Inter Milan director admits defeat in Conte chase

Inter Milan are finishing the season in rather horrendous form, their 2-1 home defeat to Sassuolo earlier Sunday the fourth loss in row and eighth straight without a win. Their emphasis has clearly been on next season for some time — the old head coach has already been fired — with the new owners looking to invest to get the club back to where it belongs, among the elite of Serie A.

As with Chelsea last summer, rebuilding starts with a new head coach, and who better to hire for that task than the man himself who’s just done that job at Chelsea, right? After all, Conte likes to take teams in disarray and build them back up (Bari, Siena, Juventus, Italy) or at least try to (Atalanta).

But while Inter have made a good go at wooing Conte through the media, the Chelsea head coach looks to have no intentions of leaving as he starts preparations for next season alongside a new (record?) contract and support from his family who will be joining him in London after spending this season still living in Italy.

After all those months of rumors, ahead of their game on Sunday, Inter director Piero Ausilio has finally admitted that things aren’t exactly looking rosy in the search for a new head coach.

“I don’t know how we could convince Conte, or anyone, really. We know there are great Coaches out there and most of them are under contract.”

“We have some ideas, which I will not reveal, but the disadvantage of our place in the table is actually an advantage, because it gives us time to build and get our situation together.”

-Piero Ausilio; source: Football Italia

Not sure about that last bit of logic — the new owners will surely want action and improvement sooner rather than later — but it’s nice to hear a dose of reality as far as their supposed designs on signing Conte are concerned.

So, good luck to them in their search. Conte is ours, and they can’t have him.