In case you didn't hear, former Ajax manager and legendary Dutch footballer Frank De Boer was sacked from his position as Inter Milan manager on Tuesday via Skype.
De Boer was in charge for just 14 games after being appointed in August, as despite a memorable win over Juventus in the Derby d'Italia back in September, the once great club in 12th place having taken 14 points from 11 league games.
The job itself sounds like a nightmare, as De Boer has since cited the immense pressure from the media as well as captain Mauro Icardi's public spat with the club's ultras, but De Boer did himself no favours with what he said when he was appointed.
Speaking for the first time as Inter boss, De Boer singled out Jurgen Klopp's impact at Liverpool as an example he would not try to follow, and it looks extra bad now considering how impressive Liverpool look in the Premier League at the moment.
The headlines, in particular, look really, really bad:
We’ll see my Inter after four months, that’s the norm.
In January, you will have more of an idea about what we are trying to do as I have only arrived.
We also must be very careful at the moment not to be too intense in training as it can lead to many injuries.
I remember (Jurgen) Klopp taking over at Liverpool last October and tried to immediately impose his high-pressing style which he used at Borussia Dortmund and it resulted in several injuries, nine in fact. Sometimes it is better to slow down.
Sometimes it's good to speed things up too, apparently.
It was a very strange thing to do, to cite another manager as an incorrect example when their project is just about to bear fruit, while your project hasn't even started yet, but ah well.
Klopp likely didn't care at all then, or now, but it does reflect poorly on De Boer, who enjoyed such a successful time at Ajax before trying to turn Inter's fortunes around.
