Massimiliano Allegri, speaking on the eve of the Coppa Italia tie at Juventus” data-scaytid=”4″>Juventus, insists he’ll stay as Milan boss until 2014.
Massimiliano Allegri, speaking on the eve of the Coppa Italia tie at Juventus, insists he’ll stay as Milan boss until 2014.
The tactician’s future was again placed into doubt last night after President Silvio Berlusconi refused to confirm him for 2013-14.
“I intend to respect my contract which expires in 2014 and give my best so that this side can express itself to the maximum,” he stated. “I have nothing to say about the President’s statements.”
Turning to Wednesday’s last eight Cup tie in Turin, Allegri expected a tight affair – especially in the early exchanges.
“It will be a competitive game of great intensity, where both sides will show their defensive strength. We’ll have to repeat the performance we gave at the weekend in the championship versus Siena.
“Winning always matters to us, but I look to be a realist. We are working hard to improve, but I can’t expect my side to dominate a game for 90 minutes.
“The semi-final is an objective, but it will be hard as we are going to play on one of the most difficult grounds that there are. It’s a shame that this is only a quarter-final tie.
“Juventus are the strongest and most solid team in Serie A. They collected 44 points in the first half of the season, there is not too much more to say. It is excessive to look for negatives in this Juventus.”
Allegri is limited by injuries, especially at the back, while he also has other selection issues to resolve further forward.
“Mario Yepes, Daniele Bonera and Cristian Zapata are out. Philippe Mexes will return, while I’ll have to evaluate Kevin Constant.
“Giampaolo Pazzini is suspended for the weekend, so he’ll play in attack. I need to understand whether to play Bojan from the start or not.”
Allegri was understandably questioned on the January transfer market, but refused to go into too much detail about specific players.
“We had a three-hour meeting yesterday,” he added. “We evaluated a number of transfers, both sales and signings. We’ll decide together with the club about which roads to go down.
“Manchester City’s Mario Balotelli a bad apple? He’s certainly an asset for Italian football. The mistakes he has made should be used so he doesn’t make errors in the future.
“Davide Santon? He belongs to Newcastle and it is not right to talk about players at other clubs. I just train the players that my club gives me.”