It takes a certain degree of disappointment to warrant boos from your own fans.
That was what former InterMilan captainAndrea Ranocchia had to deal with at the Riscone di Brunico training ground as the Nerazzuri unveiled their new kit back in the summer of 2016.
Andrea Ranocchia was billed to be the next great Italian defender when Inter Milan scooped him from Genoa in 2010. The Nerazzuri had just clinched the Champions League courtesy of a Mourinho masterminded campaign that saw them beat Louis van Gaal’s Bayern Munich in the final in Madrid
With inter looking to improve the wears of an ageing squad, Ranocchia’s signing was seen as one of many steps to sustaining the legacy of dominating the Serie A while simultaneously pulling their weight in Europe.
Seven years down the drain, Inter are yet to return to the Champions League since 2011,8th in the Serie A with a certain Stefano Vecchi in charge – the 11th time they’ve changed guard in 7 years–while Ranocchia was somewhere in South Norwood, London on Sunday afternoon gifting the very ball he was supposed to protect to Wilfred Zahaas the winger capitalized on the Italian’s miss-kick to open the scoring on route a win 4-0, effectively lifting The Eagles to safety.
The 29-year old loanee joined City from Inter in January and by fair standards, prior to Sunday’s howler, did put in promising performances for the past 4 months. The call from fans to make his deal permanent is testament to that fact. Giving him a chance to forget his ugly experiences except it wasn’t meant to be as the familiar demons came home to roost sending him back to the dark side he worked tirelessly to escape from.
Between facing championship ahead and boos back home, history books look set not to be kind on the Assisi-born.Poor Ranocchia.