Where have all the NextGen squad gone? A long, long time ago, those were the words in the song, right? Back in 2012, Andrea Stramaccioni won the NextGen series in London with his Primavera side, yet none of the youngsters broke through at Inter. Fast forward to last week and the Nerazzurri youth team won the SuperCoppa Primavera beating Roma in the final. At the same team, Luciano Spalletti was vocal in his frustration when referring to the size of his squad but it would take a brave man to bet that they will promote from within, why? They never do.
It’s worth remembering that in 2012, Inter were still persisting with the fact that the treble-winning side of 2010 was the beginning and not the end. How wrong they were, yet even with this rose-tinted vision of the future, even then-President Massimo Moratti confessed after Inter beat Ajax in the NextGen series that "I'm not the coach, but there are three or four members of the Primavera who could be introduced into the first team." The irony was that after Moratti appointed Stramaccioni as coach for the remainder of the season that year after his exploits, none of his youth squad followed him.
The team that won that year was not without talent and some names will be familiar. Daniel Bessa (now Hellas Verona) is still an intelligent midfielder who blew Moratti away after he watched him in the series. He never played a senior game for Inter and to his own admission, loans to Vicenza, Olhanense, Sparta Rotterdam, Bologna and Como, dented his confidence, he eventually signed for the Veronese. Ironically this is a player who is a classic number 10, a trequartista in the modern form. In 2012 he was compared to Xavi and Wesley Sneijder and has a low center of gravity and is also exceptionally gifted. His has incredible close control and can finish and his seven goals in 49 appearances for a poor Hellas team show that he still has potential at 24 years of age.
Perhaps, Bessa was the best of this team and perhaps the Brazilian midfielder is now on the way back up. He is not the only sad story from this team and the same (for different reasons) could be said of Samuele Longo (on loan Genoa), Marko Livaja (AEK Athens), Lorenzo Cristeg (Crotone), Alfred Duncan (Sassuolo), Raffaele Di Gennaro (on loan Spezia) and Ibrahima M’baye (Bologna). These players are all good players, they have just been loaned out, lost confidence at times but they are still young. The likes of Bessa and Duncan would give depth to the midfield even now, although they wouldn’t be first choice.
When Facundo Colidio won the game for Inter against Roma in the recent youth trophy, many connected with the club were proud but perhaps less were hopeful. Will any of these bright young things make the first team and if they do how much will they feature? Ask Andrea Pinamonti, perhaps Inter’s best product in some time. Admittedly the fact that he has Mauro Icardi in front of him doesn’t help but his lack of minutes is once again disappointing. Talented center back Zino Vanhuesden may also have had minutes had he been injured but again it is arguable how much he would have been trusted.
The Nerazzurri have always had this issue, good system, zero trust and yet they will look at Kylian Mbappe for example and be frustrated that in their current state, they cannot afford him. In truth, Inter have always been like Magpies, throwing out the important twigs in the nest for a shiny trinket that they have found. It is something that runs deep through the veins of the club and transcends owners and coaches.
It may be too simple to suggest that Spalletti’s problems can be solved by simply throwing members of the Primavera Coppa winning side into the foray, but it is not completely alien to think that one or two may be sighted as future first-team players. Just look at Ajax, Atalanta and Borussia Dortmund, these are but a few examples. Nobody is expecting Inter to take on a model of buying young talent and then selling high, they can still have their shiny new stars but there is no harm in experimenting and having faith in the youth policy. Inter have always professed to be passionate about their youth policy but where is the evidence.
