Moggi Happy With Status Quo
Saturday 23rd September 2000
Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi has reiterated his support for coach
Carlo Ancelotti ahead of the new Serie A season despite Juve fans chanting
the name of former Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli during the Italian club's
midweek Champions' League win over Panathinaikos.
Moggi admitted that he had heard the chants calling for the return of Vialli
who was a favourite member of Juve's 1996 European Cup winning side. But he
told the Juventus website that he has every intention of renewing
Ancelotti's contract when it expires in June 2001.
"The chants neither surprised me nor made me smile," Moggi said. "I know
well the attitude of people in Turin and it didn't surprise me at all."
"Ancelotti's contract comes to an end in June 2001 - we're only at
September, so it's a little early to be talking about that.
"But undoubtedly Ancelotti, like all those who preceded him, won't have any
problems remaining at Juve because he's a good manager. We will talk further
at the end of the year."
Moggi added that he does not intend to further strengthen his squad ahead of
the Serie A season.
Questions were asked over the strength of the Juve defence after the 4-4
draw against Hamburg in the Italian club's opening Champions' League
fixture, but Moggi has asked fans for patience.
"We can't truly talk about our real defence because we've been missing a
number of players through injury [Mark Iuliano and Paulo Montero] and the
Olympics [Marco Zanchi]," Moggi said.
"We need to see the whole defence together. Then if we find problems we may
go back and think about bringing a few others in. In terms of numbers we're
fine - of course we're not if two players at a time get injured.
"We have a stronger squad than last year, when everyone thought we'd do
badly and we were always in Scudetto territory."
Moggi then turned his attention to Italy striker Alessandro del Piero who
has come in for criticism over a drop in form since an unhappy Euro 2000.
"Only those in good shape play," Moggi said in reference to jibes that the
Italy international receives preferential treatment at Juventus. "Del Piero
plays when he deserves to. If he doesn't deserve to he is treated like
anyone else. He has played in our recent matches because he has improved of
late - and I'm sure he will continue along this path."
