The Italian football enters officially a new era. Erick Thohir is the man who inaugurates this new age for the Serie A.
Who is he? He is an Indonesian tycoon who took over Inter Milan some months ago, paying around 300 milion euro in return for 70 % of the Italian club.
It would have been impossible to imagine this epochal change only three years ago. At that time, in-fact, Inter conquered the historical "triplete", winning the Champions League together with the Italian League, plus the National Cup. That season represents both the apex and the end of the Massimo Moratti´ s presidential era. It´s like a man winning the lottery and immediately later dies of a heart attack.
Let's try now to explain better this "bloody" example.
Massimo Moratti, Inter´s former owner, needed more than 20 years leading the "nerazzurri" to reach those prestigious results. During this period, the Milanese oilman piled up a 300 milion euro debt, so that the banks decided to shut off money taps. That is why the Italian tycoon was forced to sell the club. The only entrepreneur interested in taking on Inter in such bad economic conditions, was Erick Thohir, whom suddenly the Italian-press nicknamed E.T. (from his initials) like the famous Steven Spielberg movie´Extra Terrestrial.
Erick Thoir, in fact, in his own way, is an extra terrestrial, at least for Italian football. He is the first foreign business-man to own such a prestigious Italian football team. He comes from Indonisia, which really would be as another planet if we made a comparison with Italy. Not to mention, that part of Italy in love with football. Football, in fact, is a different planet within the Italian galaxy. Football has its own rules, which most of the time are dictated from the reasons of heart, instead of the reasons of money.
Unfortunately, it is well known how love and reason have always been fighting. Basically, it's this the reason why it is very difficult for businnes-men to deal with football, especially with Italian football.
E.T. doesn't seem to be an exception: he has just landed on the Italian football planet, and, as a neophyte, is making several mistakes.
First of all: he is too clear and sincere. In Italian football, pinocchio-land, this quality can represent a defect. When, for example, he admits that Inter will need 3 years at least, to be able to win again, he is making a huge mistake. The football supporters are not known to be patient at all. They want all at once. One year without victory can be too much!
2) Thohir, as an extra terrestrial, should allow Inter supporters to know him better, to break down prejudices and preconceptions. Just one week spent in Milano, releasing several interviews, as Tohoir does, are not enough to be accepted in the Inter family. Inter supporters are used to seeing their former president, Massimo Moratti answering journalists´questions every day or seeing him every single match at the San Siro Stadium. Thohir should be more present in Milano.
3) So, failing all these things, there is just one way to make Inter supporters happier: Thohir, in this winter transfer window, should buy, a great football player, in order to show him as a visiting card.
Football fans, in-fact are not interested in speeches regarding economic accounts, break eaven points, or turnover as the Indonesian tycoon usually loves doing. Sometimes E.T. seems to be more a young student of economy, fresh out of University, than a passionate president.
4) Not to mention his original sin: he hasn't been an Inter supporter from birth! A sin, which in difficult time like this, could be unforgivable.
To make the situation worse are Inter´s performances that, since E.T.´ s arrival, are getting catastrophic. The team is reflecting the club´s situation, where there aren't directors in charge to represent Inter in front of TV or in the corridors of power. In short, Inter is a club, which is completely off the rails.
Now, E.T. should follow just one way: he has to adapt his "modus agendi" to the Italian football philosophy. Otherwise, he will start feeling homesick very soon, exactly as the extra terrestrial E.T. did in the Steven Spielberg´movie. But with a different end of the story: in the movie ET was helped returning back home by his human friends in tears for sorrow. Thohir, instead, risks being kicked out of Italy, by furious Inter´s supporters.
Even if they never should forget how this Indonesian, despite not being Inter´s supporter since he was child, saved Inter from bankruptcy, paying around 300 milion euro!
