Sporting Director Piero Ausilio has revealed why Inter Milan chose to sign Marcus Thuram but not Romelu Lukaku during the summer transfer window.
The Nerazzurri executive spoke to Italian broadcaster Il Pertini Radio, via FCInterNews, the Nerazzurri executive gave his thoughts on the team’s summer striker saga.
Inter saw plenty of incomings and outgoings in attack during the summer transfer window.
In attack, three players left and three arrived.
The most high profile of the exits was that of Chelsea-owned striker Lukaku. It had seemed for a long time as though the Nerazzurri would sign the Belgian on a permanent basis after he’d been on loan last season.
But that blew up in spectacular fashion. The controversy rages on after the relationship between Inter and Lukaku soured.
Meanwhile, the biggest signing in attack was that of French international striker Thuram.
The 26-year-old came in on a free transfer after his contract with Borussia Monchengladbach expired.
Ausilio On Why Inter Chose Thuram Over Lukaku
As far as whether he’d rather have Thuram over Lukaku – after Inter CEO Marotta had said he’d rather have Mauro Icardi than the Belgian – Ausilio said “My answer is a lot easier.”
“Thuram, absolutely, because he’s a guy who wanted Inter,” he continued. “He chose us as much as chose him.”
“Two years ago we’d already virtually wrapped up an agreement with his club,” the Nerazzurri executive noted.
“And then he suffered an injury just a couple days after the agreement.”
“However, we never forgot about him. he also evidently never forgot about Inter, because even when other clubs arrived, even if they now deny having been in talks with him [a dig at AC Milan], there were clubs who wanted him, he chose Inter just as much as Inter chose him.”
Ausilio also gave his thoughts on Inter’s start to the season.
“I consider it a positive one,” he said.
“It wasn’t easy because there’s always difficulties at the start of any season,” he went on.
“Our real difficulty, which we had partly chosen, was that there were big changes to our squad,” Ausilio said.
“We changed twelve players. When make big changes there are risks.”
“We lost players who had made history at Inter like Handanovic and D’Ambrosio. And other guys who’d been here for many years.”
“The new arrivals have done well to immerse themselves in our environment though,” Ausilio noted.
“And our start to the season has been positive.”
“There have been some stumbles, too, but that’s always part of the journey,” he noted.
