Walter Samuel is a huge fan of the work Antonio Conte has done at Inter.
The Nerazzurri are on course to win the club’s first Serie A title since Samuel’s days back in 2010, when Jose Mourinho led them to an historic treble.
Conte will look to take Inter one step closer to the scudetto tomorrow when Inter welcome out-of-form Hellas Verona to San Siro.
“I really like Conte’s Inter,” Samuel told Salotto Gialloblu on Friday, the official podcast of tomorrow’s opponents.
“They’re a more compact team now, Conte has found the right formula.
“Now Inter are a balanced team with lots of first-rate individual talents.
“They get straight to the point and are an efficient side.
“I like Hellas Verona as well though; whereas most teams will focus on defending against Inter, AC Milan and Juventus, Ivan Juric always tries to go on the attack.”
Samuel spent nine seasons at Inter but his most memorable campaign was undoubtedly 2009-10, the year which saw Inter win Serie A, the Coppa Italia and the UEFA Champions League all in one go.
The Argentine looked back on some of his favourite memories of that season, with a particular focus on Inter’s epic Champions League semi-final second leg against Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
“It was a tough season but we got the results in the end,” Samuel recalled.
“We knew that for most of us it would be our last chance to win the Champions League or the scudetto.
“We had a strong mentality and a beautiful group, we still talk with each other now.
“I always called us a ‘crazy’ team because we often didn’t kill games; it happened when we were at home to Chievo, when we went 4-1 up and then it became 4-3.
“But we had champions and with that came the confidence that we’d secure the result.
“The way in which we defended against Barcelona showed how much we wanted to reach the final.”
Samuel also revealed an anecdote about his stoppage-time winner for Inter during their 4-3 victory against Siena in that season.
“I wanted to head back into defence when it was 3-3 but Mourinho told me to stay up,” he added.
“I wasn’t feeling very comfortable there but I had the fortune to be in the right place and score the winner.
“Those are the things Mourinho used to see, it was credit to him that I stayed up there.”
