JOSE MOURINHO has told the Internazionale president, Massimo Moratti, that he wishes to make Frank Lampard, the Chelsea midfielder, his priority signing as he begins the latest chapter of his whirlwind managerial career.
Moratti will back the Portuguese in the transfer market; he always does with his managers and there have been plenty of them since 1995, when he first took charge at the Serie A club.
The prospect of a deal being struck for Lampard, who thrived under Mourinho's direction at Stamford Bridge and who has 12 months to run on his existing contract, is fair. Yet Mourinho would be unwise to view any successful conclusion to the notion as evidence of his pre-eminence in the corridors of power at San Siro.
When Mourinho swept into Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2005, fresh from his Champions League triumph at Porto, brimming with self-assurance, he stamped the irresistible force of his personality all over a club which had long lacked conviction.
Having styled himself The Special One, he also made it plain that he was the boss. Control would be his while the players would begin to believe and be cast in the mindset of winners.
It will be a different story, though, at Inter, and how Mourinho adapts to a club with an illustrious past and a dressing room packed with fully formed champions will hold the key to his success. His first test arrives today, when he is presented at a press conference as the successor to Roberto Mancini, whose three straight scudettos were not enough to earn him another shot at the Champions League. It would not be Mourinho without the wisecracks and the brashness but it would be a surprise and, indeed, an error if he were to reprise the routine of his Chelsea unveiling.
It will be more difficult for him to breathe such infectious bravado into his new club and nor will he be able, as he did for the early part of his Chelsea reign, to shut himself away with his players and keep the owner and directors at arm's length. Moratti takes an active interest in squad affairs, he has his favourites and he is the first to know when a player has a grievance. That will remain the case.
Mourinho's departure from Stamford Bridge was precipitated because he could not tolerate the desire of the owner, Roman Abramovich, to become more hands-on with his plaything. He confused interest with interference and as he began to be gripped by paranoia, he also worried about the influence of Frank Arnesen, the director of youth development, and Avram Grant, who was then the director of football.
At Inter, players are signed by the sporting director, Marco Branca, on behalf of the board. The coach historically asks for positions to be filled and the director does the rest, formulating a shortlist and moving for the most viable target.
Control will not be Mourinho's; he must learn to live with this.
Mourinho has been out of the game for eight months, ample time to reflect and, also, to prepare for his next challenge.
Above all, though, as Mourinho takes charge of one of European football's powerhouses, he must win. And not only in Serie A. Moratti is consumed with the Champions League and his burning ambition is to return the club to the very top of the continental game, where they stood in the 1960s under the presidency of his father, Angelo.
Moratti was at the end of his teenage years when Inter won the European Cup in 1964 and 1965, their only successes in the competition, and he remembers well the successful tenure of Helenio Herrera, arguably the club's greatest manager.
Mourinho has always appeared destined for a job in Italy and he now has the onerous task of emulating Herrera's achievements in Europe. A long line of coaches have failed. Mourinho knows that Moratti is not the tolerant type in such situations.
Guardian Service