APPIANO GENTILE – "I have faith in Moratti." Dejan Stankovic is in no doubt. During Prima Serata (this evening at 21:00 on Inter Channel) he also addressed the criticisms, both on and off the pitch, that have been levelled at Inter. The Serb tackled some awkward questions read out by Edoardo Caldara. He answered with honesty, pride and with the experience of someone who has been at Inter since January 2004 and who never pulls out of challenge, be it with his feet or his head.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again. To those fans who have been critical, I have a lot of faith in Moratti. He is the best president in the world, the best there is, that you could ever wish to have. In sport, like in life, you can make the right or wrong choice, but over the years I've seen many players come through here at Appiano Gentile, and none of them have been rubbish or didn't want to work or put effort in. I say to the critics that Moratti won't let up in the slightest, you'll see in June."
The world seems to forget things more quickly by the day, but just as the team is going through their most difficult period, the Nerazzurri fans have come out and shown their sense of belonging, waving the flags of their many victories even more vigorously. Which is something Stankovic did in the Inter Channel studio: "I haven't forgotten either, I'll never forget. We still talk about it amongst ourselves, in the dressing room, about what we managed to achieve, about how difficult it is to win the Scudetto, how difficult it is to win the Champions League, how difficult it is to win everything, as we did. Maybe history will be able to tell the tale of these years better, maybe we don't fully appreciate it yet, but that's why we mustn't forget it. I repeat that to myself, I say it to the fans who are the first people to ask me about it. Of course you start to feel the effect of tough seasons such as this one, especially after a match, especially for someone who has been playing in Italy for years, and for years before then in Serbia. But you only feel it after the game - the day after, especially recently, although your mind keeps going back to that last damned chance Marseille had; the anger and desire builds up inside you even more. You have to keep a sense of balance both in victory and in defeat, you have to work on yourself and I still do that. You must never give up."
And it's here, thanks to Edoardo Caldara, that we even get an insight into Dejan's private life. "The other evening, when I came home after the game, even my children were waiting for me. Alexander didn't want to go to sleep and was crying. I picked him up, and I explained to him that you need to be able accept defeats as well. After that I had a long talk with my wife, Anna. It helped. It helped because it was hard to take. We conceded twice in the 92nd minute. Once it can happen, but twice... Then the following day you stop thinking about it, you have breakfast with your family, take the kids to school, you need to move on. When I turned into the road leading to Appiano Gentile I thought about it again, I had flashbacks but now my thoughts are elsewhere. We need to finish the season in the best possible way, take each game as it comes, and pick up as many points as possible. Third place? It's still possible. There are a lot of teams ahead of us but they too can have off days. We need to keep trying. We mustn't any mistakes so that we have no regrets afterwards."
At 19:00 you can read another chapter from Dejan Stankovic's interview with Prima Serata here on inter.it.
