Sinister forces decide Serie A, claims Moggi
Monday 16th July 2001
Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi has alleged that Roma and Lazio's recent championship triumphs were fixed. �Winning the Scudetto has been impossible over the past two seasons because of matters that have nothing to do with football," he told a shocked news conference.
Moggi added that Juve had played by the book, which had directly cost them two titles. �We wanted to win that Scudetto, but we have lost it due to external elements," he continued.
We have never skimped in trying to build a top team. In fact, we have been performing well. We only missed out because of the external elements that everybody knows about, but nobody will talk about.
"I think that some of these problems have disappeared and more will disappear during the course of next season," he added mysteriously.
Moggi's outburst overshadowed events at Juve's pre-season training camp and was seen by some as an attempt to deflect criticism from the club after two disappointing campaigns.
But the general manager remained bullish when asked why, if Juventus had performed so well, he had felt the need to fire coach Carlo Ancelotti at the end of the season.
We did not change because of Ancelotti's defects. He worked well for Juve, but we needed new incentives. I repeat, the last two seasons in Italy had nothing to do with football," he said.
On a different subject, Moggi claimed that Juve had not been complicit in the �48 million departure of Zinedine Zidane. �He did everything on his own," claimed the Delle Alpi official.
"He strongly wanted to leave and told us that he would never play for Juve again. Anyway, his departure has been balanced by the signings of important players like Thuram and Nedved."
Moggi then confirmed reports on onefootball.com last week that Internazionale would only be prepared to release Christian Vieri if David Trezeguet was offered in part-exchange.
If we gave Trezeguet to Inter, Vieri could join us. But we trust Trezeguet and want to keep him. With Trezeguet, Alessandro Del Piero, Darko Kovacevic and Nicola Amoruso, we think to have a strong attack."
Coach Marcello Lippi backed up his general manager on the issue of squad rebuilding.
We always do the same, sell good players and buy new ones of the same level. Now Zidane has gone, we have to change. We will use the wings more and play from deep. We'll lose possession in this way, but we'll be very dangerous in front of goal," he added.
Lippi would not be drawn on his likely first-choice strike pairing, but addressed concerns that a Del Piero-Trezeguet axis might be short on muscle.
A lot of people thought that Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi were too light to play together, but during one season they scored 60 goals," he said.
What's important is to keep the Juve mentality. It's a way of thinking that doesn't change over the years and all the players can find it at our club. That's our best weapon.
"We are not in pole position, football is not a Grand Prix. There are five teams fighting for the Scudetto - Milan, Inter, Roma, Lazio and Juve. Our mentality must be our crucial asset."
