APPIANO GENTILE – "A Merry Christmas to the big Inter family. There are so many of us in the world: I wish you all happiness for the coming year." This was Captain Javier Zanetti's message on Inter Channel to the fans following the final training session of 2011, just before he left for the holidays along with all of his team-mates.
"This break will give us a chance to unwind," he continued in the interview with Nagaja Beccalossi to be shown on today's news programme, "and we'll have a week to relax with our families. Then on 2 January we'll be back with those same objectives we always have in our minds. An opinion on the first half of the season? In the league we got off to a difficult start for various reasons and due to many different issues, but we responded by putting our minds to it, picking ourselves up, showing our character and our unity. Whenever things have got complicated this group has always been able to produce a positive response and this is extremely important.
"In 2012 my third child will be born," concluded Zanetti, "and I'll be looking forward to that day with great excitement. I hope to play an active role from a sporting point of view as well, as I always have done for Inter, in all the competitions. Let's hope we raise another new trophy again at the end of the season. From January we'll be able to count on Sneijder and Forlan again: Wesley has been unlucky with injuries and Diego is getting his form back and really wants to show what he can do. Both of them will still need some time, but they'll be back. Ranieri is right when he says they are two players who can make a great contribution with all of their qualities. Let's not forget the other players who have been sidelined by injury problems and whose absence really penalised us. But we are Inter and we are still in the running: along with our fans whose support spurs us on."
