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Journalism of Courage
With his arms folded across his chest as he watches every move of his charges in training, there is the air of an Army general about Juventus coach Marcello Lippi.
The silver-haired coach from Viareggio, home to another noted disciplinarian in Italian referee Pierluigi Collina, is not one to join in the five-a-side games at the end of training or share a joke with his players.
When asked to talk about the qualities of Juventus, the freshly re-crowned Italian champions, Lippi likes to refer to 8216;8216;focus, group spirit, character and above all consistency.8217;8217;
Those are qualities which Lippi knows cannot be purchased on the transfer market and which emerge instead from the daily grind of systematic work. 8216;8216;At Juventus champions are made on the training ground,8217;8217; said defender Ciro Ferrara, who has been at the heart of both the Lippi eras in Turin and is widely viewed as the coach8217;s voice on the field. In his first spell at the Delle Alpi stadium, between 1994 and 1999, Lippi won three Italian league titles for Juventus and the 1996 European Cup.
After a brief and ill-fated spell in charge of Inter Milan,during which Juve finished second twice under current Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti, Lippi returned in 2001 and has swiftly won two straight titles. His success belies the old football cliche that you should never return to the scenes of your past triumphs. Indeed, Lippi believes the current Juventus are more than a match for the teams of the mid-to-late 1990s.
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Ancelotti is confident
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| Reuters Carnago, May 26 AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti bristles slightly when he is reminded of his two-year spell in charge of Champions League final opponents Juventus. Story continues below this ad Ancelotti8217;s experience at the Delle Alpi ended sourly 8212; his dismissal was announced at half-time in Juve8217;s final match of the 2001 season with the title still technically up for grabs. Juve had decided to go back to the man who had delivered three titles and a European Cup 8212; their current boss Marcello Lippi. Lippi8217;s instant success might have cast serious doubts on Ancelotti8217;s abilities but the way in which he has thrust Milan back to the top in Europe this season has shown that the former midfielder is not without his own qualities. Indeed Ancelotti is not a man who is willing to read too much into anything ahead of a big game. His philosophy is simple 8212; you get rewards for good performances and the outside factors, pressure, previous form and familiar faces count for little. |
