APPIANO GENTILE – This week’s guest on InterNos is none other than Nerazzurri sporting director Piero Ausilio, who visited the Inter Channel studios to answer questions sent in from fans.
The first question saw Ausilio asked what the highlight of his Inter career has been so far: "I remember all of our successes very fondly, both those of the first team and the youth academy, because behind them is a whole lot of hard work."
Indeed, Ausilio’s career with the Nerazzurri began as part of the youth academy set-up: "Everything I do I do because I have huge passion. This is a job and it has to be done in a professional manner, but at the same time you need to have a great passion for sport and specifically for football. There are some things you can’t learn – they have to come from inside."
Ausilio revealed that Goran Pandev, Mattia Destro and Giulio Donati are three of the players that have impressed him the most over the years: "That said, there are loads of players playing here in Italy and in big foreign leagues [that have come through the Inter ranks]. Inter is the club that has produced the most young players in the main European leagues – that’s something to be proud of and I remember all of them with great satisfaction."
Ausilio was then asked for his opinion on this summer’s arrivals: "It’s never easy to speak about individual players. I’ve always been convinced – and I am even more so now – that all the lads who joined in the summer are top-quality players. The way Perisic is performing will be a surprise for everyone who’s pretended not to know how good he is over the last few months. We have a lot of young players and they’ve still got potential for improvement."
The sporting director was also asked which had been the toughest deal to negotiate: "In terms of media pressure the toughest was Kondogbia. But the hardest was Perisic from Wolfsburg, because German clubs work on different timescales and are very demanding."
Asked about future transfer targets, Ausilio replied: "We have some ideas. Thinking about how to improve is part of our job, so we look around to see if there is anyone who fits the bill. A deep-lying midfield player? We have some excellent midfielders who can bring a lot to Inter and they’ve shown that in recent games."
It was also put to Ausilio that his comments after the defeat to Juventus had drawn a positive reaction from the players: "Obviously it wasn’t planned and I would have been happy not to have said anything. At the time I wanted to say something, to inject some impetus. A team like Inter, with the calibre of players we have at this club, has the obligation to fight in every game.
"We’d had a fantastic first half but we stopped fighting to turn the game around far too early. We have a great squad and when the players realise that they show the quality we all know they have."
Finally, conversation turned to the last part of the season: "We’re all working hard, every day – the team, the coach and the whole club. We’re focused on the possibility of achieving our objective of third place. That doesn’t mean we’re sure we can do it, but we want to do what’s possible to try and pull it off, then we’ll take stock at the end of the season.
"At the start of the season there are six or seven teams wanting to achieve the same objectives. Two manage it, one has to go into the play-off and the others might miss out by a single point."
The full interview will be broadcast on Inter Channel at 21:00 CET on Thursday as part of InterNos.
