Inter Milan News

Appiano: Ranieri press conference info

APPIANO GENTILE – Claudio Ranieri will hold his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s game against Chievo at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (2011/12 Serie A, Week tomorrow, Saturday 22 October 2011, from 13:00 in the press room at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti.

The press conference will be broadcast live exclusively on Inter Channel (Sky Italia, channel 232).

Journalists and radio/TV representatives (no photographers) may enter the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti from 12:45.

Massimo Moratti is there to see off the team

APPIANO GENTILE – A short time ago the F.C. Internazionale coach with Claudio Ranieri on board, along with his technical staff and 20 team members who had been called up for tomorrow’s early kick off at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, left the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti. After the final training session and the press conference, the coach and the players were seen off by president Massimo Moratti.

The team is scheduled to travel to Bologna by train, before going to a hotel which has been carefully selected for them as they prepare for the Week 5 Serie A 2011/12 league match which kicks off at 18:00.

Ranieri: "The next game is always the big one"

APPIANO GENTILE – "The next match is always the most important one," replied Claudio Ranieri, when asked if he had thought about his return to the Stadio Olimpico to face Roma."

"Well, I’m not one to care too much about the name of the opposition. You go out onto the pitch, you knock, you fight and that’s it," said the coach. "I’m dedicating my concentration completely to tomorrow’s match, then we’ll have Moscow and then Napoli. It’s too far ahead to be thinking into the future."

On the subject of tomorrow’s game Wesley Sneijder’s name wasn’t on the player-list, as he picked up a thigh strain in training: "I had told him to take it easy considering he had already had a minor problem, but he’s a dedicated professional and when he saw a good chance he shot on goal and felt the twinge. So, I’m not taking him to Bologna; I don’t want to risk him and I hope he’ll be fit in time for Moscow."

The Japanese journalists at Appiano Gentile asked the new coach for a comment on Yuto Nagatomo: "Nagatomo has settled in very well; he’s a great, great player, he’s very careful and diligent, always ready to do what he’s asked to. He’s quick and he can adapt his game to play on the left or on the right. I like him."

Finally looking over his present situation which has turned to blue and black and a changing atmosphere at the club: "Ideas about what to do? I have plenty of ideas, it’s just a question of putting them into practice. Crossing and getting the ball into the box is what these boys do best. They have always created scoring opportunities and in many cases they didn’t put them away on account of bad luck and I hope this change of atmosphere will make itself felt…"

Ranieri: "We can’t cancel the past"

APPIANO GENTILE – "There nothing in the past that I would cancel; it’s impossible to cancel anyway: Helenio Herrera, José Mourinho, can’t be cancelled and won’t ever be forgotten. José and I were enemies, but that was more for the media than anything else, to fan the flames of controversy. I have always had great respect for him and we greeted each other warmly when we met," said Claudio Ranieri of the recent and not so recent past, a past to hold dear. "A past which was wonderful and I hope that our present will be the same. I think I have one quality: when I feel something I can transmit it to the players and that’s what football is all about, simplicity."
The new coach wanted to stress one thing in particular: "I don’t think I have ever behaved badly towards Inter fans."

Is it true that Ranieri would like to see a figure like Gian Paolo Montali at Inter? Asked the journalists in the press conference: "I have never gone into matters like these. I have always done my job which involves technical and tactical aspects. I’m not cut out for managerial roles."

Ranieri: "If it hadn’t been for Herrera…"

APPIANO GENTILE – "The first press conference always goes well: the journalists are all good, they ask and they want to know. Then we’ll see how the second one goes, and the third, but that’s all part of the job, at this stage we are vaccinated against them." Claudio Ranieri told Inter Channel of his first impressions immediately after his meeting with the press as new coach of Inter, when he was officially presented in the press conference, which finished a short time ago at the Centro Sportivo Angelo Moratti.

There were many questions and the Nerazzurri coach replied with his thoughts, emotions and objectives for the future. There was one question he hadn’t been expecting, though. "I didn’t understand that question about the fans, because it implied that I am not welcome for some Inter supporters. I didn’t understand it because I can honestly say that whether I’m in Milan or elsewhere, I have always been respected."

At this stage Roberto Scarpini passed on messages to Ranieri from Inter fans that had been sent to the studio, which describe the Inter coach as he really is, a well-mannered, well-behaved person and a very sporting adversary: "I think I’m like this all the time; everything I do, I do it with love and passion. Of course there were some skirmishes with José Mourinho, but this is all part of the logic in the press and we played on it, too. A verbal argument is one thing, the mutual respect which two people have always had for one another is something different."

A striped blue and black shirt with his name on it was the first present Inter gave to the new coach. "Who would Claudio Ranieri be if he were still a player today? Chivu, an outside left. But what I can tell you now is that if I’m here today, it’s all thanks to Herrera: it was he who chose me from among a thousand little boys, If Helenio Herrera hadn’t been at Roma, I might not have been here today."

An English television company was waiting to interview the coach after the exclusive on Inter Channel and Claudio Ranieri moved off with a smile: "I’d better go now. I have to speak English and if I don’t concentrate, people will think Mourinho was right when he said I only know how to say ‘good morning’ and ‘good afternoon’…[smiling, Ed]."

And so from all of us ‘Good Luck Mr Ranieri!’