Inter Milan vice-president Javier Zanetti has said his club will have to sell players after being eliminated from the Europa League in the group phase.
Zanetti stressed that the club's new Chinese owners were ambitious and believed Inter could still qualify for the Champions League next season.
But he said the fact that this season had not gone according to plan so far meant they would need to reduce the wage bill in the January transfer window.
"The positive thing is that we have owners with great ambitions and we can build our foundations on this," fcinter1908.it reported him as saying.
"Let's just wait and see how we do in the games that remain and what will be possible. We have a lot of players on our books now and we've been knocked out of the Europa League, so we're going to have to work mainly on selling players."
Inter are currently 10th in Serie A, 11 points adrift of the top three, but Zanetti added: "We are obliged to try to the very end, for this club and for the colours we are defending.
"That means we will give it a go to the end and then we will evaluate where we arrive. We know we have a lot of problems, but we have got to have the strength to resolve these problems."
Zanetti said he believed coach Stefano Pioli, who replaced Frank De Boer last month, was the right man to lift the team up the table.
"He's had a great impact and has found the club right by him, willing to support him," he added. "He knew what difficulties there were, but together with us we will try all we can to change this situation."
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone linked with a move to Inter, but Zanetti said: "Who knows what will happen with Diego becoming Inter coach?
"We're focusing on Pioli. Nobody can know the future."