Spalletti: 'Inter promises not kept'

By Football Italia staff

Luciano Spalletti admits he “lied” to fans last season, as Inter did not give him the players he wanted. “Promises were made and not kept. We can’t take fans for a ride.”

This could be a hint as to why the Coach was expected to announce a contract extension today, yet didn’t do that during a lengthy Press conference.

“I have to be careful how I say this so as not to create problems,” noted Spalletti.

“The club has to watch out for these Financial Fair Play parameters and then we’ll see what the objectives are. What happened last year is that certain promises were made and not kept.

“Now we begin again, but those who talk about a Scudetto push ought to take that into account.

“If the club provided me with a squad that was not suited to the target, then I’d come here and tell you the truth. I wouldn’t do like last year. Last year, I did not tell the truth. This year we are both happy to work together and go forward.

“People said we had to go into the Champions League, but we sold eight players and brought in six. We made a ham-fisted reshuffle, without precise choices. Then at a certain point, we said enough.

“Nobody made the decision, but there were changes that meant I could say that I no longer accepted the need to get into the Champions League.

“I was a reference point and couldn’t start criticising the place I worked in, so I just kept going. We had to make up a 20-point gap from the leaders, which might’ve seemed like a failure to you, but not for us.

“At the start, I said the target was the Champions League because we hadn’t had the summer transfer market yet. There was €150m to spend on the market, so we were told. That wasn’t the case. So I said things based on what I was told.

“The players did very well to get us into the top four, even when struggling to cover the gaps. As I said, if you want to talk about winning the Scudetto, you need a transfer market worthy of the club that wins it, otherwise it’ll be difficult.

“Our aspiration is to give the greatest satisfaction to our fans, but in this project there is a certain timeframe that goes beyond next season, because otherwise we start taking fans for a ride and it’s not fair. The fans must be protected, just as they protected us during difficult times.”

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