When you hear Robert De Niro’s name you probably think of “Taxi Driver”, “GoodFellas”, “Raging Bull”, “Casino” and hopefully not the string of horrible movies he’s made since “Heat”. But the performance that sticks out to me, at least for the purpose of this column, is his much understated role as a bus driver in the magnificent film “A Bronx Tale” which he also directed.


 

One of the key lines in the film “the saddest thing in life is wasted talent” perfectly sums up Inter’s struggles since winning the treble. The nerazzurri have continued to spend significantly on big name players only to underachieve, and if that weren’t enough in recent years they have also had to live with the “Coutinho spectre” when it comes to pulling the plug on players who have been busts at the club.  

While sometimes I wonder if they were just better off keeping Mazzarri in light of recent results, let’s focus more on what has happened since Mancini returned to la Pinetina. The former Manchester City manager had a great track record as a recruiter and advocate to get the new owner’s to invest, but the results on the pitch were as disappointing as “Righteous Kill” the film Pacino and De Niro did together after “Heat”.
 

Except for Miranda and Perisic, all the big name signings made during Mancini’s regime have been huge disappointments. The first acquisitions of the second Mancini era, Shaqiri and Podolski, left after just a half season. It should have been an omen of things to come since Inter had been able to defeat Juventus and Liverpool in the race for the highly touted Swiss winger, who then slammed the door by heavily criticising Mancini shortly after leaving.  

This time last year, many including myself, thought Jeison Murillo was Inter’s new version of Ivan Cordoba, but after a great start, the Colombian defender is now starting to lose playing time to Andrea Ranocchia- certainly not a good sign. In pure Inter fashion, considering that Murillo had won the best young player award at the 2015 Copa America, he could end up being a great reclamation project for another club.

While Murillo was playing for Colombia in the Copa America, then Inter director Marco Fassone was competing with Milan for Geoffrey Kondogbia in one of the most bizarre mercato derbies I can remember. Both Fassone and Galliani were in the same restaurant in Montecarlo meeting with the French midfielder’s agent- eventually Galliani gave up once the price reached over 30 million euro plus bonuses.  

I honestly expected Kondogbia to be a huge hit in Serie A. I remembered watching him when he was Pogba’s teammate on France’s Under 20 team, and his excellent performances in the Champions League for Monaco against Arsenal and Juventus- two teams with very good midfields- led me to believe Inter had finally found a great defensive midfielders- instead his performances have been as embarrassing as De Niro’s efforts in “Dirty Grandpa”. 


 

Acquiring the French midfielder came at the cost of sacrificing Mateo Kovacic, another great talent which Inter never was able to find the ideal role for. After starting every match for Pioli so far, there are reports of Inter being willing to dump Kondogbia as long as a buyer is willing to pick up the tag on his remaining amortized value on a loan with option to buy deal. 

But Inter maybe willing to pull the plug on another big name acquisition even faster than Knodogbia. At the end of last season, I remember many Premier League fans asking me if their favorite club had a chance of signing Ener Banega, who led Sevilla to a win in the Europa League final against Liverpool- many of these Premier League fans were extremely surprised to see Inter sign him on a free transfer.  

But while Banega is clearly very talented, he has really struggled to adapt to Serie A. He’s not tactically disciplined despite fact Inter runs essentially the same formation as Sevilla. There are some reports he maybe on his way out already in January to try to balance Inter’s books. It looks like Banega has failed the test a guy should use on the first date that was described in “Bronx Tale”:

Sonny: Alright, listen to me. You pull up right where she lives, right? Before you get outta the car, you lock both doors. Then, get outta the car, you walk over to her. You bring her over to the car. Dig out the key, put it in the lock and open the door for her. Then you let her get in. Then you close the door. Then you walk around the back of the car and look through the rear window. If she doesn't reach over and lift up that button so that you can get in: dump her. 

Calogero 'C' Anello: Just like that? 

Sonny: Listen to me, kid. If she doesn't reach over and lift up that button so that you can get in, that means she's a selfish broad and all you're seeing is the tip of the iceberg. You dump her and you dump her fast.


Letting Banega go would help Inter give more playing time to another big summer acquisition. While Inter had a clear need in the centre of the defence as well as both fullback positions, they went for the sexy signing of Gabigol for 30 million euro. The Brazilian striker arrived in Italy very late in the transfer window, so he ended up missing all of the summer retreat with his new team on top of not getting a proper vacation after playing in the Olympics.

Gabigol is now essentially the fourth string central striker after Icardi, Eder and Palacio- he was a luxury signing when Inter desperately needed help on the defence .

The concept of wasted talent doesn’t just apply to players. Inter certainly didn’t set up Frank de Boer to succeed as Mancini’s replacement. The Dutch manager had no connection to Serie A, and was brought in just two weeks before the start of the season after his new players came back from an exhausting US tour. I find the timing of his hiring to be much more questionable than the decision to sack him, because by that time the players had lost all confidence in him.


 

Wasting talent is certainly one of the saddest things in life as De Niro’s character told his son in “Bronx Tale”, but what makes it even worse is that in football you also run the risk of seeing your former players turn into massive stars like Coutinho has at Liverpool. To turn things around Inter will likely have to hope Diego Simeone decides to return to the club and change the mentality, if not they’ll be destined to follow De Niro’s recent career path of terrible movie choices who only hurt his legacy.



David Amoyal is the manager of the English page on Gianluca Di Marzio's website where he also writes weekly articles. David covers transfer news for ESPN, and has appeared on numerous radio shows on Sirius XM in the US as well as TalkSport in the UK. David is the former editor in chief of Vavel USA and his articles have been featured in many sites around the world. You can follow him on Twitter @DavidAmoyal