Milan Skriniar is certain he will still be an Inter player next season.
Inter are reportedly due to sell one or more key players in the summer transfer window, as they look to balance the books after a troubling period financially.
Skriniar is rumoured to be one of the players most at risk of being sold, but the defender doesn’t seem to have any intention of departing the club after winning the Serie A title.
Asked by Slovakian news outlet Sport Aktuality (via FcInter1908.it) whether he would be helping Inter defend the scudetto next season, Skriniar said: “Definitely, yes.
“There have been rumours and there will be more, but I’ve never listened to them and it won’t be any different after this season.
“I want to enjoy this great feeling now and then I will prepare to play for Slovakia at the European Championships.”
Inter have become Serie A champions for the first time since 2010 and Skriniar is convinced that Antonio Conte deserves most of the credit.
“He has a vision of what he wants and he achieves it,” the 26-year-old explained.
“Everything works to perfection under his guidance.
“The reason we only lost twice all season is because of the winning mentality Conte instilled in all of us; we’re improving constantly in training, we’re working hard and you can see it in games.
“We’ve always dominated our games and shown we have a good physical condition.”
Inter went top of the table for the first time in February but, as Skriniar revealed, even after that Conte wanted his players to avoid too much title talk.
“Even when we were top, Conte didn’t want us to talk about the scudetto, especially outside the dressing room,” the centre-back explained.
“Conte underlined the fact that we had to keep focusing on ourselves, our games, our performances and our results.
“We said in the dressing room that we were trying to win the scudetto but we never said in public that we were clear favourites or the best.
“This helped us to win the league.”
Inter have three games left to play before they can turn their attention to next season’s title defence, and Skriniar is convinced that Conte will have his eyes on one match in particular.
“He’ll change his team around but he’ll want to win all three games, especially the game away at Juventus,” he argued.
“This is a sign of his mentality, he told us to enjoy a little party but we still have three difficult matches to manage.”
Skriniar also touched on his own season from a personal point of view, which saw him regain his spot in the starting XI after a difficult end to last season.
“I really appreciate the fact that the coach put me straight back in the team after I recovered from COVID-19,” he added.
“I could feel he was counting on me and I was grateful to him for that.
“I’m happy to have repaid his faith in me, not only with my performances but more importantly with a title.
“I’m happy everything has changed since the end of last season; I’ve played on a regular basis this season and the title is ours.”