New Inter manager Frank De Boer has insisted he wants to keep a hold of club captain Mauro Icardi in an interview with Premium Sport.
The Dutchman has only been in the job for just over a day, having taken over from Roberto Mancini but he knows that "Icardi is a very important player."
He continued to say, "He’s the one who has scored the most goals in the past two seasons and I don’t want to lose him. I’ve said it to the club and Ausilio too: I want Icardi to stay."
"We, the staff and squad, have to convince him. Icardi is in the right place" he said before adding "he can become even stronger here. I’m sure we’ll succeed."
He finished the section of the interview on Icardi saying "I can’t wait to work with him."
All mercato, 23-year-old Icardi's name has been linked with a move to Napoli to replace Gonzalo Higuain who headed for Juventus in a bumper €94 million deal.
Making other ambitions clear
In the interview De Boer also spoke of his arrival at the Nerazzurri saying that "For me it's a fantastic experience to be here, I'm happy to start my work at such an important club like Inter. I played with and I've trained great squads, but this is for me a step ahead because of the tradition of the club and I want to bring them back to where they deserve to stay."
The place De Boer speaks of is challenging for the Serie A title and European honours and that is undoubtedly not exclusively his ambitions but the clubs also after a few years of mediocrity since their history making triplete in the 2010-2011 season. Inter haven't lifted silverware since December 2011 when they won the club world cup and it will be hoped that De Boer can have similar success at Inter to the success he had at his first and only managerial role with Ajax where he won four league titles in six years.