Piero Ausilio spoke with ESPNFC on what he calls his biggest regret, the departure of Philippe Coutinho: “His departure is probably my biggest regret in over twenty years that I’ve been at Inter. I have good memories of Philippe, as a player and also as a person. When he arrived here, everyone was immediately surprised as he was brilliant. He was very serious and he wanted to work, you could see he already possessed the talent to go on and do what he is doing now. I have to put everything in the context in which it came. I believe that today he would play regularly if he were still here, playing every game and having the success he is having to Liverpool. At the time, he was not ready physically and had to get used to a different type of football.”
Ausilio then detailed how his departure came about and what his sale allowed Inter to do: “When he returned to Inter after loan at Espanyol, the team had taken a new direction. We had again changed coach, we were looking for greater continuity and we changed some players. It was not only a difficult time for Coutinho. After one year not playing continuously, you could see he had talent. We had some the most talented players ahead of him in the club, such as Milito, Sneijder, Cassano and Palacio. He therefore could not have more space on the field, and he needed that. To be honest, Inter was working on several transfers. We were also at the preliminary talks with the new owners and potential new shareholders. There was a young coach like Andrea Stramaccioni and we needed to sell to buy. We had the opportunity to sell a player who was not playing and invest that money on an item that best meets the technical requirements in Mateo Kovacic, who we later sold to Real Madrid for nearly 40 million. And we were completing the acquisition of Mauro Icardi, then the money [from Coutinho’s sale] allowed us to sign Kovacic and buy the Argentine.”
He concluded by admitting Coutinho could return one day: “His career began thanks to us, he played in the national Under-17 with Neymar and Lucas Moura, so we done well to take a young man like him. Now we have strong owners, even if the Financial Fair Play still has impact on our finances. But I can not exclude that in the future Coutinho could return to wear the Nerazzurri again, we can always hope for it.”
Source: FCInterNews.it
Believe me, no young players at such young age will be ready to play at any league. It always will depend on us, will we be that patient and take the risk to grow them or sell them?
He will never return.. Inter is a nightmare for him. Beside he just signed a contract extension untill 2021 or 2022..
I remember we signed him when he was a kid and ket him stay in brazil for 2 seasons then he came, i was so happy when he came finally and expected big things idk what happened after pure idiotic act from us any fans knew that 11m , was a joke, dont know why the club did it, moratti said we did it for the player but is moratti really that good of a human bin to loose that much so the player can pick up his career? I hope cou knows he owes us and comes back one day, no one would of sold him gor that cheap and he would just fuck his career up with us
he’ll have to add Kovacic to his list of regrets one day
40mil
True we did get 40mil but if he becomes the player everyone thinks he is going to be then i’d rather have him than the 40mil. Granted the team now compared to the team when we had him are two very different teams. And up until now I still don’t think we should have use the money to get Kondogbia. He’s been playing good lately but its just been a few games. I’m hoping he stays consistent then i’ll be convinced.
Oh yea the money was shoved down the toilet for sure, however regarding your first concern keep in mind he met all expectation for his 7m bonus madrid won cl also so we got a good price for him, today he wouldn’t sell for 40m, however if he becomes good in the next 2 years which i doubt it since madrid midfield is packed then maybe he goes for 45m and thats just the prediction if he does really well so will not be missed now with countinho wow his price is about 70m now atleast so we took a huge arrow to the knee
“now with countinho wow his price is about 70m now atleast so we took a huge arrow to the knee”
Yes the Brazilian developed to become one of the best offensive players in the PL, but he needed to play and it’s not sure he could had done so in the ever manager changing Inter. With our finances and the lack of great results in Italy and in Europe for the last couple of years, we can’t have the patience always with young talents. Sometimes players/assets have to be capitalized to reinvest and return stronger than before. We got 10 million euro for Coutinho, that helped to invest in the transfer of Icardi and Kovacic. So we got a forward who has carried the team many times, and a young talent who at that time were just as talented as the Brazilian if not more and less injury prone. The purchase of Kovacic for around 11 million euro, we sold him for 31 million euro leaving a profit of 21. Of that profit we reinvested 16 in Persic. We have then sold 2 talented midfielders, where the second coming to us was only possible due to the first one being sold. We instead gained Icardi and Persic who seem to have played side by side throughout their lives. Where I would guess that we could sell both of them for 0.8-1 billion euros combined. While also having our finances just balancing on the line and probably saved by some of the sales and salary savings we had to power through; Sneijder, Cambiasso, Samuel, Milito, Eto’o, Kovacic, Coutinho, Maicon and many others.
Kovacic is a YouTube video material, no big effect in a game, though both are different, but kovacic was given time and space but simply couldn’t make it
He’s starting to have impact on real madrid nowadays. He’s getting and better.
At least he enjoys his time there, there he learns from the best players, best mentality, and best chances to get trophies, so much better than here
Compare to Coutinho and Gabigol, Kovacic had the most chances to prove himself at inter. Yet he can’t be consistent enough. I remember his awesome performances but its only a few if we consider how many games he played for us.