Chivu: "The boys played for the badge right until the end"

“We had to honour the badge and everything we achieved this season. The boys gave their best on the pitch even though they didn’t have much energy left, they gave everything for the team. Then the players who came on showed their quality and contributed, helping us come back into the match. I’m happy for Cocchi, for Topalovic, for Diouf and for Pio, who reached double digits for goals this season. Of course, young players still need to grow, but we try to give them a taste of Serie A so they can understand the level of the league and how difficult the step up is. We’ll continue working in that direction. We hope it’s nothing serious for De Vrij so he can recover for the World Cup. I won’t be watching it - my family deserves my time because for the past year and three months I’ve been in a whirlwind, starting with Parma’s survival battle and then immediately moving to Inter. My wife and daughters will be the priority this summer. I’ll have to make an effort not to think about football, but I need to return to my family responsibilities. I gave everything for these wonderful players, for this club and for these fans. I’ll try not to be on my phone all the time, my family deserves that. This team has a lot of strengths that must not be lost. I’m happy with their work and patience, and now they’re all proving they can be competitive and belong in this squad. It’s their merit. We supported them to help them feel comfortable, but credit also goes to their teammates who welcomed them. We need a break. We’ve given so much and last year we went straight to the Club World Cup, where we spent three weeks playing many matches and honoring our duties and the shirt. We started again after just two weeks off, and now after nine months we have two trophies in the cabinet. A holiday is more than deserved!”