Inter CEO Beppe Marotta believes Inter have found a ‘remedy’ to their ‘mysterious handicap’ while Cristiano Ronaldo was not the reason for his departure from Juventus. Marotta was interviewed by Radio Anch’io Lo Sport and offered his assessment of the Nerazzuri’s progress so far this season, impending contract renewals and the recent Cristiano Ronaldo controversy.
SCUDETTO PROTAGONISTS – “Nothing important has changed since yesterday except the awareness that we can be protagonists all the way. An anomalous championship in which we will start on January 1. It is something unprecedented and we are curious to see what the athletic performances will be. For the trainers it will be difficult, we will have to understand player by player what deficiencies there will be.”
MYSTERIOUS HANDICAP – “We had a mysterious handicap whose origins we did not understand. The team and the coach have found the remedies even though home and away record is a sensation, with 18 goals conceded out of the 22 total. This element should give us pause for thought and should make the coach find remedies, that is our task for the holidays.”
DZEKO – “Are you in danger of Dzeko ending up like Perisic? I don’t think so, he has shown he wants to stay with us. He deserves the renewal, he is a great professional and is attached to the shirt. Like many ‘oldies’ he has the habit of scoring goals. We will take this into account, our desire is to renew but there must also be the explicit will of the player.”
RESPECT FOR ZHANG – “I think we have to give great respect to the Zhang family, they have lavished €800 million by giving a lot to Inter and the footballing system. With the pandemic everyone has had financial contractions and ethically it is also right that you can no longer flaunt million-dollar investments. You have to be good and competent to be competitive in a complicated world.”
LUKAKU – “Certainly this injury was unforeseen and unpredictable, conditioned by the desire to return quickly. You have to be cautious, but that’s part of the business risk when you have a roster of 25. I am of the opinion that there should be no competitive stress like there has been this season because it leads to a high number of injuries and we are only halfway through the season. The hope is that he can return sooner rather than later.”
MARKET OPPORTUNITIES – “Transfer market? Opportunities should be taken but for big clubs there are not that many. Honestly, it’s a competitive group for our goals.”
JUVE’S DISSEMINATION – “In a club it is normal that there are different visions but I was not totally against the Ronaldo operation, but that was not the element of our ‘divorce’. My cycle was toward the end.”
RONALDO – “CR7’s outburst? It is part of the great passion he has toward his profession. Football has represented everything for him, it is difficult to live even with a physical decline at 37 years old.”
D’ONOFRIO CASE – “I am sure Gravina will be able to resolve it, provided that we are facing an unprecedented case.”
THE TITLE RACE – “We played our 15th game yesterday, in the first seven we are the only ones that played seven home games instead of eight. This is not a small fact because at home we have an almost entirely victorious record. Even last year Napoli was in the lead, today they have five more points than last season which is the most extraordinary fact. We have four less. There are 69 points available, so January 4 will not be decisive, because the difficulty that provincial teams put in front of you should also be evaluated. It is curious to see what shape we will be in when we return.”
SUSTAINABILITY – “One thing is the national sphere, one thing is the European one with leagues that are continuously growing with greater revenues than Italy, which is in continuous contraction. After having 15 trophies in Europe from 87′ to 96′ we are now less competitive. The value of production has decreased and we suffer. Today you have to look at the sustainability of the product. If you can’t attract the attention of big industrialists you have to reduce costs, mainly that of labor, which affects around 70 percent. New stadium? The general picture is that we are at the tail end, with only four stadiums owned and facilities with an average age of 60 years. The stadium as an asset is a highly negative aspect in Italy. There are bureaucratic difficulties, we would need a smoother process. The situation, taken care of by Antonello, is a stalemate and I hope it can be resolved.”
