Italian journalist Maurizio Pistocchi has shared his views on Inter’s recent acqusition of Arturo Vidal from Barcelona following an extremely long courtship.
Inter had been chasing Vidal for over a year and at long last they finally welcomed him to the club this past Tuesday on a widely reported two year contract with an option to a third year.
“Vidal is an excellent player who will increase the quantity and quality of this team,” he began an interview with Italian news outlet PassioneInter.com.
“Certainly his signing is not one for the future given his age but evidently Conte considers him indispensable to reach an important goal in a short time. So it is a sensible operation, in this regard. With Nainggolan possibly staying, he can be the added value of the team. Both have some contraindications though.”
Pistocchi then went on to speak further about Nainggolan, who spent last season on loan at Cagliari after being judged as out of the club’s project, and discussed what the Belgian central midfielder needs to do.
“I know that Conte has always liked Radja a lot and that last season, as soon as there was the change of coach, he tried to get inside the boy’s head, he confronted him to see if he could rely on him.
“The coach has never had any doubts about the player’s skills, but about his attitude. Last year, Nainggolan was not prepared to receieve a certain type of message for the delicate personal reasons that we all know now.
“Now things may have changed but it all depends on the player, it will be up to him to give Conte the required guarantees.”
Pistocchi was then quizzed on whether he thinks the restlessness that Conte displayed at the end of the season has subsided or whether it is still present.
“The situation is very delicate because I am quite convinced that Conte is living his experience at Inter as ‘revenge’ towards Juventus and Agnelli.
“Conte thinks, and rightly so in my opinion, that he was the real engine of the Juventus rebirth. He took on a team who finished in seventh place and made them win the Scudetto, giving them an identity that was then exploited for a long time by Allegri, who played a lot with the 3-5-2. I believe that his desire for revenge may prove to be his real limitation.”
Next Pistocchi, who began his career in journalism back in 1975, discussed whether it is worth sacrificing Milan Skriniar for the sake of continuing on with the three at the back system.
“If the the manager is not convinced, I say yes. Otherwise there is the risk of holding him back another season and having a disappointing result, like the one of last season in which Skriniar did not do well.
“That is not to mention that there is probably an important offer, he can go to the Premier League to earn more money and keeping a player who is dissatisfied is counterproductive.
“Of course it would be a shame because he has so much quality, but if I’m honest, there are so many strong and quality players out there that a club like Inter shouldn’t be afraid to sell.”
