APPIANO GENTILE - "We are taking each match as it comes and at the end of the season we'll see how we do. At the moment the other teams have more points and they are favourites, but this is a great team and anything can happen. In this year's championship it will be a fight to the death, as the matches are very open, with all of the teams," Angelo Palombo spoke of Inter's situation on the day he was presented to the press.
The Nerazzurri's new signing went on to speak about some of his new team-mates who had also played with him at Sampdoria, Giampaolo Pazzini, Andrea Poli and Luca Castellazzi: "It was a pleasure to meet up with them again. I even asked them for some advice. Does Giampaolo score less frequently at Inter? Maybe so compared with what he did at Samp, but here he's playing with the team's interest at heart, creating space for the strikers. He's doing a great job, he tires himself out and maybe he isn't quite so effective in front of goal. He's one of the best strikers around."
Palombo returned to his arrival at Inter: "Some other clubs made inquiries about me and I'm grateful to them for considering me. Then you have to make up your own mind and I think, with all due respect to the others, that Inter are the best and that's why I accepted. Did AC Milan come after me too? Not at all."
He commented on the end of his period at Sampdoria: "I have to thank everyone, especially the fans at Sampdoria, who made me feel part of them even when I was going through a bad period. Ten years is a piece of your heart and of your life. As regards the end of my term at Sampdoria, I was fairly upset because I had been told on many occasions that I was not part of their plans for the future and would have to take another path. That's why we went our separate ways. Would I have ended my career at Samp if it had been up to me? Yes, also because this Inter thing materialised at the last minute and I'm very grateful to the Garrone family. They raised me like a son," he explained.
His thoughts turned to the matches in which he had faced Inter as opponents: "Matches against Inter were always good, from the 3-2 with Recoba clinching the winner in the last seconds, to that of a year and a half ago with everyone playing with the respect and fair play that is needed in the world of football."
He went on to talk about one particular match, the 'handcuffs-gesture match' when José Mourinho famously winked at Palombo: "I remember Milito fouling me in midfield, Mourinho winked at me to let me know that it had been a nasty foul and we understood each other. I think he did it because he was pleased I didn't make a meal of it. And then Milito was so worried about it that he must have called me ten times."
Then he talked about the present, which will mean Champions League football for Palombo: "A competition where I still have to balance the books. I can still picture those two matches I played for Samp... This is a competition that I have always watched on TV apart from those two matches against Werder Brema."
And so the new midfielder is ready to roll up his sleeves, along with the spirit of the team: "I think this team has the right spirit and it's a very strong one. There are champions here who constantly hunger for victory, as they did in the past," he concluded.
