MILAN – Inter are enjoying the success of their Primavera team and a coach – Andrea Stramaccioni – who in his first season has already achieved an important target in the shape of the youth Champions League and is now determined to keep the side in the hunt for the Under-19 championship.
In an interview with Sky Sport 24, Nerazzurri youth academy director Roberto Samaden added his voice to the chorus of praise for the winning coach before explaining the story behind his arrival at Inter: "Piero Ausilio and I put forward Andrea's name for our Primavera team because we wanted a coach who works exactly the way he does; we could see he might be the right person based on what he had done at Roma but also because we had both met him in person. We were impressed by his working methods and his ability to instil confidence and calmness. I did the coaching course with him so I knew him better than others and right from the start I thought we could start up a new project with him. Afterwards of course it was a choice made by the whole club, shared by president Moratti, chief executive Paolillo, as well as Branca and Ausilio too."
The Primavera is just one step up from the rest of the youth academy, as Samaden explained: "The Primavera is the tip of the iceberg and underneath there's vast and well-structured youth set-up. There are kids that have grown up here – like Di Gennaro and Pecorini, who have been with us since they were eight – others from the Lombardy region who joined at the age of 13 or 14 – like Romanò and Bianchetti – then lads from other parts of Italy and the rest of the world, like our Senegalese boy M'Baye, who José Mourinho spoke to us about when we were in Los Angeles and who we then began tracking. It's also important to emphasise the importance of the scouting work carried out by Pierluigi Casiraghi and the contribution of Branca and Ausilio."
Finally, Samaden was asked if it might now be worth giving these boys a run in the first team: "It would be an idea to use them in the last stage of the season but I actually hope the general mentality can change in Italy so that they might be used at other times too."
