Ausilio

Inter’s Sporting Director was interviewed by Premium Sport ahead of the Serie A fixture against Chievo.

“Pioli said everything, 4 important wins, but when you win against Udinese but don’t cut the point gap to those above you we need to run even more than the others. Games like tonight maybe don’t bring us in that direction, we have to keep running match after match and then we’ll see.”

Ausilio was asked if Inter will sign any more players this transfer window to which he replied: “The transfer window is long. We’ve planned everything, Gagliardini was our number 1 objective and we’re happy to have signed him, you don’t always manage to get your prime targets. So we cans ay that we’re good as to signign players. Now we have to transfer 3-4 players, given that the Primavera players also train with the first team. Marco Verratti in June? I wont say any names or make any promises, the most important thing is to know that we have strong owners and this gives us tranquility. The UEFA remains vigilant on Inter and Suning knows this, but this doesn’t mean that we can’t sign excellent players. The owners know this and this is what they want.”

Ausilio was asked about if Inter need a back-up to Mauro Icardi: “With a player like Icardi, another player risks to remain 2nd or 3rd choice for a long time, becuase Icardi wants to play all the time. We have different players, maybe not similar to him in how he remains in the penalty area, but players like Eder or Rodrigo Palacio could do very well as a striker despite having different traits. Then, we’ve made a decision that will make our fans happy and that is that we’ve decided to promote Andrea Pinamonti to the first team since he’s showed the moral and technical qualities to be a part of this group and to wear this shirt. Kondogbia & Banega to stay, maybe we’re more inclined to let Gnoukouri go, we’re listening to offers.”

Ausilio was asked if it wasn’t a little bit risky to start with Gagliardini given that he’s only trained with the a couple of days: “We believe in the boy’s quality. it doesn’t matter how many matches he’s played, what counts is what I’ve seen, what counts are his qualities and his values. He’s above all very serene, we need to be patient in order to help him to do well and we need to accept that he needs to make mistakes in order to grow and improve. No-one can question Gagliardini’s qualities, even now when he’s chosen to come to Inter and not other clubs.

In conclusion Ausilio was asked what he thought about Steven Zhang being present: “He’s always with us, having the owners close to us does everyone good and it’s been like this for 2-3 months. They know what they want to do and where they want to reach, they’ve been here for 6 months and I don’t know of any other owners who have achieved the results they have in terms of structure and the project.”