MILAN – “Our project is clear and we haveno doubts. We want a healthy club that’s competitive on the pitch and playsattractive football.” Statements from Erick Thohir to inter.it just a fewhours before the match against Chievo. The president will follow the clash fromJakarta along with a large group from Inter Club Indonesia.

He continued: “We can consider this seasonas a transitional one. Not a year zero. This is the last year of a fantasticcycle. The new cycle will begin next season.”

One certainty is Walter Mazzarri, and the president was clear: “Mazzarri is the right man for our project. We have a lot of confidence in his abilities. He adds value to this team.”

There has been a lot of talk in recent days regarding the transfer market, and Erick Thohir explained: “There aren’t many opportunities in the January transfer window. The fans shouldn’t expect marquee signings, but we’ll make some interesting moves should the possibilities arise.At any rate, we need to sell in order to create the right economic conditions for buying.”

The idea is to gradually build a stronger and more stable Inter: “We want to do the best we can, with the maximum commitment to be back competing in Europe again as soon as possible. The fans won’t have to wait long to see the results of our philosophy. We’ll start to see solid results on and off the pitch as early as next season.”  

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MILAN – Yuto Nagatomo spoke to the assembled Japanese press at the San Siro following Inter v Chievo.

“I’m very happy about the goal I scored, in fact I scored two but they disallowed one of them. And I wasn’t offside, it’s disappointing. Personally I feel good and am fit. Now we look forward and we’ll try to win our next match. Honda at AC Milan? It will be great to have another Japanese player here in Milan.”

MILAN – "Our journey continues to move
forward, and we’ll try to take a closer look and see what went wrong in the
first half. They’re young lads, so things like this can happen. We made our
presence felt much more in the second half. AC Milan deserved to win,
especially in the first half in which we just weren’t there from an individual
and team standpoint," explained Roberto Samaden.

"We and AC Milan will both be in it until
the end, in both the league as well as in the other competitions we’ll take
part in. Now we have Chievo and Lazio coming up. It’s good to have games like
these because the lads can show they’re not the team we saw in the first
half."

Then it was time for coach Salvatore Cerrone to
speak about his team: "We took the wrong approach mentally by playing a first
half that wasn’t very good. We also managed to create chances, especially in
the second half. Now we’ll get back to work. But it needs to be pointed out in
a more general context that this was only the first derby we’ve lost this
season. Obviously we’re sorry for the derby defeat, but it’s already time to
start looking ahead." 

MILAN – Nerazzurri sporting director Piero Ausilio spoke to Sky Sport Italia just ahead of Inter v Chievo.

Here’s what he had to say:

“This transfer window will be managed along the same lines as the previous two, keeping a close eye on figures and the budget. Having said that, some big players joined in previous windows. Handanovic, Palacio, Guarin, Icardi and Kovacic to name but a few. They will be the future of Inter for the next few years. We quite rightly have to review the numbers in our squad, given that we only have the league to think about, as well as giving some game time to the lads who haven’t featured much.

“Starting from scratch is a concept that applies neither to young players nor experienced ones. You build teams from their foundations, you need to start with the smallest, most stable parts and build the project upon them. This team is building its style with the coach. There are players here who, thanks to Mazzarri’s coaching and playing regularly, will become even better. You can see proof of that in the coach’s career: wherever he’s been, he’s done well. I’m sure that will be the case here too.

“Ranocchia has been labelled as the most likely man to leave? We want to look at things calmly. He’s a guy who’s done well and he can be the future of Inter. We have to concentrate on this game. Typically, if an offer comes in, we look at it.

“We need patience here at Inter because there’s been a change in ownership for the first time in 18 years. We won everything with the previous owners, now we need time. I know it’s difficult but we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves. We’re all calm and patient: it’s the only way to be. As I’ve said, you can’t begin with the roof, but with the foundations. We have very clear ideas.

“A Matri-Kuzmanovic swap deal? Kuzmanovic is an Inter player, Matri is at AC Milan: I really think it will remain that way.”