Inter Fans: Take a Deep Breath and Calm Down

It’s not much of a stretch to say the club is somewhere close to crisis mode right now. The Frank De Boer project has been killed off less than three months after it started, and there doesn’t seem to be a clear choice as to who the owners and management wants to lead the team (besides of course the open secret of Diego Simeone in the near future). We have a interim coach facing a crucial Europa League match against Southampton, and the team needs to bounce back in Serie A rather than continue this slump during this period of uncertainty. For that to happen the players need the backing of their fans, and the fans need to stop running around like Chicken Little screaming that the sky is falling and attacking other fans who don’t agree with exactly what they say.

Guys, I understand that this is a contentious time for Inter fans. We’re angry and want somebody to blame. Some are pointing fingers at De Boer, saying he was too inexperienced, too idealistic, and not ready for the hotseat of Inter and Serie A football in general. Some say the blame lays at the feet of Inter’s board for bringing in De Boer too late, expecting immediate results, and then bowing to the pressure of the Italian media. Others say the toxic nature of the Italian media and Serie A in general placed De Boer under such immediate pressure that he never stood a chance. Does all of these people bear some of the blame? Most likely, but it’s not going to do us fans any good to try to shout each other down to say who’s right or not.

100% things need to change. Inter’s boardroom needs to come up with a concrete plan and stick with it. They need to support whichever coach they hire and not relent to media pressure, making decisions based on more than just immediate results. Serie A needs to move forward about 20+ years. The league is financially unstable, underperforming in Europe, and has some serious xenophobia problems. I’ve stayed out of this issue for a while but yes, the Italian media and arguably those running the league are not willing to accept foreigners owning or coaching Italian teams. It might be the case that foreign owners or coaches don’t understand “Italian culture”, but that means those complaining should volunteer to work with these newcomers to help them understand how to be successful, not constantly trying to tear them down.

All that might be true but it doesn’t change the fact that the players need their fans now more than ever, and going forward this season the supporters need to stand as one behind the club. We might not trust the board members, we might not trust the owners, we might not trust the league but that doesn’t matter. I’d imagine most of us didn’t become fans of Inter because of who the CFO was, or because of who the President was, or because of who the Serie A president was. We became fans of Inter because of our families, because of a player who captivated our hearts, because of the club’s history and story behind its foundation, because of love at first sight.

I’m not going to promise that Inter is going to have another period of Serie A dominance. I’m not going to promise that the club is going to become a European challenger again. I’m not even going to promise that those running this club are going to start being competent and rational so that Inter will stop being one of the craziest teams in European football. I can’t make those promises. But what I can promise is that those in charge are trying to learn from their mistakes and do better, if not for love of the club then simply to keep their jobs or to not go down in Inter history as terrible owners. Trust them.

And while we’re at it trust each other. I don’t think any of the people that have been commenting here are trolls so we all have some degree of affection for Inter. We all have different backgrounds which means we might have different viewpoints on how we view what the problems at the club are and how things should move forward. We can disagree without fighting, we can debate without tearing each other down. If there’s any club in the world that should have fans that are willing to open their minds to different points of view and be accepting of other people and their beliefs, it’s the club that was founded based on being “Brothers of the World”.

Will we make it out of this slump in Inter’s history? Who knows, but I’d rather see it through with this community uniting behind and supporting the club rather than us going at each other’s throats in the comment section.