Certain stories begin in silence, almost under one’s breath. Not with booming proclamations, but with measured words, chosen with care. This is how the story of Cristian Chivu at Inter began: far from the most blinding spotlights, but already deeply rooted in a clear idea. It was June in the United States, it was very hot and the nerazzurri were about to begin the Club World Cup. In the presentation press conference, Chivu did not talk about revolutions nor about miraculous formations. He talked about belonging. About interismo. About that sense of identity that he himself had embodied between 2007 and 2014, years in which he had defended the nerazzurri colours as a player. Right to the end, that is until retirement.
They seemed words chosen to charge up the environment, but they were in effect already a programme for his management. The Inter that Chivu inherited was not just any team. It was a wounded group. Coming off an exhilarating and exhausting season, played on three fronts but concluded without trophies. A team that, it was evident, was grieving over a still-open scar: the five goals conceded in the Champions League final against PSG in Munich. That final «is not a run to be thrown away, but a reason for pride», Chivu always repeated in the early days. And it was precisely from there that he started: from the head, even before the pitch. In the American training camp, more than training sessions, there were long sessions of dialogue. Continuous confrontations, collective and individual. Chivu rebuilt the team piece by piece, as one does with something fragile. He listened, he talked, he gave responsibility. He gave back trust to a group that seemed to have lost it.
Then, of course, the tactical work also arrived. But here lies one of the most interesting keys of his season: Chivu did not overhaul Inter. He tried to, yes, at the beginning. He tested different solutions: two pure strikers, or a system with an attacking midfielder behind Lautaro Martinez. Legitimate ideas, perhaps even fascinating. But not very sustainable. The signals were clear. Two goals conceded against Udinese, four against Juventus. An unbalanced team, stretched out, vulnerable. And so Chivu did what distinguishes intelligent coaches from ideologised ones: he changed his mind, without digging in his heels, he went back to the 3-5-2: more solid, more recognisable, but not identical to the previous one.
Inside that apparently conservative structure he inserted new details, subtle but decisive. The first concerns Bastoni. With Chivu, his offensive forward runs are no longer automatic, codified, but discretionary. A choice of the player, not an obligation imposed by the system. This made the team less predictable and, above all, more balanced in transitions. The second key element is the playmaker. More vertical, more advanced by about ten metres. A modification that had a twofold effect: it sped up the build-up and it allowed Zielinski to be recovered, adapting him in a more congenial role – especially when Calhanoglu was absent. Inter’s central midfielder evolved: he was no longer a simple deep-lying metronome, but a constructor and an accelerator of the play in a more dangerous zone. Finally, a less frequent but significant solution: the reliance on the physique of Pio Esposito. An outlet, an alternative option to get out of the pressure and vary the offensive plan.
Small variations, not revolutions. But it is precisely here that the sensitivity of a coach is measured: in understanding what to change and what to preserve. And while on the pitch Inter was rediscovering balance, off the pitch another novelty was taking shape: Chivu’s communication. Calm, elegant, never over the top, but anything but weak, indeed, often cutting, always in defence of the club. After the match against Como, when the scudetto was by now a step away, he pulled out a jibe at the two main rivals, Conte and Allegri, two who never commit themselves: «I’ll do as my opponents do, I’ll say that we have achieved qualification for the Champions League». Subtle irony, but incisive.
When the Bastoni case erupted, with the dive against Juventus that led to Kalulu’s sending-off and to a media storm, Chivu did not hide: «Inter has suffered a media pillorying», he explained in a press conference. Strong words and different from those used up to that moment. Pronounced with firmness, not with anger. He defended Bastoni, he defended the team, he defended the environment and he did not even forget those who, in the summer, had underestimated his Inter: «There was someone who placed us in eighth place in the scudetto grid», he recalled several times during the season. Without raising his voice, but getting the message across. In this, many saw again the echo of José Mourinho. Not so much in the tones, very different, as in the will to protect the group and create a compact front against the outside. Not by chance, Mourinho was the coach with whom Chivu lived the highest moment of his career, the Treble of 2009/10. A legacy that, in some way, has resurfaced.
But it would be reductive to stop at the references. Because Chivu has built something of his own. He took a wounded team and made it champion of Italy for the twenty-first time. With patience, intelligence and coherence. He gave back centrality to the concept of the group. He gave new meaning to the word “interismo”, transforming it from a slogan into a daily practice. The scudetto is the point of arrival of a journey built day after day, as if it were the closing of a circle opened in the hot June days of the American training camp. Chivu, having set off almost in silence, succeeded in something rare: not only winning, but making himself loved, by his group, first of all, and then by the nerazzurri environment. Just as he had promised, almost on tiptoe, without disturbing.