PERO – Inter president Erick Thohir spoke exclusively to Inter Channel at Monday’s youth academy 2016/17 presentation evening.
Thohir began by looking back at Sunday’s fabulous win over Juventus at San Siro:
"Like we said at the beginning of the season, it's not easy to change the coach two weeks before the season. But, of course, we have to make a decision on what is best for the club. Suning, myself as the president and the management believe in this project, Frank de Boer and the team.
"We have a good team to compete, but of course we usually struggle at the beginning of the season. Yesterday we showed to the fans and also to ourselves that we have a strong team to compete in Serie A. The players have to believe in that.
"Yesterday we celebrated not only the result from the sporting side of things, at the same time we broke the record again for the most revenue from ticket receipts in Serie A history. This is a back-to-back record, last year and this year – it's incredible. I think that shows the belief that Inter have taken up a new direction.
"We believe not only in the sporting side but that we need to grow on the business side too because, that way, as we believed two and a half years ago as well, we can get back to the top ten in the world. This is why we have built not only a strong management but also a strong team.
"Thank you to the fans who have really supported this project for two and a half years. We have had ups and down but we believe in the project, we work together for the project and we are also seeing the results. The fans showed that they support Inter in yesterday's game. I think this is what I want to say: thank you to the fans.
"I always say that Serie A is one of the toughest leagues in the world. If you look at the Premier League, they have six or seven strong teams, not like La Liga or the Bundesliga. So every match is important. We cannot say that after winning against Juventus, we're confident that we'll win every game. The most important thing is the preparation and belief of the team to fight, to give their best and to understand the tactics that Frank wants.
"The players have to stick together as a team to perform. It's important because every game in Serie A is tough. We have to fight and give our best in every match."
The Inter president also spoke about his plans for the Nerazzurri youth academy:
"We have invested a lot in the Inter academy over the last few years, not only in the players, coaches and the project, but also we are investing in their pitches. Now our Primavera can play at the same training ground as our first team in Pinetina. This is the belief that we want to build, this why Inter's Elite Academy is important for our overall project. This is why Inter's academy is growing globally because of the magic formula that we believe in.
"It's important for the first team and the coach, Frank de Boer, to believe in the young players. This is another reason we brought Frank in because we want to make sure the first team and the Primavera are connected. We want to bring more and more young talent into our first team. Senna Miangue is one of them, Assane Gnoukouri is another and hopefully some other players will make the step up: Ionut Andrei Radu is in the squad. So hopefully more and more players can be in the first team and others like Federico Dimarco can come back to make Inter stronger."
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