The last two weeks have been a full immersion course into the dynamics of the black-and-blue world, for new Inter president Erick Thohir. If he had any doubt that professional football in Italy could have something to do with the NBA, he doesn’t anymore. To sum up, the most important lessons he took home with his hand luggage in his flight back to Indonesia are:

1. 1. Rule of fans. In Italy, fans want to have a say on every aspect of the managerial administration of the club. They are by no means shareholders of the club, but they (rightfully) consider themselves the most important stakeholders. Whether the pressure they exert is licit or not, well that is to the actual shareholder to decide. Regardless of this, the fans were those who stopped an improbable, absurd, irrational deal that would have sent 27-year old Guarin to arch-rivals Juventus in exchange of 30-year old Mirko Vucinic and nothing else. Their merit was to do so during a clear power vacuum in which the old president - Massimo Moratti- was finally enjoying his new, stressless life, and the new one was in Indonesia, still thinking that he could command in remote from his office in Jakarta. ET, who works in the communication sector and is very careful to the people’s mood, understood something was wrong and took over from Branca and Ausilio. He shared his policy once again, highlighting with a big yellow marker that his Inter is youth-friendly.
   
   
3. 2. Vade retro Juve. There are only two days a year in which Inter fans want to see the black-and-white jerseys of Juve: during the home and away matches of Serie A. Basta. Inter doesn’t want to have anything to do with the “hunchbacks” (I know, in Italian it sounds so much better: gobbi)…unless they can gain an advantage from the situation (see Ibrahimovic and Vieira in 2006). In this case, swapping your best player for Juve’s fourth striker, was not going to give any advantage. True, Inter needed a striker, but are we sure that was the best and only way to find one?
   
   
5. 3. You say you want a revolution, you say you got a real solution. Now Thohir knows that to deal with Juve is not like dealing with any ordinary club. He also knows that his men in the club, those who were supposed to fill in the power vacuum instead of the fans - Marco Branca, Piero Ausilio, Marco Fassone - despite multiple years at the shadow of the San Siro, didn’t know this. So he now knows he cannot trust them. Who among the three has the biggest share of blame is not for me to say. But one might rightfully assume that these men are not fit for the position they currently cover. Unsurprisingly, during Ruben Botta’s presentation yesterday at the Pinetina, only Ausilio was present, whilst Marco Branca was mysteriously absent: first head to roll?
   
   
7. 4. The cost of success The road back to success has many tolls. The signing of Hernanes the prophet- for around €15M- should have enlightened ET: a club like Inter cannot afford to navigate troubled waters for too long, otherwise the ship will break. Inter is used to high-speed cruising, but to do this you need quality players. Hernanes and D’Ambrosio are quality players. In order to make money Thohir will need to invest some, especially at the beginning. This is why the abovementioned youth-friendly policy is a clever and potentially winning one, as long as it is pursued coherently with the value and prestige of the club.
   
   

After almost four months of presidency, Thohir has a clear picture of what the problems are in Milan. He has demonstrated his goodwill in wanting to solve them - through time and investments -, and the fans have perceived his commitment. His credit towards the fans is short-lived though: should he not manage to lead back the beneamata to its old splendor, or at least to demonstrate a credible long-term success plan, the fans that have now helped him, will be the ones to turn against him, for an intestine war that nobody needs and nobody hopes for.