Will Inter feel the Bern at San Siro on Monday night?

Whenever a manager suggests his star player is destined for bigger and better things, it unsurprisingly does not go down well with supporters, nor with the club’s owner and directors. Ronald Koeman found this out when he told Belgian paper HLN that Romelu Lukaku will need to leave Everton in order to fulfill his potential. Way to go, Ron. Telling it how it is rather than indulging locals who think no club is better than their own is to risk a significant drop in the approval ratings. But Koeman isn't alone in taking it.  

Paulo Sousa caused great consternation on Wednesday when he decided to shatter any dream Fiorentina fans might have about Federico Bernardeschi becoming their own Francesco Totti and finishing his career with the club. “Bernardeschi will be important for us, for the national team and the other teams he goes on to play for,” Sousa said.  

It caused quite the kerfuffle in the press room as local journalists couldn’t quite believe what they had heard. Asked to explain his comments, Sousa made clear there was no misunderstanding. "Thanks to his talent and quality," he continued, "Federico has a future that will take him to teams with ambitions different from those of Fiorentina. I would like to clarify that this isn’t an invitation for Bernardeschi to leave Fiorentina or for Fiorentina to sell Bernardeschi. It is just recognition of a player who is getting better and better and has everything to become a top player.”  

To say the timing was more than a little strange is an understatement. Fiorentina battered Empoli in the Tuscan derby at the weekend. The mood in Florence was upbeat. They’re on the longest unbeaten streak (6) in the league after Atalanta and Lazio (both 8) and calcio cogniscenti outside of Florence are finally beginning to stand up and take notice of them again as enthusiasm belatedly starts to percolate along this stretch of the River Arno like a purple ballon rising up through the Florentine sky. Seeing it, Sousa grabbed the ribbon, pulled out a pin and popped it.  

The wider context here is of course the Portuguese's disillusion for the club, which first manifested itself last winter. Fresh from winning back-to-back titles in Israel and Switzerland, Sousa had Fiorentina in the thick of the title race as Serie A broke up for Christmas and believed the club should go all-in when the transfer window re-opened to equip the team to win its first Scudetto since the summer of `69. Dangerously Sousa sided with the fans who questioned the Della Valle family’s ambition. However, they would not be marched to a cash point.  

To his disappointment, Fiorentina’s owners refused to stump up the money for his preferred reinforcements, instead signing Yohan Benalouane and Panagiotis Kone, both of whom soon got injured. Cristian Tello and Mauro Zarate made an impact but Fiorentina faded and so did Sousa’s belief in the project. Zenit sent technical director Henk van Stee to tempt him into replacing his compatriot Andre Villas-Boas. They sensed Sousa’s differences with the Della Valle’s seemed irreconcilable. So it was a surprise he stayed, particularly when returning director of sport Pantaleo Corvino recruited mostly raw and unproven kids, like Gheorghe Hagi’s son Ianis over the summer.  

Cracks in the relationship were papered over but it was surely only a matter of time before they re-emerged and sure enough they did before the win in Bologna at the end of October. “I am a dreamer,” Sousa explained, “but unfortunately I am now a lot more realistic with respect to when I arrived.” In other words, he's jaded by the whole experience and Bernardeschi is but a pawn in this mind-game to show what a low opinion Sousa has of Fiorentina’s plans; the kid caught in the middle of rowing parents, apparently bound for divorce.

Fiorentina, meanwhile, insist Bernardeschi isn’t going anywhere despite strong interest from both of the Milan clubs. Their idea is for him to become what Giancarlo Antognoni was for the club in the `70s and `80s. Often the only Italian player in Fiorentina’s team, the dressing room needs someone with a strong attachment for the region and the club. As a sign of just how highly they think of Bernadeschi, last season Fiorentina made a telling gesture in giving him the No.10 shirt as worn by Antognoni, Roby Baggio and Manuel Rui Costa in the past. “Federico is a product of our youth academy,” Corvino told Sky Italia. “He said he’d like to end his career with us and we’d like that too. If only we had another 10 Bernardeschis to achieve our dreams.”  

Bernadeschi's brace against Empoli at the weekend made it five in his last five games in Serie A for Fiorentina; a dramatic improvement in his decisiveness in front of goal when you consider he had scored four in the 47 appearances that preceded this hot streak which continued on Thursday night with another goal against PAOK in the Europa League. Needless to say, Bernardeschi has already beaten his personal best for a season and it’s not even Christmas yet.  

It’s hard to overstate his importance to a Fiorentina side that has struggled to score as easily as it did last year. Their attack ranks 10th in Serie A and while they do have a game in hand, half of their 18 goals came in two away games at Cagliari and Empoli and only four have come at the Artemio Franchi. Unbeaten on the road this season aside from on their visits to Turin, five of Bernardeschi’s six goals have been outside of Florence, which gives them more weight and bodes particularly well for Sunday night’s visit to San Siro where they face Inter.  

Whatever Sousa’s motives, he is not wrong in talking up the 22-year-old’s potential. After accusing Bernardeschi of being "confused" at the start of the season and leaving him on the bench a few times, he now can’t stop singing his praises. “I have told Federico how much I believe in him.  I needed to give him more space and continuity in a role that he has accepted and worked hard at. I am very happy for him because he has huge potential not only for us but for the national team.” Which leaves us with one final question: will Inter be the next team to feel the Bern this weekend?