16 July 2008 juventus.com
Zanetti: «Juve have both quality and stamina»
Cristiano Zanetti is ready to make it three excellent seasons in a row. Juventus, ending their training camp in Pinzolo today, have showed they have a good quality side for 2008/09, but they haven't been able to show their real face in midfield yet, as Marchisio is away with the Olympic team, Sissoko is recovering from an injury and Poulsen was only signed two days ago.
The Tuscan was the only midfielder always employed, even for the full 90 minutes in the game against Piacenza. The players swapped around beside him, from Tiago, to young promising upstart Ekdal and Youth Team player Castiglia. The going will get tough from Saturday, when the squad will be at full ranks, but Zanetti is ready: «Competition? It has always been like this in the big teams. I had Tiago and Almiron last year. This year there's a lot of players and potentially they can all be first team regulars, everyone will do their best and then the Manager will decide».
After months spent reading in the papers the names of possible new signings in midfield, Zanetti never thought he had a problem. And on his arrival in Pinzolo, it was up to Claudio Ranieri to do justice to his performances, calling his last season sensational: «The Manager's compliments please me because he sees me training every day and he knows the sacrifices I make. I'm not bothered by rumours, they're part of the business, I know there's always a special treatment for the newcomers, but at the end of the day everybody needs to earn their place on the pitch».
Meanwhile, while we wait to see the real midfield and the real Juve too, Zanetti is happy with the team: «Everybody speaks about quality. This team has quality, but also determination and stamina. Last year we did well, we beat all the bigger teams. We only lacked consistency a bit. We aim to improve further, the Club operated well, signing excellent players. The other teams have improved too, but only the pitch will tell us by how much».
Finally, before leaving Pinzolo and ending the Val Rendena camp for this year, he commented the game against Piacenza: «We're doing special training, it's normal that we're not fully fit yet. Yet we still had several chances and we were punished on their first attempt».
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