Former Inter defender Ivan Cordoba believes his old club “could’ve waited longer before giving Mauro Icardi the captain’s armband.”
Icardi has been Inter’s captain since the start of the 2015-16 campaign, but his spell as skipper has yet to yield any silverware, amidst reports of cliques in the Nerazzurri dressing room and the striker even falling out with supporters.
Former Inter defender Ivan Cordoba believes his old club “could’ve waited longer before giving Mauro Icardi the captain’s armband.”
Icardi has been Inter’s captain since the start of the 2015-16 campaign, but his spell as skipper has yet to yield any silverware, amidst reports of cliques in the Nerazzurri dressing room and the striker even falling out with supporters.
“It can’t be a problem that a player scores 25 goals a season, but it’s important to understand what it means to play for this club,” Cordoba, who racked up over 400 appearances for the Beneamata between 2000 and 2012, Calciomercato.com.
“The rest doesn’t count for anything, to the extent that if you don’t pick up results, they change you because Inter were born to win.
“Today’s players are more concerned about their [social media] followers than what they do on the pitch.
“They think that having 400m followers is enough, but it’s not. You have to go out on the pitch and work hard because you don’t win titles with followers.
“It’s essential that you return to the things that are essential, which is playing and training.
“At the end of training, it’s not essential to pick up your phone and see how many likes you get from publishing a picture before entering the field.
“Back on Icardi, I think Inter could’ve waited longer before giving him the captain’s armband so that he could’ve matured better and grown more with the club.
“If he’d become captain after a few years, he’d certainly have given a different impression.
“When these [drops in form] happen, they aren’t perceived well. He’s someone who trains a lot and is a professional, but it’s not enough.”