Chivu: ‘Expectations were high on Inter, Lautaro will continue to write history’ | OneFootball

Inter head coach Cristian Chivu says that he feels that there were high expectations on his Inter squad heading into the 2025-26 season, that the players did not have enough time to prepare for the Serie A campaign following the Club World Cup and insists that captain Lautaro Martinez will continue breaking club records for years to come.

Chivu on Inter’s 2025-26 season and Lautaro future

The Nerazzurri tactician, who won the domestic double during his first full season as a head coach in 2025-26, gave a brief review of his Scudetto and Coppa Italia-winning campaign in an interview with Bleacher Report.

Chivu is part of an exclusive list of individuals to have won the Serie A title for Inter both as a player and coach.

“As a player and a coach now, it’s a lot of responsibility knowing what the club means in history, what it means for the supporters,” Chivu said. “It’s nice on both sides of this situation as a player and as a coach.”

MILAN, ITALY – MAY 17: Cristian Chivu, Head Coach of FC Internazionale Milano, looks on during the trophy presentation after the Serie A match between FC Internazionale and Hellas Verona FC at Giuseppe Meazza Stadium on May 17, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Despite the concerns that Inter would struggle this season after a thumping in the Champions League final by PSG last season and the subsequent departure of Simone Inzaghi, Inter went almost uncontested for the Serie A title this term.

Still, Chivu thinks that there was too much external pressure put on his players.

“The expectation was high. Don’t forget that we didn’t have time to do a proper preparation (because of) the Club World Cup, we only had three weeks of holiday and yeah, you could see that.”

But, in the end, he thinks that hard work is what won Inter their 2025-26 titles.

“(It’s a lot of) human people that do their part and with the ambitions that they had, the accountability they had during the season, and the hard work that they put into it, everything becomes easier. Easier in terms of trying to be competitive, trying to be the best version of whatever we had at that moment. Step by step we built something that allowed us to celebrate at the end of the season.”

ROME, ITALY – MAY 13: Lautaro Martinez of FC Internazionale Milano celebrates after the team’s victory in the Coppa Italia Final match between SS Lazio and FC Internazionale at Stadio Olimpico on May 13, 2026 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images)

Chivu also spoke about his captain, Lautaro:“The history of this club has always had great strikers who gave their best for the club, they write the history of this club.

“Lautaro is something special because he’s still playing for us and he can still raise his numbers. If I look at the top scorers in the history of Inter, he’s no.3 and he’s still here and he’s still part of this team, part of this club and I think he’s going to write more pages in the history of this club.”