who have to defend, midfielders who open up the game for the strikers, and forwards whose job it is to score goals. But sometimes the strikers can't score, and, in this case, they have to work for the team. We shouldn't be talking about individuals, we have to think about the team in general," emphasises Mancini, thereby putting an end to the policy of bringing in star players.
Inter have begun to recruit intelligently. The recipe is to buy team players: some are young and yet to mature fully, some are older and have sometimes been left out in the cold. In two years, for example, he has brought in four players from Real Madrid, with Solari, Walter Samuel, Luis Figo and Esteban Cambiasso all arriving since 2004. Mancini has also revived the career of Juan Sebastian Veron, who was talking of retiring from the game.
"Footballers are all alike"
The Inter squad under Mancini boasts no fewer than 15 South Americans, including captain Javier Zanetti. There are also Africans, among them the Nigerian Obafemi Martins, a Serb in Dejan Stankovic and a handful of Italians (five, to be precise). "As far as I'm concerned, they are all Inter players, and footballers are all alike," he said once after fielding an 11 without a single Italian player.
Mancini has nevertheless succeeded in creating a team out of this somewhat diverse group. For example, when striker Adriano went through a long lean spell, Mancini reaffirmed his confidence in him, stating: "He can raise his game when he has to". The result was that the Brazilian found the net in the home leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. When Christian Vieri left Inter to join AC Milan, Obafemi Martins took over the job, scoring goal after goal.
On occasion, Mancini lets loose his fiery temperament from the edge of the pitch, which has in the past led to conflict with referees. But he recovers himself very quickly, and is not prone to recrimination. Following a defeat, he said: "We played well. We shouldn't let one defeat demoralise us. It's what we achieve at the end of the season that counts."
Having guided Inter to the Champions League quarter-finals, and with a firm grip on third spot in Serie A, he has already achieved a good deal. Indeed, if Inter sink the Yellow Submarine of Villarreal, Mancini could well be set for a record term with the Nerrazurri in the manager's seat. And that, in Italy, would constitute a major event.
