The former general director of Inter, Marco Fassone, was interviewed in the program ‘Tutti Convocati’ on Radio 24. During the program, Fassone answered questions from hosts Carlo Genta, Giovanni Capuano e Pierluigi Pardo, starting with the future and the present: “For now I’m enjoying a little football without the stress of being a director which is terrible. What I will do? I have no idea, we will see what my future holds. The scenarios are many, I will jump on the first interesting project that will happen to me.” On a possible candidacy for the Lega Serie A, Fassone adds: “A rumor that I read, but in reality there is nothing concrete. Nobody called me, not even for a survey, they are hypotheses without confirmation.”

How much does Italian football need to change despite the upswing in recent years? “I think Italian football has shown signs of recovery after hitting bottom, we were and we are still far behind the European football which has moved faster. There is still a way to go, to work on reforms, a revolution to be pursued. The judgment of President Carlo Tavecchio is positive because last year FIGC gave birth to a series of reforms that had never been seen, beyond the slips of communication which he ran into. The Lega has a cast after Calciopoli, giving itself a statute where the declaration authorized all the decisions to the assembly. We must get back to being more policy makers, at the time of Adriano Galliani the Lega was the engine of Italian football. Maurizio Beretta and the general manager Marco Brunelli can do little because everything must pass the assembly.” But what does Erick Thohir think of Tavecchio? “I don’t want to communicate the thoughts of the president who did not appreciate certain words. But one thing is communication, Tavecchio the president is another, who wanted to explain a concept that was right for the protection of the youth sector.”

Evaristo Beccalossi, who is asked, as well as Fassone, if Inter will win the Scudetto: “I would sign for third place,” said Becca; Fassone responded: “Inter was built to reach the Champions League, for the title there are teams better equipped. But the winner will be one of the four teams who are currently at the top.”

Was this the Inter you thought of early in the season? “It is no coincidence that Inter has improved in defense, the first pieces that arrived with Piero Ausilio were Jeison Murillo and Joao Miranda. To improve the defense was the priority, then there is Samir Handanovic who is experiencing one of his best seasons. Roberto Mancini works hard on the construction phase. When you win many games 1-0 playing so-so it is fine on a performance level, there are seasons that will tell you that many championships have been won with starts like this.” And speaking of the coach and the phone calls to the players, he adds: “Many of his phone calls were important. When you have to convince the players to accept your proposal, despite not having much money, it is important to have a convincing coach. He works hard with the team, he is not subject to the decisions but he takes part often and gladly. Several purchases were initiated by him. Our team included the coach. Of course, in the end we also made compromises between ideas and reality, but he agreed. The experience in England has benefited him in terms of managerial skills, he is a great traveling companion.”

When it comes to the  Champions League, Fassone emphasizes: “In financial statements as those of Inter and Milan the participation in the group stage has a relative weight. We in Italy, have improved the culture of participation in the Europa League where results have improved. There are problems in the preliminaries and this affects the ranking of the country.”

There was also talk of his former teams, starting with Napoli: “How difficult is it to work with Aurelio De Laurentiis? Not more than others. He has showed with the numbers and the facts that he is very good and he has become more and more responsible, and his results are and always were very good. He’s a decision maker, devotes much time to Napoli. If you know him, working with him is not complicated. Nothing rules out a return to working together with him. When Inter signed Walter Mazzarri, I think he tried to convince him to stay longer, then the bad blood for the refusal can happen. But he was not angry with the Nerazzurri.”

But what was it that did not work for Mazzarri at Inter? “In the first year he didn’t do badly, considering the context with the sale company and the many players with expiring contracts. The following year we tried to build a team that was tailored as much as possible to him, However, there were environmental situations of tension created with the public and with the media, and even inside, which prevented him from expressing himself as he can, to the point that he had to be replaced.”

On possible signings in January: “I don’t think that something there’s anything missing to buy, maybe in January there will be some adjustments made. But I think that getting more midfielders, knowing that not more than three play, and that there already are six players in the squad will not be helpful. I’d rather send Assane Gnoukouri to play elsewhere considering that he doens not play anymore since Felipe Melo’s arrival. With Thohir you must always explain why you make the investments, he is very rational and then, in order to tell you yes or no, you need to explain the reasons well. The squad is still big and maybe he wants the squad to make sense in terms of numbers.”

Fassone was also asked about his opinion on the dismissals of Beppe Iachini and Walter Zenga: “Maurizio Zamparini is a man of football, he has seen something unconvincing in the methods of Iachini and the same with Massimo Ferrero… When you make certain decisions they are always weighed with the staff. Zenga close to Inter? Last year the only name evaluated as an alternative to Mazzarri was Mancini, otherwise we would have moved in a different way.”

he then returned to the farewell to Mazzarri and the little empathy he created with the environment: “The Inter bench, especially at times like those with ownership changes, may create a load of pressure that prevents a coach from performing as he would like and how we thought he could have performed at Inter.”

Source: fcinternews.it