WHEN Italian side Internazionale take the field tomorrow night in Gelsenkirchen for the first leg of their UEFA Cup final against German side Shalke 04, the occasion will represent a swan song for this particular squad of players and coach. Let me explain.
Inter would appear to have fallen foul of the cyclical, all change syndrome which afflicts big clubs in the big, bad world of SoccerBiz. The cycle in question generally sees the club go through a rebuilding, development and then off loading process all in the one season, buying new players, hiring a new coach and blending them all together only to get rid of them all within the year, notwithstanding any success that may have come along in the meantime.
We exaggerate, but only slightly. Real Madrid are currently winning" the Spanish title but cannot wait to get rid of Italian coach Fabio, Capello (in his first season with the club and now due to take up his old post as coach to AC Milan next season).
Barcelona are in the finals of both the Cup Winners' Cup and the Spanish Cup but cannot wait to get rid of English coach Bobby Rob son, also in his first season as coach there.
Last season, Italian side Juventus and Dutch side Ajax won the right to be considered the best club sides in Europe when winning their way through to the Champions' League final in Rome.
Juventus won the trophy and immediately sold strikers Fabrizio Ravanelli, Gianluca Vialli and Portuguese midfielder Paulo Sousa.
Ajax lost only in a penalty shoot out but players such as midfielder Edgar Davids, defender Michael Reiziger and Nigerian schemer Nwankwo Kanu had already been sold to Italian clubs while striker Patrick Kluivert and defender Winston Bogarde were both shortly to, follow them on the trail to Italy.
Market forces in the post Bosman world are inevitably responsible for much of this movement. Yet market forces do not explain it all. Market forces do not explain why Inter's coach Roy Hodgson will be leaving the club at the end of the season to take up the manager's position at English club Blackburn Rovers.
Market forces do not explain why players such as Chilean striker Ivan Zamorano, his attacking partner Maurizio Ganz, Swiss midfielder Ciriaco Sforza and English midfielder Paul Ince are all unlikely to be wearing Inter's famous black and blue stripes next season.
Sitting in his spacious office at Inter's training ground at Appiano Gentile, near Milan, last week, Hodgson could have been taken for a very contented man as he lit up a huge cigar. The appearance is deceptive. In truth, Hodgson is more than a little frustrated at his seemingly, premature departure from a club which he has steered from the relegation zone to a European final in, the space of 19 months.
When the phone rings during our chat, it is colleague and old friend Otto Rehhagel, formerly coach to Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich and now with Kaiserslautern. Hodgson tells him (speaking in German, of course): "Otto, I'm going because it's too difficult to work the way I want to work here I have to struggle for every single thing I want to do."
"Hodgson will be wiped out of the Inter plans not because he has failed to get the results but because too many elements close to the club directors, VIP fans, media have grown tired of him and now want something (they know not what) more glamorous.
Ironically, the man who will succeed Hodgson at Inter next season is 58 year old, little "Gigi" Simoni, a coach who just two weeks ago got the heave ho from Napoli (his 9th club) and who could be called many things, but never glamorous.
Striker Maurizio Ganz has been a key figure in Inter's UEFA Cup run, scoring eight goals, while he has scored another six in Serie A. Ganz is 28. Yet, neither his record nor his age will save him if Inter manage to land one of the many big fish they have been trying to catch this springtime. Most recently, Inter have cast their line in the direction of Barcelona's Brazilian Ronaldo and fish do not come any bigger than that.
Despite all of the above, however, future wholescale change at Inter, will not be the club's biggest problem tomorrow night.
Suspension enforced absentees and a weekend league defeat are more likely to damage Inter's preparations. French defender Jocelyn Angloma, Ince and French schemer Youri Djorkaeff are all suspended for tomorrow's first leg while Sforza remains doubtful.
Roy Hodgson would dearly love to leave Inter on a winning note, something which would, he concedes, leave "a lot of egg on some people's faces around here".
He added: "It will be a tough game for us but, to be honest, at this stage in the UEFA Cup, they're all tough games ... You could argue that we've beaten better sides on the way to this final but a cup final is a cup final and you start from square one. Only a fool underestimates his opponent and only a fool takes comfort from past results."
