Internacional had never been relegated from the top flight of Brazilian football, until the 2016 season. For many, 2015’s 5th-placed finish was a disappointment at the time, but little did those critics know that things were about to get a whole lot worse for O Colorado. No coach covered himself in glory while in charge of Inter this season, but the chopping and changing of the coaches by the club’s hierarchy certainly didn’t help and they went through four different ones over the course of the campaign. Argel Fucks started the season in the Estadio Jose Pinheiro Borda dugout, but was fired in July after four defeats in a row. Yet he has got the team playing very well to begin the campaign and they were actually top of the table for three of the first eight weekends of the season, having started off with 19 points out of the first 24 on offer. Their decision to sack Fucks at the first sign of trouble proved an incredibly hasty one, with his replacement Falcao losing three times and drawing twice in the five matches he was afforded. Next on the conveyer belt was Celso Roth. He lasted a little longer, but was also let go when he collected just four wins from 16 matches, even though he was supposed to have been there until the end of the season. In a move that reeked of desperation, the club turned to Lisca for the final three matches of the season, but his record of one win, one draw and one defeat proved too little, too late for the Porto Alegre giant. Had they stuck with Fucks, who managed to save Vitoria at Inter’s expense, then who knows what could have happened, but ultimately Internacional paid the price for their impatience.
While the last three coaches struggled to achieve positive results, a lot of blame can also be attributed to the players – which is exactly what many angry local fans did as they staged a series of protests at the training ground during what was a hostile final few weeks of the season. Vitinho managed to score eight goals, but that fell short of the high expectations after his impressive 11-goal 2015 season when he was still just 21 years old. Few of the other attacking players played well, with the heralded summer signing Nico Lopez unable to maintain form or fitness consistently enough to fire the team out of trouble as he was expected to do. In defence, William Furtado, Ernando and Paulao all maintained some credibility, as did defensive midfielder Rodrigo Dourado.
It will, of course, be tough for Internacional to keep hold of all of the season’s better performers, but the club is keen to hold on to as many stars as they can, while also adding some quality. They have said they want to build a Serie A calibre squad for their first season in the Serie B and they have also hired an impressive coach in the form of Antonio Carlos Zago, who even has experience in European football, having been an assistant at Roma and Shakhtar Donetsk. Whether or not he’ll be given the necessary time to work on his ideas remains to be seen. Going by the pattern of 2016, few would assume that he will be.
