Capello relished rest Monday 27 December, 2004
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Fabio Capello concedes the Christmas break came at the right time for a tired Juventus, but denies there will be any January signings.
“Our performance against Milan was not up to scratch and it proved we were very tired,” said the Coach as training resumed in Turin. “Now the players are more relaxed and will begin another type of fitness preparation to get us to the end of the season on top form.”
The Bianconeri maintained their four-point lead over Milan despite a disappointing performance in the Scudetto showdown that ended goalless.
“This break really was needed and allowed everyone to recover their energy levels ahead of the restart on January 6.”
Gianluca Zambrotta has been given an extra 24 hours of rest after arriving back from the tsunami-hit Maldives early this morning, while the South Americans will join in training on Tuesday. The press is already looking ahead to the January transfer window, but Capello was quick to close it.
“There will be no new arrivals mid-season,” assured the Coach. “We are waiting for David Trezeguet to recover from his shoulder surgery and he’ll be the only reinforcement Juventus need.”
With the French hitman returning to the side in late January, this leads some to wonder how Alessandro Del Piero fits in the line-up.
“Del Piero is definitely not out of the equation and we can experiment with new tactics. As for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, we all knew his qualities, but he has settled in very quickly.”
Capello may claim there are to be no new signings, but he was less certain when it came to the potential departures of Mark Iuliano, Alessio Tacchinardi, Igor Tudor and Nicola Legrottaglie.
“It’s not nice to wash ones dirty linen in public,” said the former Roma Coach. “We’ll all wait and see what happens.”