Days Out of demonstrably the biggest match in club football, Inter -Baas Simone Inzaghi would prefer the full focus to be beating PSG in the Champions League final on Saturday.
But it isn't. “It's crazy to talk about my future,” he told his pre-final press conference this week. He may not discuss it yet, but everyone else will.
It is inevitable, in the midst of long -standing frustrations with the fuel -efficient transfer policy of the club and an outright refusal to refuse ties with Saudi Pro League team in the same press conference that the touch paper around the San Siro has been illuminated.
The contract of Inzaghi in the San Siro has to walk for another year, but conversations will be planned next week with CEO Giuseppe Marotta to determine if he will endure it.
It would be a big blow to the Nerazzurri if this is his last game. Inzaghi is the most successful coach of Inter in recent times. Even more than Antonio Conte, who led the club back to the top of the Italian game after almost a decade.
Although this could end as his only trophy-less season, what he has achieved in four years is fairly remarkable. While Conte won a first scudetto in 11 years, he did this with considerable financial support and left within a few weeks when it became clear that the money was gone.
Inzaghi's first job as his successor in 2021 was to supervise more than £ 150 million in sales, as a result of which Achraf Hakimi lost to the opponents of Saturday PSG and Romelu Lukaku to Chelsea. It has taken over seven transfer penters to publish even the funds they have brought in.
His budget is not a two-time Champions League finalist and worth a domestic trophy winner six times. Inter has made a net profit of around £ 100 million under his term of office, the largest in the Serie A. and yet they are here for the second time in three years back at the top of European football and only the third in six decades.
They have defeated Bayern Munich and Barcelona on their way to the final and have only lost one of the 14 games in the competition this season.
Inter are, not surprising, desperate to bind the 49-year-old to a new deal, with a raised salary with a promise of looser wallet. Even without that, Inzaghi not only brought success, but also an exciting brand of liquid counterattacking football.
Alessandro Bastoni has become one of the world's most cultivated centerbacks. Federico Dimarco is one of the most consistent broad players in the Serie A. The rotating midfield trio of Nicola Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are a nightmare to follow.
It is difficult to blame him if he decides that enough is enough. Most of which he was able to spend on each individual player is a £ 25 million edition to each of Davide Frattesi and Benjamin Pavard. This season, Inter has started the oldest average XI in the Serie A and named 11 more than 30s in their Champions League team. The inevitable reconstruction needs time and patience.
Although his hands are bound, he could only look jealous while Antonio Conte arrived in Napoli last summer, spent £ 125 million and brought his side to the Serie A title at a point.
The success of Conte's side means that his intercarrier will end on a sour note on Saturday when it proves his Swan song. Football has a cruel short memory and Inzaghi is blamed for their lack of trophies due to bad play and squadron management, always one of his bigger mistakes.
Although Napoli was able to concentrate on only the competition and Coppa Italia, Inter fought on four fronts. After the final they played 19 more games, but may not have anything to show. It is a point that Inzaghi has not chosen its priorities better.
In a year with the lowest points needed to win the Serie A in 14 years, even a hill has proven to be too steep to climb with observed wrong steps of manager and management.
When he led Inter to their last Champions League final in 2023, they finished 18 points of the title, but won the Coppa Italia and Italian Super Cup as a comfort.
This time there have been accusations of Inzaghi who trusted too heavily on edge players who were considered under the par. Only Bologna applied more line-up changes in the A season Serie. Back-up Center-back Yann Bisseck, which started 17 league matches, has had to deal with special stabbing criticism.
Inter has fallen 12 points from winning positions and have given 15 goals in the last half hour of matches. The most painful of these was Pedro's injury time penalty to save Lazio a 2-2 draw in the San Siro in the penultimate game of the season. It was Bisseck who gave it away.
Without that Inter would probably want to complete a competition and European double this weekend. Instead, it may cost the Champions League trophy to reduce the feel -good factor to the San Siro -until that meeting between Inzaghi and the board, anyway.
Sky Sports to show 215 Live PL -Games next season
From next season, the Premier League coverage of Sky Sports will increase from 128 games to at least 215 games that are exclusively live.
And 80 percent of all Premier League matches broadcast on television will be on Sky Sports next season.