Inter Milan may not have played particularly well versus Parma last weekend, but a 1-0 win for the Nerazzurri went a long way to ease the pressure on coach Luciano Spalletti. After a period of bad results and off-field issues, the club must’ve breathed a collective sigh of relief as the final whistle blew on Saturday, knowing they at last had some points in the bag.

Tuesday morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that Marotta will set to work on an “anti-tension” strategy this week, with the contract renewal of captain Mauro Icardi surely top of that list as they clearly sought to iron out any issues. 

Yet any brief respite from the drama was rudely interrupted on Wednesday when Inter put out a club statement — merely to say that goalkeeper Samir Handanovic was the new captain of the side, silently implying that Mauro Icardi, current holder of the armband, had been stripped of that honor. As if this weren’t enough to set the cat among the pigeons, the next shocking news item revealed that the Argentine striker had been left out of the squad for Thursday’s European clash with Rapid Wien.

#RapidInter, i 19 convocati per la trasferta di #UEL ?? pic.twitter.com/NL0yknh5g7

— Inter (@Inter) February 13, 2019

Icardi has not scored from open play since October, his longest barren spell while wearing the famous black and blue stripes. Indeed, the Argentine hitman has failed to score from his last 16 shots on goal, which equates to his longest spell without scoring from consecutive shots in his entire Serie A career. 

“Mauro is evidently seeing his performance affected by some situations that have been going on recently,” Spalletti declared to reporters at DAZN after the win over Parma. “He needs to free himself from the talk that is around him. The directors agreed to start talking about the contract, so now they need to go there and conclude it.”

The boss couldn’t have been clearer in his public message to Marotta and – while we could discuss that it was unwise for Spalletti to make such a statement to a man who has the power to fire him – it’s easy to understand why the coach so desperately wanted his top marksman to return to form. 

Icardi’s tally of 29 goals last term amounted to a staggering 44 percent of Inter’s total strikes (66) during that campaign, a figure that makes it abundantly clear that the Nerazzurri rely on him, even if both him and his agent wife Wanda have now gone too far with their demands over a contract. 

The good news for Inter supporters is that having come from Juve, Marotta is exactly the calming influence that the club need, and if anyone can resolve the “Icardi problem,” this is the man to do it. 

Even if that means he must sell the club’s best asset in order to bring the stability they so desperately need. 

Chloe Beresford specializes in Serie A for a number of outlets and can be found on Twitter and on Facebook via her page CalcioByChloe.