Inter legend Sandro Mazzola softens his stance on Mauro Icardi, but “it’s not clear how something like this can happen in 2016”.
The 73-year-old spent his entire playing career with the Nerazzurri, and declared on Monday that the club should think about selling the captain.
Inter legend Sandro Mazzola softens his stance on Mauro Icardi, but “it’s not clear how something like this can happen in 2016”.
The 73-year-old spent his entire playing career with the Nerazzurri, and declared on Monday that the club should think about selling the captain.
After it was announced that Icardi would retain the captaincy, the former attacking midfielder has moderated his position, but is still bemused by the fact the scandal went so far.
“It’s still bad, I didn’t expect this,” Mazzola told SportMediaset.
“He [Icardi] knows what he’s doing on the pitch, but I don’t know what prompted him to do this thing.
“The captain is the one who intervenes at the appropriate time, who shines in the delicate moments of the game, the player who consoles his teammate after he’s missed a goal or defends him after he’s done something that he himself wouldn’t do.
“Icardi has done that in some cases, but then he does things he shouldn’t do.
“Inter? They did well, they saw that Icardi knew he’d made a mistake. He should have asked for permission to do the book, I’ve done four and when I was a player I always brought drafts to the club before publishing.
“It’s not clear how something like this happened in 2016.
“It’s the Ultras who make the football club, who follow the team everywhere, spending money for the team. I once went to the Curva to apologise because I’d had a bad game – it takes courage to do these things.
“What will happen to Icardi? Now he’ll want to play even better, he’ll want to show that he’s the same Icardi – a stronger one – as before.
“From what I know about him from outside, he’ll score two goals in the next match.”
The Ultras have been less forgiving than Mazzola, declaring that Icardi “is not our captain and never will be”.
The Inter legend was also asked about Coach Frank de Boer, who is under pressure after a poor start to the season.
“We need to have faith in him,” Mazzola implored.
“He wants to give Inter a mentality that they haven’t had in recent years. He needs to improve some things, but he’s a great Coach who will make a great Inter.”