Author: isport

Liverpool have brought in the Inter Milan midfielder Philippe Coutinho in a deal worth around £ 8.5 million. The 20-year-old Brazilian midfielder has been rated as one of the best prospects in world football, but he has been unable to get regular first-team action at the Italian club.

He will now become the second major signing from Liverpool in the January transfer window after the £ 12 million arrival of Daniel Sturridge. Philippe Coutinho has said that this is a major step in his career and he has praised the history of Liverpool.

Coutinho was also subjected to interest from the Premier league club Southampton, but he decided to join Liverpool instead. Coutinho spent the last season on loan at the Spanish club Espanyol, who were managed by the current Southampton manager. It threatened to swing the deal in favour of the relegation strugglers, but Liverpool have managed to get their target. Coutinho played for the Brazilian club Vasco da Gama before moving to Inter Milan in a £ 4.5 million deal. He is an attacking midfielder who is capable of playing as a second striker as well. It remains to be seen if he will be able to start alongside Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge.

“I’m feeling very happy, it’s a very important step in my career. Liverpool is a great club with great players. We’ve always heard about Liverpool’s history in Brazil. I know they believe in me and my football,” said the player on the official website of the club. “We’re always delighted when we get the players we go after. It has been a successful transfer window for us, coming off the back of acquiring Daniel Sturridge from Chelsea and now Philippe from Inter Milan,” said Liverpool’s director Ian Ayre. The player has won Brazilian international cap to his name.

The Inter Milan manager Andrea Stramaccioni has said that he wants to go into the winter break with Inter Milan in the second place.

The club are currently looking to spoil the title chances of Juventus by managing a title victory after many years. The club are currently rejuvenated under the young manager Andrea Stramaccioni, who has helped the team rise up the table once again on a relatively low-budget.

Juventus will open a 10 point advantage between them and Inter Milan if they manage to fit Cagliari on Tuesday night. Despite this, Stramaccioni is extremely happy with the way the season has turned out so far.
A major concern for the Inter Milan manager will be the form of the chasing pack that includes Lazio, Napoli, and Roma. Amongst the trio, Lazio have been the inform team over the last couple of weeks. They will be able to overtake Inter Milan into the second spot if the Milan team does not improved form over the next few weeks.

Stramaccioni has said that it is extremely vital that Inter finish in the second position going into the winter break. Stramaccioni is still confident about winning the title and he has recalled how AC Milan struggled to maintain a similar advantage a few years ago.

“Last year Juve were behind Milan but when they didn’t win they made up the ground. First of all we are looking for consistent results, because if you don’t sow any seeds you can’t harvest any rewards. I have to give tomorrow’s game a lot of respect – it’s fundamental for us. Although Genoa are not having a good time, they can embarrass anyone in a single game. It’s important that we do well and make sure of second place in the standings,” said the Inter Milan manager.

The Real Madrid manager José Mourinho has once again spoken of his admiration for the Italian club Inter Milan, with whom he managed to win the famous treble in 2010. José Mourinho moved to Inter Milan after being sacked by Chelsea.

Even though he was not successful in his initial seasons with the club, he managed to leave the club in 2010 as one of the greatest managers in the history of the club. José Mourinho led Inter Milan to the Italian Serie A title, the Italian cup, and the Champions League title all in one season. After the win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, he announced that he was leaving for the Spanish club Real Madrid.

Now, he has revealed that it was one of the toughest decisions he has taken in his life because leaving Inter Milan was a very tough. He said that he felt extremely happy when he was at the club, and he wanted to stay at the club for much longer. However, he could not do so because he was offered the Real Madrid job for the third time. He had to leave Inter Milan in order to make history with Real Madrid because the opportunity does not come often.

“What nostalgia I have for Inter! I moved on because winning with Real Madrid will make me enter history, but my heart remains Nerazzurro. Inter is the club with which I wanted to stay longer. Nowhere else gave me the same happiness. Inter are a family and I belong to the Nerazzurri family forever. When I left I cried more than once. I lived in a fantastic environment at Pinetina where I trained and at the Meazza,” said José Mourinho. He managed to help Real Madrid win the league title for the first time in three years last season.

The Inter Milan manager Andrea Stramaccioni has said that he is extremely happy to be compared with the former Inter Milan manager José Mourinho. He was recently compared with the Portuguese manager by the President of the club Massimo Moratti after the spectacular 1-0 win over the arch rivals AC Milan during the weekend.

Massimo Moratti compared the style of working and the dedication both the managers have to the game. Speaking about this praise, the Inter Milan manager Andrea Stramaccioni said that he could not be any more happier. However, the 36-year-old has also downplayed suggestions by saying that he still has a long way to go before he can achieve the same things done by the 49-year-old Mourinho.

The former Chelsea manager is regarded as one of the best in the world after having lifted more than 20 titles in the last 10 seasons with four different clubs across four different nations in Europe. He has also managed to lift the Champions league title with two different teams in two different countries. Many regard him to be the best in the world for this reason. The Inter Milan president recently revealed that he is a staunch admirer of the 49-year-old and was extremely sad to see him go to Real Madrid in 2010.

“I’ve very proud of what the president said. I can only smile at the comparison because I’m a nobody, while Mourinho has won everywhere that he has gone. I feel fortunate to have caught the attention of a club like Inter, first with the youth team, and Moratti was following the Primavera and appointed me. That’s why I work every day on the training pitch to try and repay his faith in me. I’m happy at the moment, but I need to stay grounded because there is a long way to go,” said Andrea Stramaccioni.

The Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti has said that the manager of the club, Andrea Stramaccioni is the right man for the job and he has a number of unique qualities that will make him one of the best managers in the world. After the sacking of Claudio Ranieri, the club decided to appoint the youth team manager Andrea Stramaccioni as the manager of first-team.

Andrea Stramaccioni was coming into the job with relatively very little experience of managing top players. However, he did a very good job with the team in the second half of the season to get them into the sixth position, which provided them with the Europa league football.

Apart from backing Andrea Stramaccioni to the job, the Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti has also backed him substantially in the transfer window this season. He has been able to bring in a number of quality players from the Italian Serie A, which is likely to make them compete for the title again. Speaking after the match against Roma in which Inter Milan suffered a 3-1 defeat, the Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti has said that Stramaccioni has the right qualities to take Inter Milan forward.

“I wasn’t especially brave in choosing him [Stramaccioni], I thought he had all the attributes necessary to do the job and I was right about his qualities as a human being. I like being able to put my trust in young people and those who have made history at the club. I feel able to do so and that’s the best thing. This is a very important year, where we’re building on Inter’s core values – which I believe very much in,” said Inter Milan President Massimo Moratti in an interview given on the official website of the club ahead of this weekend’s match.

Inter Milan midfielder Esteban Cambiasso has said that the club should not have a repeat of the last season, in which they finished well below the top three positions.

In Italy, only finishing in the top three will ensure a place in the Champions League group stages, which is very important for a club like Inter Milan with a huge wage bill.

The revenue provided by the Champions League group stage as is very much important towards running the club because it would also help the club of bringing new talent. Due to the lack of the European football, Inter Milan are not likely to attract some of the biggest names in world football to the San Siro.

In order to become competitive in the domestic and European front, it is essential that the club finish in the top three and in the Champions League places according to the midfielder Esteban Cambiasso. The Argentine midfielder was part of the Inter Milan team that lifted the treble only two seasons ago. However, after changing three managers during the course of the season, Inter Milan struggled to have any kind of consistency last season and finished in the sixth position. Cambiasso was linked with a move away (into a man utd tshirt) but has stayed to fight for the club in the Europa League so far.

“We can only blame ourselves for being in this situation. This match is the consequence of what happened last season. In previous years we played in August for the European Super Cup, this time for the Europa League qualifiers. Inter can afford a year like this, but only one year,” said the midfielder ahead of the start of the new season. Inter Milan are currently on pre-season tour and have been good in the pre-season friendlies so far. The club will be facing the newly promoted club Pescara in the opening day of the season and Cambiasso stressed the importance of three points from this match.

Inter Milan manager Andrea Stramaccioni has confirmed that he does not want to see Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder leave the club in the summer transfer window, but has also acknowledged that the club would have no other option but to sell the player is the price is right.

It is a well-known fact that Inter Milan are struggling severely with financial crisis for the last couple of seasons due to the spiralling wage bill. Wesley Sneijder is that the one of the high earners at the club. He is reportedly on contract worth around € 8 million per season. Due to the fact that Inter Milan will not be playing in the Champions League next season, they need to find other sources of revenue.

The club are also linked with a £ 25 million move for Santos midfielder Lucas. It is thought that they will be able to complete the deal only with the sale of Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder, who has not been at his best in the last couple of seasons since helping the club win the treble in 2010. Andrea Stramaccioni will be starting his first major job as a manager this season. He has admitted that he would hate to lose a player of the quality of Wesley Sneijder.

“As far as I know, he is an Inter player and will stay here. I haven’t had any news to the contrary from the director, the club or the player himself. Apart from that, I’m sure that if an offer comes in like that for Ibrahimovic or Thiago Silva then anyone can be sold, except for Cordoba and Zanetti,” said Stramaccioni. Stramaccioni has also said that the club will be focusing more on the youngsters on the books like Philippe Coutinho. The 20-year-old spent the last season on loan at Spanish club Espanyol.

Inter Milan have said that they are not in a rush to enter into the transfer market as yet. The 2010 European champions have slipped out of the top three in the Italian Serie A. As a result, they will not be taking part in the Champions League next season, which is a major blow to the finances of the club.

Inter Milan are already suffering from huge debts and spiralling wages. The fact that they have missed out on the opportunity to have at least £ 30 million in revenue from the Champions League means that they will be cautious in the transfer market. It has proven to be the case after they are yet to make any inroads into the market.

It has caused some displeasure amongst fans, but the club has said that they still remain strong favourites to sign their targets. One of the high profile players linked with a move to Inter Milan has been São Paulo midfielder Lucas. Current European Champions Chelsea made a £ 35 million bid for Lucas, which was rejected by the club. Inter Milan, though, were the first club to register an interest in the player, but their bid of £ 25 million was deemed not good enough by the Brazilian club.

“Moura? It’s only June 11 and there is all the time in the world to prepare the squad well. We want to strengthen our team and our president (Massimo Moratti) has given us guarantees in that respect. Our aim is to be competitive next season in Italy and in Europe,” said Inter Milan sporting director Piero Ausilio to Sky Italia.

Ausilio also has said that the club have not been in touch with Parma regarding the possibility of signing Giovinco. The 25-year-old striker has been linked with a move away from Parma. Nor have they shown any interest in signing David Beckham.

Brazilian defender Lucio has revealed that he will be leaving Italian club Inter Milan at the end of the season. Lucio is considered as a legend at the San Siro having been part of the Inter Milan team that won the treble a few seasons ago under manager José Mourinho.

It remains to be seen if the feat will ever be achieved again. Lucio was a surprise addition to the squad by José Mourinho after he had been let go by German club Bayern Munich in the summer. The Brazilian defender was signed for just around £ 5 million by Inter Milan.

Now, his time at the San Siro has come to an end after he has officially submitted a transfer request that has been accepted by the club. According to his agent, there is a very good chance that Lucio will return to Brazil in order to play in his home country before attempting to be the Brazilian squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Even though he was an excellent signing during the initial few years of his Inter Milan career, he has struggled a lot for form this season. It is highly unlikely that he’ll be picked on a regular basis next season.

His agent, though, has said that there is also a good chance that he might be signing for European club at least for the next two seasons. “He had three excellent years at Inter and feels it’s time to make a change. We have been working on this since last week and resumed talks on Wednesday. We put in a transfer request and Inter have agreed. Now we have to find him a new club. Considering the man he is and the player he is, Lucio only leaves friends behind everywhere he goes. The decision to leave came from us, but Inter understood it. This has been entirely amicable,” said his agent Sandro Becker.

When Massimo Moratti took control of Inter Milan in the 1990’s he promised to bring success to Inter at all costs.

They had failed to win the European cup since the mid 60’s and were constantly in the shadow of AC and Juventus.

He invested heavily and attempted to buy the best in the world to bring success to the San Siro. He brought in the likes of Ronaldo and Christian Vieri and attempted to “buy success” in the way that Real Madrid and Chelsea would go on to do in the years down the line.

But even with the likes of Ronaldo, Vieri, Figo and many other big names they would fail to win the Serie A title, fail to win the Coppa Italia and their only success would come in Europe’s third tier competition of the time, the UEFA Cup, which they made their own by winning it in 1991, 1994 and 1998. But for a side who spent the volumes of money Inter did this shows the incompetence they showed. In their finals they defeated Roma, Salzburg and Lazio. Hardly giants of the European game and only going to highlight the level that Inter managed to reach.

Their lack of success continued into the 00’s and it took one of the greatest manager’s in modern football to end their wait for major glory. Bringing in Jose Mourinho and giving him huge amounts of money to spend was the only way to bring Inter some glory. Mourinho would win everything in sight, winning the first treble by an Italian side. He then left for Madrid though, showing that Inter was never his end goal. They are not on the same level as the English and Spanish sides but they will, for some reason, always claim to be on their level.

Inter believe they are a European super power, but this is not true. They are no more welcome at Europe’s top table than Porto, Bayer Leverkusen and Chelsea. Big clubs yes, but in Europe’s true elite? No chance.