Article by Daniel Scorpie – Published Monday, November 10, 2025, 3:33 p.m. / Updated Monday, November 10, 2025, 3:33 p.m.
crystal Chivu is boss in Serie A, not only after the first stage, and can enjoy, at least two weeks, the leader's chair, leaving with the ascendant of the ranking and the game in the Derby della Madonnina.
The Inter coach proved that he knows how to not only manage a dressing room full of teenagers, but also to bring a smile back to a family of men with so much pride and strong characters. Moreover, he has the voice and tact to impose his meritocracy and principles, as even captain Lautaro Martinez points out.
Chivu's side, because we can agree that there is no doubt that it is his and not a team inherited from Simone Inzaghi, has completed the 80-day tour of duty. “Passepartout” in Milan has, for now, passed all tests. Maybe not as hard and even around the world, as in the case of Jules Verne's famous character, nor with successes on the line.
Because Cristi still has a lot of work to do and has yet to achieve anything wow, beyond the fact that he brought the team back to the top of Serie A and the Nerazzurri ultras with enthusiasm in the Curva Nord on “Giuseppe Meazza”.
However, we cannot ignore that we have a coach (it's true that he was educated in Italy!) who, at least for the next two weeks, has managed to look from top to bottom at the Italian champion, at the Milan rival, at the “Old Lady” and at Gasperini's new formation. Roma, with whom it shares the lead in goal difference and which, let's not forget, even beat “Olimpico”!
Chivu approaches the derby over Milan. As a score and as a game!
Even though he confessed that he wants to disconnect, to take a break from his time dedicated to Inter, to spend time with his family or enjoy American football matches (he will be present on Sunday at the “Bernabeu” at the NFL premiere in Spain), the Romanian technician arrived in the final competitive break of 2025 to feature in the Derby della Madonnina over Allegri's Milan. As a score (+2), but also as a game, since the Rossoneri stumbled in Parma after dropping 5 points to newly promoted Cremonese and Pisa!
Chivu has succeeded in this tour of force in the championship, seven victories from the last eight stages, and is with Inter, together with Roma, the only one without equal in Serie A. From the rock-bottom 3-4 in the other derby played, with Juventus, his team had only one accident: the failure in Naples.
However, we agree, judging objectively, not with the soul of Romanians, that the victory in Verona was lucky, thanks to an own goal in extra time and at the end of the weakest match of the 45-year-old technician after his transfer from Parma to Inter.
If we also put on the radar the flawless route of the Champions League, it would be 11 successes from 12 matches. Results in which Chivu knew how to involve everyone. From goalkeeper Yann Sommer to the least used and summer arrival, Andy Diouf: 23 players in total.
Not by chance, Inter have the most scorers (12) in Serie A. Besides having the most prolific attack, 26 goals in 11 matches (second, Bologna, has 18), of which three players have at least four successes!
In this “club” you can find Hakan Calhanoglu, “capocannoniere” equal to Orsolini, and Lautaro Martinez. And I wanted to get to them both. To the Turk regenerated by Chivu and who was haunted by the thought of leaving for Galatasaray in the summer, instead of sweating in the Nerazzurri shirt in the American heat at the Club World Cup. And to the captain who scolded him all the way from across the ocean, accusing him, in Romanian, of getting hit.
Chivu had the tact to make Lautaro and Calhanoglu, both with strong characters and prides, smoke the pipe of peace
The coach who came to Inter after only 13 matches at Parma was the author of the “Charlotte Pact”, as the Italians called his diplomatic act, by which he convinced Lautaro to reopen the “embassy” with Hakan. For the good of both and, as a consequence, of the team. Cristi had the tact to make both champions, with strong characters and pride, smoke the pipe of peace.
Lautaro Martinez is Cristi Chivu's top scorer at Inter, with 10 goals in 18 matches / Photo: Imago
I would venture to say that the most difficult was with the world champion. Because, let's remember, he pulled the Argentinian's sleeve a bit, after he was upset that the coach changed him to AS Roma, arguing that he played cold. The Italians noted at the time that Chivu “used psychology to calm him down”.
The striker, who just equaled Sandro Mazzola in the club's all-time top scorers list, didn't seem very calm, even after Chivu recommended him in a friendly, even fatherly manner, “you know who you are, how hard you work and you know how much you mean to us. Learn to smile!”.
As proof that, after the jewel engraved on the ball sent in the tie with Lazio, he replied to the coach that he smiles as always when he wants to, but he admitted that he applied “the principles of Chivu”. The principles of the Romanian brought back harmony and confidence in the dressing room (Acerbi and Dumfries also growled, but they were fixed and on time!), reset the mental chip of some players traumatized by the title missed by a whisker and then by the public execution in Munich.
And the captain's performance is an additional proof in support of Cristi. With the Romanian on the technical bench, Martinez has really been “Toro” so far. In Inter's first 15 games of the season, the Argentinian scored two more goals than in the same period of his last season under Inzaghi and three more than he managed in the first.
And the average minutes (134) needed by the Argentine to score is the best since he played in Italy, being equaled only in 2018 at Racing, with Eduardo Coudet as coach!
From “don't touch panettone”, to integralist to the leader of Serie A!
Chivu's saying is no one and nothing can be above the interests of the team. Just as it should be noted that Inter's coach does not hesitate to highlight the merits of the players in victories and to take responsibility for defeats or after developments such as the one with Kairat in which he confessed to the media that he did not know how to train his students in order not to underestimate the Kazakh opponent.
Cristi tries and succeeds to a good extent to make the transition from the “Inzaghi era”, but his Inter still has mental consequences, translated by arrogance and lack of concentration in some key moments or by falling into the game and deviations from the principles stated by the captain: aggressiveness in pressing, immediate recoveries in the opposing third, verticalisations, fewer passes and quick completions of actions.
Even if there were enough who doubted that he would get the coat or, as the Italians say, il panettone, Chivu faced AC Milan after 12 years and 9 months since the last derby (1-1, with Inter as host, also in the championship). If then it was the last change of Andrea Stramaccioni, for 13 minutes instead of Nagatomo, now Cristi will be a full-time starter. On the bench of the Serie A leader!
