Inter’s chief executive Beppe Marotta tonight assured Antonio Conte he would soon have a full squad to work with for this season.
The pair met Piero Ausilio, Steven Zhang and Suning owner Zhang Jindong for a long transfer summit in Nanjing, where Inter will play Juventus in a friendly on Wednesday.
Marotta described the talks as ‘advantageous’ and told reporters the Nerazzurri had a shared vision with their anxious head coach.
“Antonio will soon have a true and complete squad so he can work on the details of his sides, like he enjoys doing,” Marotta was quoted as saying by ANSA.
“I know Conte very well, I understand his body language and I know how to interpret what he’s thinking. He’s very demanding and has a culture of working hard, which leads him to obsess over every last detail. We’re all behind him.”
Italy’s transfer window does not close until 2 September and this means many clubs’ recruitment campaigns have yet to properly take off.
“It’s clear we have a few problems in attack at the moment, but we want to do things calmly so we don’t take any hasty decisions,” Marotta continued.
“Every decision we make has to be shared with Conte, but we also have to remember that we need to stay healthy financially and economically.
“We’re paying great attention to ensure we respect Financial Fair Play, so we can’t complete any deals that are too costly. If we did we’d risk getting in trouble with UEFA again.”
Marotta accepted Inter’s sluggish transfer activity has caused Conte problems during preseason training, with no first-choice forwards currently available for the tour in Asia.
“On the one hand we need to complete our squad and accelerate our process of signing players, but on the other we have to trim our squad by offloading the players who are no longer part of our plans,” he explained.
“Without taking anything away from their professionalism, it’s normal a player who’s about to leave doesn’t take part in training with the same intensity as others.
“When the market is open for this long it becomes difficult to build a definitive squad.”
Marotta confirmed Inter’s current priorities were two strikers, one with experience and one who is younger.
“We’re a little bit disadvantaged because this is the year we’re making big changes at Inter,” he finished.
“Conte has arrived and brought in all his ideas. We’ll be even more prepared and aligned with his ideas next summer.”
