Benitez diatribe spoils the Inter party

FIFA WORLD CLUB FINAL:NEWLY-CROWNED Fifa World Club Champions Inter Milan seem destined to pull off an unprecedented and unwanted "double".

In the immediate aftermath of their 3-0 World Club Cup final win over Congolese side, Mazembé, in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Inter seem to be on the point of parting with their coach, Spaniard Rafa Benitez.

It was the same old story, of course, in Madrid last May, when the club parted company with then coach, Portuguese Special One José Mourinho, almost within hours of winning the Champions League final against Bayern Munich.

Benitez appeared to spoil the Inter party on Saturday with a surprisingly outspoken, post-match diatribe in which he seemed to present club owner Massimo Moratti with a clear ultimatum – either you buy me new players, give me complete control of the squad and show me some respect or I am out of here.

The players were still on the Zayed Sports City pitch celebrating their fifth major trophy win this year, following wins in the Italian League, Italian Cup, Champions League and Italian SuperCup, when Benitez took everyone by surprise with his comments: “It has not pleased me much that doubts have been expressed about the quality of my work. I’ve been coaching for 25 years and I’ve won a lot so having to listen to certain things is not nice. I would like to have the full support of the club and complete control of the players, on and off the pitch.

“Having the club’s support means not always going looking for the guilty party, always deciding that the coach is the guilty one. I am very pleased that we’ve won today but it’s not possible that people are always talking of this coach or that coach to replace me . . . It can’t go on like this, things will have to change in future. If every week, people are talking about a new coach, then my agent will have to talk to the club.”

Benitez’s comments relate to intense media speculation of the last month that, win or lose in Abu Dhabi, he and the Italian champions would shortly be parting company.

At the moment, Inter are only eighth in Serie A, 13 points behind leaders AC Milan, whilst they finished second behind Tottenham Hotspur in their Champions League group, thus earning a tough second-round draw against Bayern Munich, who they beat in last summer’s final.

Owner Moratti has regularly and publicly expressed his disappointment at his side’s autumn form whilst a couple of weeks back he even admitted that “10 years ago, I would have sacked Benitez”.

On his return to Italy last night, Moratti said he did not want to talk about Benitez yet he indicated that his coach’s post-match words on Saturday had created difficulties by calling them “inadequate in this particular situation”.

Furthermore, Moratti appeared to side with his club’s veteran defender, Marco Materazzi, who on arrival back in Milan expressed an indifference to the fate of Benitez, telling reporters: “Should we change Benitez? The club, which is the strongest in the world, they’ve got to decide and it’s thanks to them that we’re world champions. Inter comes first, what Benitez does simply doesn’t concern us.”

Materazzi’s words probably relate to two considerations.

Firstly, Benitez failed to grant 37-year-old Materazzi a few minutes of World Club Cup glory by not bringing him on as a late substitute in Saturday’s final.

Pointedly, Materazzi was the only member of the Inter squad who did not attend the post-match medal awards ceremony on the pitch.

Then, too, there is the obvious observation that this side remains very linked to Mourinho.

Two of Saturday’s winning team, Macedonian Goran Pandev and Argentine Diego Milito, both paid tribute to Mourinho, with Pandev saying that much of the credit for the win goes to the Special One “who worked really well here for two years”.

All in all, there may be stormy days ahead for Inter. Certainly, Benitez will not have gleaned much comfort from the Italian sports media on his return to Italy.

In the midst of all the celebratory pieces about Inter, there was that now regular piece about the “next” Inter coach – Capello, Guardiola, Leonardo, Spalletti and Zenga to name but the most obvious.

For the second time in six months, Inter may be about to part company with a winning coach.