MILAN – President Erick Thohir landed at Milan Linate airport a short time ago and spoke briefly to the assembled press.

What can you tell us about the message you sent to Mazzarri? Would you consider keeping him on even if the team weren’t to qualify for Europe?

“Basically, I wanted to offer him my support, as I’ve said before. At the end of the season we will review the players and the coach together to build Inter’s future and that means preparing for next season, keeping in mind the World Cup and being ready for the tour to America.”

What was your reaction to the draw with Livorno?

“The players need to learn from the mistakes they made against Livorno, we need to get our focus back on the game because we still have matches to play. The positive thing is that we got a point. I always say we need points, and we’ll see. We have another match tomorrow and we’re already under pressure.”

Do you still have confidence in Mazzarri?

“If I didn’t have confidence in him, I would have let him go a couple of months ago.”

MILAN – Less than 24 hours after masterminding Olimpia Milano’s demolition of Barcelona at Mediolanum Forum in Euroleague Top 16 last night, Luca Banchi was at the Stadio Meazza today to give an altogether different demonstration of his ability.

The coach of Italy’s most decorated basketball team and without doubt one of the main architects of their fantastic season, Banchi was invited to share his expertise at FC Internazionale’s 10th refresher course for youth academy coaches this afternoon. And he didn’t disappoint, delivering a captivating talk to a group of coaches from Inter’s training centres and clubs affiliated with Inter Football Schools.

Banchi began his lesson by asking whether training methods honed for basketball can be fit for football. He then proceeded to demonstrate just how they can, covering topics that ranged from communication with the players to dealing with situations when performances start to wane… but also tips on how to keep things going well. He also touched on technical aspects such as change of direction and pace, and off-the-ball movement – some notions are universal.

Organised by the FC Internazionale youth academy, the course aims to analyse and expand on topics relating to the development and training of young footballers.

Besides Banchi, there were a number of other prestigious speakers, including Roberto Samaden, Daniele Bernazzani and Alessandro Pistone, as well as Maurizio Costanzi (head of Chievo Verona’s academy) and Paolo Mandelli (Sassuolo Primavera coach).

Among the interested participants taking it all in were two of Inter’s very own academy coaches, Salvatore Cerrone and Benoit Cauet, in charge of the Under-19s and Under-16s respectively. For them as for everyone else, it was a wonderful opportunity to share and compare ideas with like-minded professionals from a variety of backgrounds.