After 106 days of waiting, the Serie A championship is back. Last May 19 it was Juventus that celebrated the Scudetto, the hunt for the tricolor starts again today.
The first appointment is scheduled for 18 pm, when Verona and Milan will kick off the new championship at the Bentego stadium. Massimiliano Allegri is cautious about it, knowing well the pitfalls that await his team: “In Verona you have to win. Verona is a team that concedes little, that closes the spaces well and that will have great enthusiasm for the return to Serie A, and for this they will be supported by their fans. And he has a certain Toni ahead of him, someone who scores a lot. We have to be patient and play with personality, the three points would make us better face Wednesday's match against PSV".
A match preceded by long-distance controversies on the theme of racism with the mayor of Verona Flavio Tosi, who in recent days declared "Balotelli is a champion, but on the pitch he knows how to make himself unpleasant". Allegri's reply came from Milanello: “Racism is not Balotelli – said the coach – it's a lack of culture that we still have in Italy. Mario is serene like everyone else. Tomorrow we will only think about playing and the public of Verona, which is a city of culture, will come to the stadium for a game which will be a party, and which we don't want to be ruined by people without culture, because that would be a shame". Conte also spoke on the subject, who said: “First of all, we, in terms of communication, must not give importance to these people. Who are proud if we talk about their 'deeds'. We have to keep closing the corners, the fifth time they'll think twice before offending. There is so much rudeness. But nobody wants to change. I do not comment on the words of the mayor of Verona, Tosi. There is little education, there is a lot of talk, but nobody does anything”. (“Everyone is crazy about Mario. The Balotelli phenomenon" is the title of the FIRSTonline and goWare e-book, written by the sports journalist Federico Bertone).
At the start of a championship that promises to be very closely contested, Milan knows they can't leave precious points on the way, to put some pressure on the reigning Italian champions: "It's normal for Juve to be the favorites – he said said Allegri – last year he won clearly. Roma, Napoli, Lazio, Udinese, Fiorentina and Inter are teams we will have to fight with. The championship is long, we will need to start a little better than last year (when Milan only scored 7 points in their first 8 games, ed)”. Milan will try with an extra Balotelli in the engine, in the hope that he will become more and more of a leader: “I wish Balotelli to score 30 goals – Allegri's wish -, but when the goals are distributed well among the forwards it is better. For the first time Balotelli feels like a protagonist at the start of a championship, he can become one of the strongest in the world. It depends on him, he has to improve in some things, let's not forget that he is 23 years old. More than a physical decline, he must not have a mental decline”.
On the market front, Honda wants Milan and reiterated it in an interview with Le10Sport.com: “Milan is still my favorite team and if it were possible I would like to play in that shirt. I haven't received any offers from PSG, but they are a big club and have a big project. I appreciate their interest in me and I think I would be happy in Paris”.
As far as Ljajic is concerned, the long-awaited meeting was held between the president Cognini, Ljajic and the player's agents. The meeting would have led to a black smoke regarding the renewal of the contract, confirming the words of Andrea Della Valle who had said "I think there is little chance that he will stay", and that at this point he could decide to sell the striker. The parties agreed until Monday to find a solution, with Fiorentina wanting to avoid the repetition of another Montolivo case.
At 20.45 it will be the battleship Juventus' turn to debut in the new league, and it will do so on a field that is anything but easy, in Genoa against Sampdoria, who beat the black and whites twice out of two last year. The Bianconeri gave their first show of strength by winning the Super Cup against Lazio last Sunday, and they want to pick up where they left off: "Juve can't escape their role as favorites – said Conte -, this year it's only right that they start with the underdogs, but you don't always win by starting in pole position, as happened to us two years ago. We have to demonstrate on the field that we are the strongest. This year I must say that it will be very difficult for us to repeat ourselves because there are many competitors who have spent much more than us. Yet you say that the detachment has increased. When we have a big budget, will they give Juve the Intercontinental Cup directly? It was important for us to win the Super Cup. We have confirmed monstrous numbers. Having said that, I was talking about the long season. It would be historic to win another Scudetto, but it will always be difficult."
Conte then glossed over the transfer market ("Things between me and the managers are confidential. There are still 10-12 transfer market days in which we will work to achieve the goals we set ourselves"), but Juventus will have to move above all on the front of exits, with Quagliarella and Matri now on the list of starters. On the other hand, it is more difficult for Conte to have the longed-for winger, given that Zuniga now seems destined to remain in Naples.
The Neapolitan president De Laurentiis was the protagonist of the day, with some tweets from the market: “We have closed with Zapata, we have signed with Estudiantes. The player is arriving in Naples where he will make visits", announced ADL, who then wanted to personally reveal the background of two other negotiations: "For Astori, we would have found an agreement with Cagliari, but Benitez told me he prefers defenders who use the right foot rather than left-handed. So I blocked everything. Matri? I spoke to Marotta, but the doubts I had were about age, and that's why I preferred Zapata. Zuniga? He remains a Napoli player."
The words of the Giallorossi general manager Mauro Baldissoni came from Rome, who spoke of the renewal of Francesco Totti, expiring at the end of the year: “As Pallotta reiterated, there is the intention to have Francesco with us for as long as possible. We want to allow him to continue playing as long as he can and continue with us for more years as a manager, for as long as possible. This must be compatible with the economic and financial sustainability of the company. But even Totti's entourage knows this very well”. Renewal yes, but no follies, in short.
Baldissoni then wanted to reassure the fans after the protests of the past few days, especially regarding Lamela's increasingly probable farewell: “Any operation that Roma is carrying out on the market will in no way imply a partial renunciation of the team's competitiveness. Any incoming and outgoing operation has several components: technical, economic and financial. That technique must be considered not only on the basis of the player's value but also in the context of the group, the economic one not only on the basis of the cost of the card but also on the basis of the years to come, the contractual situation, the player's expectations and requests " .
