Inter Milan's Antonio Conte threatens Juventus in Serie A, by Guillermo Oshiro | OPINION | World Soccer | Total Sport

With the Real Madrid recovering his galactic wake from the feet of Eden Hazard and the Barcelona Buckling more stars in its sky with Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong, the European pass market has had Spain as the main manager of media transactions (its three main clubs are the only ones that exceed 200 million euros in investment).

In the Premier League, just the latest condition of Harry Maguire as the most expensive defender in history – thanks to his pass from Leicester to Manchester for 87 million euros – has generated some shock, while the Bundesliga maintains German sobriety and the PSG He could not squander his petrodollars with another mega star. In Serie A, Juventus only made noise with the arrival of Matthijs de Ligt. But in this season start, in the Old Continent there is no team that has generated more expectation than the Inter de Milan.

The restructuring of the ero neroazzurra ’squad by Antonio Conte obtained its first revenues with two consecutive victories at Calcio (4-0 against Lecce and 2-1 against Cagliari). Their great reinforcements – Alexis Sánchez, Romelu Lukaku and Diego Godín – may not delude themselves. However, Inter's strength lies in the framework of an army that has just soldiers to fulfill the different strategic functions in the 3-5-2 classic of the ‘Commander’.

To execute it, Conte carefully chose its interpreters to squeeze the 155 million euros invested. "You can not eat with 10 euros in a restaurant of 100," the coach had already warned the managers of Juventus in 2014 before leaving Turin. The interist president, the Chinese Steven Zhang, understood the past message well and left the ‘fast foods’ of the last eight seasons – where the interists did not even rank in the top three – to request a reservation at ‘gourmet restaurants’. Inter was the eighth club that invested most in reinforcements.

On the existing good base – Samir Handanovic in the arc, Stefan de Vrij and Milan Skriniar in defense, Antonio Candreva, Marcelo Brozovic and Kwadwo Asamoah in the midfield -, the 'Commander' spent almost half of his budget in Lukaku –65 million – and got the loan from Alexis to arm his duo of attack, while reinforcing his defense with Godín who came free. In addition, he completed his battalion with young Praetorians who have known how to metabolize his message. Stefano Sensi (23 years, 5 million), Nicolo Barella (22, 12 million), Matteo Politano (25, 20 million) have been inserted to reinforce the troop from half of the court forward.

With them he has a lot of variety to maintain the square of a vertical eleven, with a lot of exit by the bands and that never stops pressing to recover the ball. "Skyscrapers cannot be built in a few days," the strategist warned, not as an excuse, but as a request for patience to reach excellence. His implicit goal is to end Juventus' long eight-year hegemony – the first three crowns went with him as a coach – and recover the ero neroazzurro ’empire that dominated between the 2005-06 and 2009-10 seasons.

Although with only two games it is difficult to predict the future, this new Inter already shows signs of a radical change. Seeing him lead the Serie A ahead of Turin, even if it is by goal difference, is a good indication to think that the "bianconeros" will not run alone this season.

Hardworking, obsessive, demanding, but above all committed –“With him there is no middle ground; or are you with the team or are you against it ”, defined by Carlo Ancelotti, who led him in Juventus between 1999 and 2001 – the ‘Commander’ will always demand success from his army because "Who comes second has made a good championship, but has not made history."