08 September 2016
One week after the closure of the summer transfer window, Juventus CEO Giuseppe Marotta analysed the club’s business during a busy summer, which saw them bring in six men to the first-team in Miralem Pjanic, Dani Alves, Medhi Benatia, Gonzalo Higuain, Marco Pjaca and Juan Cuadrado, whilst also waving goodbye to some big-name players, not least Paul Pogba for a world-record sum to Manchester United.
In today’s exclusive interview with Jtv, Marotta gave his verdict on the major deals done, and even those attempted, over the past two months or so, whilst also discussing the Bianconeri’s bright start to the current campaign, the key to achieving this term’s objectives and the arguments in favour of introducing B teams to the Italian game among other topics.
Here is a selection of his key quotes from the evening:
Transfer satisfation
“We’re satisfied with our business during the transfer window and for that I’d like to thank my colleagues, not least Fabio Paratici, Pavel Nedved and president Andrea Agnelli, but also all the technical staff and members of the sports department who played their part in helping us land our targets.
“Hopefully we won’t need to buy anyone in January as that will have meant that the season is going very well. That said, it’s Juventus’ aim to keep strengthening the team and it’s our job to take full advantage of the opportunities that present themselves.”
Nature of the trade
“Obviously there are the two transfer windows in January and during the summer, but the deals done in those timeframes are the result of constant communication with other parties and monitoring of players over the course of the year. That all means that we’re already working towards future objectives, whether that be identifying young, promising talents or indeed any other footballers of equal interest to us.
“It’s true that transfer fees have risen extremely rapidly in recent years, but this is a consequence of the increased spending power that each club now possesses. Clubs’ incomes have grown in notable fashion and this money is now being invested in acquiring new players and paying their salaries.”
European objective
“In our eyes the Champions League is neither a dream nor an obsession. It’s an objective. Every time Juventus takes part in a competition, it has the duty of aiming to go all the way and attaining the maximum result, which is to win it. This goal remains the same whether in the league, Coppa Italia, Italian Super Cup or indeed the Champions League.”
Farewell Pogba, Hello Higuain
“We’d always maintained that we did not want to sell Pogba given his importance to the team, the club and the supporters, but once he had decided to embark on a new adventure at Manchester United it became difficult and indeed impossible to keep him, so we allowed him to fulfil his wish of moving on. At Juventus, we’ve always believed that the destiny of a player remains their own choice either to remain or leave the club.
“It’s our job to keep reinforcing the squad year on year and we had always planned this summer to bolster Juve’s forward line. One of our transfer targets designed to do just that was Higuain. The fact that we bought him at a time when Pogba was set to leave was purely coincidental.”
Witsel and Matuidi negotiations
“In the case of Witsel, we were able to negotiate with Zenit St. Petersburg to the extent that he was given permission to conduct a medical ahead of a proposed move to us. After that point, however, we were unable to complete the deal since Zenit themselves had not managed to wrap up the signing of a replacement for Witsel.
“The process of signing Axel is not to be termed as dead in the water, but rather postponed for now, as he has notable footballing qualities and he has in recent months expressed a desire to come and play for us.
“Likewise, Matuidi showed an interest in joining Juventus and we started initial talks with Psg, but they decided to keep hold of him and understandably so as he is still a player of theirs.”
Lichtsteiner left off UCL list
“Lichtsteiner’s exclusion from our Champions League squad solely boils down to technical reasons in the sense that we also have Juan Cuadrado and Dani Alves who can play in that part of the field down the right hand side.
“The club certainly did not leave out Stephan for any disciplinary reasons. On the contrary, we’re very grateful to him for how he has performed in the black and white and we’re more than aware that he can have a positive impact with us over the course of this campaign.”
Claudio on comeback trail
“As you know Marchisio has been undergoing a rehabilitation period following his operation at the end of last season and the forecasts indicate that he can return to peak condition again within a couple of months’ time and we’re looking forward to having such an important play available to us again.”
B team benefits
“The possibility of certain clubs to have a so-called B team would serve to develop young players not only in a footballing sense, but also on a social level, as they’d have the opportunity to train regularly side by side with champions in their field and to assimilate the methodologies applied in the first team. Furthermore, with such a resource at his disposal, the manager would also be able, where he felt necessary, to promote a budding talent to the first team.”
Summarising the season so far
“We’re happy with how the season has gone so far, but it’s still early days. Let’s not forget how we started last season, even though we would ultimately turn our fortunes around. It’s important that we continue the good work that we’ve already done this term and that the players keep applying themselves as they have been in order to achieve not merely self-fulfilment, but also to give something for the fans to cheer about.”
