The Trouble with Icardi

As a Milan fan, watching the Inter-Icardi-Wanda meltdown has been absolutely Karmalicious. Most people don’t mind a few character flaws, but I find them to be more important than talent. There was a while that Icardi’s talents masked his poor character, but now Karma has caught up to him and to Wanda, and it is hurting Inter, too. All have shown horrific character in the past, and only a fraction of the Karma they have earned is coming back to them at this point. But that is the trouble with Icardi.

Divers will be cheaters

Let’s start with Inter. It is no secret how much I hate them, and not for the pathetic team they tend to be on the pitch. Their involvement with Calciopoli, their denial of wrongdoing in the face of the scandal, as well as their complete lack of accountability make them the worst scum of the earth in my book. Add to that the fact that they are in the fourth year of sanctions with a three year FFP plan. The way they’ve managed their finances over the year is one of the reasons we have FFP, actually, despite multiple changes of ownership. And speaking of management, not only do they overspend, they have a habit of buying players with very poor character, which is why they fail to win so much.

That leads me to Icardi. He stole his friend’s wife, an older woman with poor character herself. Even if you believe the pathetic claims of Inter fans of who cheated on whom, he broke the code: never date or marry your friend’s exes. As if that wasn’t enough, how they have behaved in the public eye since then has been worse. They continuously published photos on social media of Maxi Lopez’s kids, despite him having asked them not to. He actually had to get a court to intervene to get them to stop. Mauro & Wanda have often used the children as pawns to try to get more money from him, and even had his Argentinian passport suspended claiming he was late on child support. But he wasn’t. And even as recently as the past couple of weeks, Lopez publicly stated they would not allow him to see his children, even on their birthdays. That is disgusting.

This is what happens when you steal your friend's Barbie doll and make her your agent

Icardi has always had a love hate relationship with the Inter fans. They love it when he scores, but he has given them so many reasons to hate him. Specifically, in 2016, he published an autobiography (which of course he had someone else write for him.) In it, he lied about a confrontation with the Curva Nord Ultras, and claimed to have threatened them, which was actually a lie. It never happened. That would be reprehensible for any player, but he was the captain. And despite them begging then for him to have the armband removed, he was only fined.

His armband finally was removed in the most delicious of ways a few weeks ago. First, Inter posted to social media a hint that the armband was changing, then the following day, they made it public. Then their management one by one made statements that it was a decision supported by the entire team. And then they went on to win a few games… without him at all, even though they had been losing and he was in a scoring drought.

Even while talking about her husband/client, she was upstaged by the Piatek fan

I literally don’t even know all of the reasons why, other than some stuff went down within the team, and his wife/agent went on Italian TV, where she is paid to talk about Serie A every week. She spoke out about things being leaked from the club that should not have been, and that put this whole chain of events into motion. I don’t even care about all of the drama, something about Perisic and possibly others, whatever. Having the armband removed from him was only the beginning of Icardi and Wanda’s public meltdown. He has refused to play since then, claiming an injury, although Inter has very publicly released medical information to the contrary and deemed him fit to play.

At the heart of all of this is the very long and drawn out issue of his contract renewal. Had he hired a capable football agent, his renewal probably would have happened a long time ago. But he went with his wife, who has no other football or agent experience. She also accepted the job as a pundit for TV, which is another conflict of interest, and is one of the biggest factors in this whole affair. Even FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, who is actually an Inter fan, said that they have been working to regulate the industry for agents because of people exactly like Wanda.

Who wore it better? Wanda or Mino Raiola?

I have no problems with a woman being an agent, it is an industry that has been dominated by men for far too long. I have issues with people who hire family members as agents. It is one thing to put your career into the hands of someone you trust, like a father or mother or sibling. But they should also be trained well and ideally have experience. However a spouse brings together a completely different dynamic. With the blinders that come when you choose a family member rather than sharing DNA and simply growing together, a spouse or partner is not going to be able to be as objective or see the big picture.

In this scenario, you have a woman who has shown poor character in her many career choices, always being willing to do whatever it takes to put herself in the spotlight, even if it harms a spouse or children. Now she has a very public platform to make or break her client/husband’s career. And she has done just that, with the help of his poor character, of course. And that is how Inter’s captain has now benched himself, lost the armband, and is being linked to other teams who buy players with poor character, like Juventus.

Poor character, poor fashion, poor choices...when does it end?

The big question is whether or not Icardi and his “agent”-wife will be able to work things out to have him face Milan in the Derby in less than two weeks. For years, he was unable to score against Milan, then the gates of hell opened up. All drama aside, I’m not sure too many Milan fans want to see his ugly face on the pitch against us. Seeing him in the stands would be absolutely Karmalicious. But as talented as he may be, his poor character, as well that of his wife and even his club, may prevent him from wreaking more vengeance upon us. Because poor character eventually gets in the way of your success on the pitch… again. And that is the trouble with Icardi.

This post inspired by the music of The Prodigy

Our next match is

Serie A Week 27

Chievo vs. Milan

Saturday, March 9 • 20:30 CET (2:30pm EST)