Inter sporting director Piero Ausilio backs Geoffrey Kondogbia to improve – “he’s a great talent”.
The French international joined the Nerazzurri for a €40m fee from Monaco this summer, but has so far failed to impress.
“He needs to get to know everything,” Ausilio explained, standing in for Roberto Mancini at the pre-match Press conference ahead of the Chievo game.
Inter sporting director Piero Ausilio backs Geoffrey Kondogbia to improve – “he’s a great talent”.
The French international joined the Nerazzurri for a €40m fee from Monaco this summer, but has so far failed to impress.
“He needs to get to know everything,” Ausilio explained, standing in for Roberto Mancini at the pre-match Press conference ahead of the Chievo game.
“His teammates, the media, the country and everything else. Sometimes the media pay more attention to him that anyone else, you shouldn’t always think about his price tag.
“He’s just a lad, he needs time to grow, and he’ll be given a lot of advice. He’s dedicated, a great professional and a great talent.
“This talk will soon be forgotten.”
Many have suggested that the Beneamata’s biggest problem is midfield, so why did they only sign striker Eder in the January transfer window?
“We could only get one player. At the beginning we wanted to get a midfielder, but there wasn’t the quality out there that you’d think.
“In terms of cost and quality, we didn’t find anyone who could do the job.
“You can play in a lot of different ways in football, so we evaluated everything with the Coach [Mancini] and decided the right thing to do was get someone for the attack.
“Eder is different from the other players in our squad, our attacking department is one of the best and all our strikers have different characteristics.
“The former Sampdoria man has completed our transfer campaign, then we couldn’t get a midfielder so we took [Assane] Gnoukouri off the market.
“He did well last year, he’s an asset to us. Mancini admires him and we think that with him our midfield is complete.”
The sporting director was then asked about some potential summer targets, including Sevilla’s Ever Banega, who is thought to have signed a pre-contract agreement.
“We know he’s out of contract. We’re following him, but at the moment there’s nothing more.
“Ezequiel Lavezzi? Those whose contracts are running out are profitable opportunities, but we haven’t yet taken any decisions for next season.
“You can’t argue with a player like him, we’re considering.
“Andrea Pirlo? He was never close to Inter.
“Roberto Soriano? We were focused in the direction, then we took Eder and left a good relationship with the Blucerchiati.
“We worked hard to bring him to Milan straight away, and he’ll definitely remain an important consideration for next season.
“Yaya Toure? I don’t have the strength to think about that now.”