From September 2010:
Beppe Marotta is in a difficult enviroment.
“Marotta is in a difficult environment and I hope he does well”
Delneri and Ranieri, controversial statements about scudetto chances
“Ranieri and Delneri saying that they are not capable of winning the Scudetto? This is very bad. Very bad because now two teams are demotivated. Now players will read these statements and think: “They don’t think much of us”. I would have never made statements like this. However there are some parts which we must analyze. They have understood that they aren’t competitive enough to win the Scudetto. But there’s a difference between thinking it and then going ahead and saying it publicly. I always tried to motivate a squad, not demotivate them.”.
Juve’s Transfer Market
“To win a Scudetto you don’t buy 11 players because you make a big mess. You take 11 playersi, you put in them into a new squad and make a big mess because each player speaks a different footballing language, and to combine all the languages together it takes months. You also need players of high quality to become competitive. Right now Juve has quantity not quality. You can’t say the players aren’t doing all they can, because on Sunday they all ran and worked hard. They played a good game, it’s not like they sat back and defended. You can’t say that the entire squad didn’t run or give it their all. But that “all” was not quality”.
Would you like to return to Juventus and be the sporting director again?
“That doesn’t depend on me, that depends on Juve. If it depended on me, I would definitely return. I left beautiful memories with the fans in Torino and all over Italy. Therefore you couldn’t say no. But it’s definitely not possible, because the people that are at the head now – besides Andrea Agnelli – want to start a new era at Juve. When I talk about Juve, everyone says I say bad things about my ex-team. But do you know why? Because maybe I love this team more than the people that talk good about it. In my opinion whoever is praising Juventus at this moment is not telling the truth. I want to push Juve to do better, I want Juve to do what Andrea’s dad did with us: sign quality players, players that really represent the image of Juventus, to return to being competitive. We did it with no money. Now they spend, they spend 60 million for 11 players, when they could have spent it for 2 quality players. You improve football teams with 2-3 players at a time, not 11. With 11 players you create total chaos. Remember my words next summer when you’ll see how many of these 11 players will leave the club”.
Referee problems in Cesena Milan
“Berlusconi probably didn’t see the game, because if he did then he would have nothing to say about the referee. Also because Milan, even with all the wrongs it can suffer, has to win against Cesena. Instead they were outclassed by Giaccherini and Schelotto.
Little snipe at Zeman
“Why is everyone criticizing only the defense of Juve and Milan? You have to look at Italian calcio as a whole. Right now good defenders are lacking in Italian calcio. You can even see in the lower divisions. For example in Serie C1 there’s Foggia that in 4 games has let in 12 goals. Why? Because there are no good defenders. I’m taking a swipe at Zeman? No, I was talking about Foggia, I don’t doubt the fact that Zeman’s sides are a spectacle to watch”.
Can Milan give Inter trouble this season?
“I gave my opinion on this question, but the first game didn’t prove me right. However before the Cesena game I said that Milan had it’s weaknesses and that instead of buying Robinho they should have invested in a midfielder and a defender. Milan’s midfield with Ambrosini, Pirlo, and Gattuso can’t support Milan’s attack who don’t come back and defend. The only one that comes back once in a while is Ibrahimovic, the others just stay up in the opposing area. It will be interesting to see how Boateng will play, because now he can give an important contribution. When Juve would play Milan years ago I was always afraid of Gattuso because he was the workhorse of the midfield, he allowed the side to play with 3 strikers, he pressed everyone on the pitch, and stole the ball from everyone. Now, Gattuso can’t run anymore and when he tries to steal the ball from a player he always arrives late and causes a foul. Even Ambrosini isn’t what he used to be. Seedorf at the start always starts on the bench, but I’m convinced he’ll get his starting position back, even if he’s getting old. However I still think Milan has a chance to surpass Inter, because Inter seems to have lost that special quality they had with Mourinho. Between Mourinho and Benitez there is a very big difference”.
Juve’s problems: No regista and Bonucci and Chiellini are incompatible
“The defense has problems and there is no regista. Yesterday Juventus had Melo in midfield, but you can’t construct a midfield around Melo because he is too defensive. Juve’s defense is not exceptionally fast: Bonucci and Chiellini don’t have the capacity to chase down a player if the player beats them, so it’s normal that they are finding difficulty. Did you see Sampdoria’s third goal (Pozzi’s header)? That was an obvious demostration that first there is no concentration and second there isn’t any experience. And then putting Chiellini next to a player that has the same speed as him is a problem. It was one thing having Chiellini next to Cannavaro who knew how to chase a player, but having two players of the same speed means if one player beats them then they are not catching him. I want to see what happens when they have to face small, quick players like Giaccherini and Miccoli”.
Ronaldinho and Ibra
“Ronaldinho is a player that stands still, but even Maradona played standing still when he was getting older. Of course Maradona is Maradona, but Ronaldinho is an excellent player that can create some good plays from standing still. I’m convinced that once Ibra gets into form then Ronaldinho will benefit and play great. And then Ibrahimovic will benefit from the presence of Ronaldinho”.
Can Juve win the Scudetto or only hope for Champions League qualification?
“I think it’s hard to even think Juve can easily qualify for the Champions League. There are a group of teams that can fight to qualify anywhere from 4th to 7th place and they are Juventus, Fiorentina, Palermo, Napoli, and Genoa”.
Who’s the one player you paid the most for while at Juve?
“I don’t remember. Buffon? From a journalistic point of view you can say Buffon. Buffon cost 100 billion lira, but what people don’t know is some of that cost was also part of the cost of Thuram as well. Trezeguet cost 45 billion lira? No, they say we paid 45 billion, but he only cost 20. I paid for Trezeguet before Euro 2000 and before he scored the golden goal in the final. When he scored that golden goal he was already a Juventus player for a month and a half”.
When can Juventus win the Scudetto again?
“When they buy players that can give them the quality that they lack. We keep going back to the same discussion. Let’s just accept Juventus for what it is now: a team of players that give their all but have no quality. Objectives don’t even exist until you have quality. Juve will only start winning again when I return? That won’t be at all easy. Now they say: “There are no players”. That’s just a simple way of making an excuse. When I bought Emerson, Emerson was a Roma player and Roma didn’t want to sell him. When I bought Ibrahimovic, Ibra was an Ajax player and Ajax didn’t want to sell him. How did I get them? I pulled their hair.”
How did Javier Pastore wind up at Palermo?
“Very simple. Zamparini did a good job. We were at dinner together with friends, including Carlo Ancelotti. First with Zamparini we talked about Pastore, then at a point during the dinner Ancelotti said: “There’s an exceptional South American player: Pastore”. When we left dinner around half past midnight, Zamparini called sporting director Walter Sabatini and said: “Leave immediately, spend even an extra million if you want, but I want Pastore to come to Palermo.” And then Pastore came to Palermo. Ancelotti had already signed for Chelsea at that point.”
Relationship with Ancelotti, Mancini and Capello
“Relationship with Ancelotti? Good. With Mancini? Also good. With Capello? Excellent.”
Scudetto will stay in Milano, but watch out for Roma
“Scudetto staying in Milano? I said it in 2006 and it’s becoming a reality. The Milanese teams are the strongest and without Juventus there’s no space or possibility for the others. Inter and Milan will fight for the Scudetto and Roma will be the third wheel. But Milan and Inter have to keep an eye on Roma. Roma has front office problems? They’ll get over them, because I heard they are close to selling the club and whoever buys them will want to do well. Roma has a good roster, forget about the 5-1 loss to Cagliari and the first game with Cesena.You have to consider the performance of other team, look at Cesena how they repeated their performance with Milan. The big clubs at the moment are still in the preparation phase.
Giovinco
“Did Juve do well in selling Giovinco? Absolutely not.”
Relationship with Pietro Leonardi (Parma sporting director)
“Is Pietro Leonardi a friend of mine? He’s always been on my side, yes”.
Chievo’s surprise start
“Chievo has an exceptional president who never shows himself publicly but works behind the scenes. Then there sporting director Sartori knows what he’s doing too. They run the club like a corporation. Campedelli doesn’t think of it as a football club, but as a corporation. That’s the best way to run a club a the moment: look at what you spend and look at what you earn, then you run the club accordingly. However you have to be careful when you talk about these surprise teams. This weekend there is Chievo-Brescia and I’m convinced that if Brescia wins in Verona we’ll see a completely different Chievo side the rest of the season. I rememeber years ago one season when Atalanta were initially considered a revelation and then were relegated at the end of the season. The revelation sides are the ones that consistently stay at a certain level. I hope Cesena is one of those sides and that Chievo can stay in Serie A. Now is not the time to say whether one team is stronger than another, but that one team is more in form than another.”
How come you never wanted to work for Milan?
“To tell you the truth, I spoke with Berlusconi once and there were all the conditions set to go to Milan. Then all the Calciopoli stuff came out and the Milan plan went down the drain. So it’s not that I never wanted to work for Milan. However Milan has two great directors in Galliani and Braida who are doing a great job at the moment and I’m sure they’ll make the president happy”.
De Laurentiis, Quagliarella and Napoli
“Napoli fans are surprised that I wrote in a Tuttomercatoweb article that De Laurentiis was right to sell Quagliarella? I repeat, De Laurentiis was right. De Laurentiis has problems with the city of Napoli, because he made ticket prices too high this season. I have my reservations about Napoli because last year they were, I wouldn’t say lucky, but the arrival of Mazzarri brought a gusting wind of positive results and repeating that is always more difficult. Napoli is not a great team, it’s a good team; I’m convinced they’ll fight for anywhere from 4th to 8th place. However it’s obvious you can’t compare this team to a team like Milan or Inter”.
