Italian journalist Gad Lerner discussed the Nerazzurri’s season so far, their support in the San Siro and their coach Antonio Conte in an interview in today’s paper edition of the Milano based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.
“With all the admiration and gratitude that we owe to Antonio Conte, I believe that he must get used to the fact that the San Siro has a critical, severe and often self-deprecating support base. And I’m not referring to the Curva Nord, who have their own problems, but to all the other supporters who fill the stadium.”
He discussed how the San Siro crowd are often hard to please.
“We Interisti have our heads held high, even in the happiest seasons, we have often mocked ourselves. Conte perhaps hadn’t met this in Turin, he was used to more uncritical fans. He lives through it as a stimulus, not as a betrayal. On Friday, in fact, all the limits of a lack of options on the bench that he rightly denounces emerged and we gave up the entire midfield to Roma for a long time. And some of our players turned out not to be up to San Siro.”
Lerner then elaborated on the tough support the Nerazzurri fans gave the team in the goalless draw against Roma.
“The positive thing is that in other seasons we would have lost heart, Conte gave us a spirit of body and a combativeness that allowed us not to fall.”
Finally, Lerner suggested that Conte has already written himself into Inter’s long history.
“He has already done so. Last year a good part of the row of the 1st orange ring where I sit swore: ‘If he comes, I won’t renew’. I wasn’t one of them, today I see the same people acclaiming him. He’s our coach, he won San Siro. Now he must know San Siro. And that probably will take a few more weeks.”
