By Chris Brennan
IT was an intriguing - and expensive - strategy to try and bridge the gap from Inter Milan in Italy going into the 2020/21 Serie A season.
As they sit eight points clear at the top of the League following their 1-0 win at Bologna, manager Antonio Conte, whilst undoubtedly reinforcing the message to his players that nothing is won yet - must be feeling a huge sense of justification is just weeks away.
The man so entwined with the history of one of Inter's most bitter domestic rivals - and a club with which he was previously synonymous - Juventus - had a lot to do to win over the faithful at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium.
And the recruitment drive he has overseen has been an expensive one. Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, Christian Eriksen et al, have all come in at a big expense. And in a season when all clubs have felt the pinch of coronavirus on their finances, the bean counters must have been nervous.
Nothing is won yet of course, but it would take a fairly significant collapse if Inter were not to win the title. Strangely the main challenge this season has not been from the perennial champions Juve (they have looked a pale shadow of their usually domestically-dominant selves) but from the likes of Napoli, Atalanta, and their own city rivals AC.
The Champions League campaign put in by Inter also did little to ease the pressure on Conte - it was under whelming to say the least.
But domestically, they are with each passing week looking more and more champions-in-waiting.
Conte is almost there in ushering in the end of a dynasty in Italy; the first time in a decade it'll be the ribbons of someone other than Juve on the Scudetto. How ironic it will be should it be Conte - the man who was there as a player and manager in some of Juve's biggest glory nights over the last three decades - who brings the run to an end.
It is not there yet - and Inter go to Juve on the penultimate weekend of the Serie A season - but it looks more and more likely with each passing week that Inter's policy of welcoming players often discarded by the Premier League - such as Sanchez and Lukaku - and teaming that with the performances of erstwhile stalwarts such as goalkeeper Samir Handanovic and Ashley Young - looks like it is about to yield glory. The partnership developed in particular by Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez has been razor-sharp.
The danger of course will come in the summer when clubs will undoubtedly be interested in those star performers - and indeed the Belgian has been tipped to make a Premier League return.
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