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>One day I called Beppe Marotta on the phone: just him and me, no intermediaries. I told him that I would have loved to have Lautaro in my team and that I had a great deal of admiration for the player. But he didn’t even let me finish speaking. He told me clearly that the player was not for sale and that it would not be up to him to decide whether or not to transfer, because Inter wanted to keep him.
>At that point, I stopped pursuing the matter; there was no way to go any further. Marotta and I have a relationship of mutual trust, and we didn’t take things any further out of respect for him and for Inter.”
Lautaro:
>Regrets? We always say it: this is a competition of fine margins. When you make a mistake, you pay the price. Today, we made two mistakes right away when we had started well, managing possession well. Obviously, if you go 2-0 down, it becomes difficult. They are a strong team.
>But Inter played with personality, like a great team. A performance at their level, against a team that is fighting for the Champions League. And that is a goal for us too, because every competition you play in this shirt, you play to win.
>We didn’t make the most of all our chances, but we leave with our heads held high. We played at a very high level against a great opponent.
>Courtois is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, but there was also a bit of us in that. We need to improve in front of goal. We could have done better; we need to improve in that aspect. Now we have to change gears and win the next one
> Last season started with the Champions League final that we lost against PSG. The work started immediately. We all worked together, pulling in the same direction to improve. I think we achieved an incredible double, something nobody expected. On a personal level, it was an incredible season, with goals and assist records
> Now, Inter-Napoli. Napoli are a strong team; they finished second last year. We haven’t beaten them for several matches, so we’ll have to bring home three crucial points.
> Ausilio’s departure? Honestly, I didn’t expect it. I read about it in the newspapers after training. He’s someone I’m close to and someone I care about. I want to give him a hug and wish him the very best of luck for the future.