La Stampa 04/06/99 : Interview with Carlo Ancelotti
"We have clear ideas on who we want to buy, but this is a difficult market:
there are teams like Parma that want to keep its players, while the other
teams ask for too much money and this complicates everything, for us and
for everybody."
ISN'T JUVE RISKING TO FAIL ON THE MARKET, AS IT DID IN THE EIGHTIES WHEN
BERLUSCONI BOUGHT ALL THE BEST PLAYERS?
"The problem is that there isn't only one Berlusconi anymore, so there are
auctions for the important players: you read the prices everyday on
newspapers and you have to go into the field of team budgets, something
that I don't want to get into."
BUT YOU WILL BE THE ONE TO PAY IF JUVE FAILS.
"It's true. But I would also pay even if they were to buy me a 200-billion
lire player and I couldn't win."
BUT IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SUCH A PLAYER. MAYBE VIERI. WOULD YOU BE IN
FAVOR OF A SWAP WITH DEL PIERO?
"Alex is not trade bait. We want him to stay, I get the feeling that he
wants to stay with us. Maybe the facts will disavow me, but the recent
going-ons make me think that there will be a positive result: this would be
our biggest acquisition."
WOULD YOU SPEND 80 BILLION LIRE TO BUY VIERI?
"I look at the technical aspects and Vieri is one of the best forwards in
the world."
WHO WOULD SOLVE JUVE'S ATTACKING PROBLEMS?
"We have a problem of numbers and of alternatives. If either Vieri or Salas
were to come and Del Piero were to leave, we would not solve the numerical
problem, not counting that I don't see another Del Piero around."
ARE YOU BUILDING THE TEAM IN THE HOPE THAT DEL PIERO STAYS?
"Yes, I expect to see him July 1st. The same goes for Zidane and Esnaider.
Phyisically, Alex is perfect, he would have to get used to playing 90
minutes, but you can wait one more month for players like him."
IF DEL PIERO WERE TO LEAVE, WOULD YOU ASK FOR AMOROSO, LIKE GIANNI AGNELLI
SUGGESTED?
"Del Piero has a contract, he cannot decide. In any case, Amoroso has
similar characteristics to Del Piero, so he could be an alternative: it's
too bad that you read in newspapers that he already belongs to Parma."
IN NEWSPAPERS, YOU ALSO READ THAT PESSOTTO WILL GO TO ARSENAL BECAUSE
ANELKA IS COMING TO JUVE...
"I said that we need more forwards, in order to give Del Piero time to
recover. Anelka is someone that we like."
DON'T YOU CONSIDER GETTING VAN DER SAR A RISK, SINCE FOREIGN GOALKEEPERS
HAVEN'T FARED WELL IN ITALY?
"He's one of the top 5 in the world, with Peruzzi, Buffon, Barthez. He
won't have the same problems as Lehmann had with Milan, because he
considers coming to Italy a challenge."
IS IT TRUE THAT YOU WILL DROP THE 4-4-2 NEXT YEAR?
"For me, it remains the best formation, even though with Zidane there is
more than one problem to use it: and since Zidane is staying with us..."
JUVE PLAYING, PROBABLY IN CESENA, FOR THE INTERTOTO, IS A JOKE THAT DOESN'T
MAKE ANYONE LAUGH: DAVIDS WANTS TO RE-EVALUATE HIS POSITION AND PEOPLE SAY
THAT SALAS HAS REFUSED A TRANSFER FOR THIS.
"It's an exaggeration: it seems like that teams that do not do the
Intertoto are better that the ones that earned the right to play it. It's
not fair. The Intertoto for us is not a goal, neither will it change the
way we will prepare for next season: we will challenge the Intertoto as a
series of friendlies with a closer eye to the match result. We will try
some of the new players, like this youngster, O'Brien."
WILL IT BE A SUMMER WITHOUT PRESTIGIOUS FRIENDLIES?
"Until August 10th, when we will leave Valle d'Aosta, we won't have any.
The first friendlies will be July 8th and July 12th against amateur teams
and they will be the only ones. After the mid-August holidays, we will see:
I think that we will do the Berlusconi Trophy and that's it."
Interview by Marco Ansaldo [La Stampa 04/06/99]
