Inter CEO Beppe Marotta is not impressed with Roma striker Romelu Lukaku trying to reframe why he left San Siro. ‘We showed him recognition, respect and trust.’
The centre-forward was on loan from Chelsea last season and just as Inter were in talks to make the move permanent, it emerged he was negotiating with their arch-rivals Juventus.
He ended up joining Roma on loan instead, but this week insisted in a Belgian press conference that people would be ‘shocked’ to know what really happened behind the scenes.
“I have seen many of these situations on the transfer market and nothing surprises me now,” said Marotta at the Gazzetta dello Sport festival.
“Sometimes trust can turn into losing hope and then disappointment. In football, money is what rules everything, and I say that for what regards Inter in the recent past. But that is the past, so let us look to the future.”
Inevitably, Marotta’s comments were linked with the Lukaku statements, so do Inter have their own version of events?
“Lukaku is free to say his truth, naturally. I don’t think that being left on the bench in the Champions League Final will have influenced his decision, especially as we showed him recognition, respect and trust.
“Our conscience is clear. This is a pointless controversy and we don’t want to fall into that trap.”
When Roma play Inter at San Siro, the Nerazzurri ultras have purchased 50,000 whistles that will be handed out to make their jeers deafening every time Lukaku touches the ball.
“I did hear about that. It is better that they cheer on our players, but I do understand the fans have the right to criticise in a civilised manner.”
Inter have dropped down to second place in Serie A behind Milan after dropping points against Sassuolo and Bologna.
“We can play as protagonists and in a busy season it is natural that there should be dips. We are very competitive for the Scudetto, we proved that. It is almost more difficult to win the Scudetto than the Champions League, because there are so many games.”