Marcello Lippi urges Juventus not to sell Paul Pogba, and hails “great player” Paulo Dybala.
The Bianconeri yesterday wrapped-up a fifth-consecutive Scudetto, with the two youngsters a key part of the latest triumph.
“Should Juventus sell Pogba for €100m?” Lippi considered, speaking to Gazzetta dello sport.
Marcello Lippi urges Juventus not to sell Paul Pogba, and hails “great player” Paulo Dybala.
The Bianconeri yesterday wrapped-up a fifth-consecutive Scudetto, with the two youngsters a key part of the latest triumph.
“Should Juventus sell Pogba for €100m?” Lippi considered, speaking to Gazzetta dello sport.
“One day l’Avvocato [late Juventus President Gianni Agnelli] said to me: ‘Marcello, I have bad news, we have to sell Zidane, but we’ll reinvest the money. Do you think in the meantime we can find another Zidane?’
“And I said: “no there isn’t another”. We took Buffon, [Lilian] Thuram and [Pavel] Nedved, and we were strong anyway.
“From what I hear the intention is to keep him. It would be a show of great strength, particularly in terms of making a decisive push in Europe.
“Pogba has grown a lot. Last year he could trot around the field, showing how good he was, but this year he’s had to take responsibility.
“At first he wasn’t ready, then he acquired a huge dimension. I like him as a player and as a lad. Fans of other teams like him too.
“He has a lot of designs on his head, but he has many beautiful things on the inside of it too!
“I think he has the mentality of a winner.”
Lippi was then asked about forward Paulo Dybala, who has provided 16 Serie A goals and eight assists so far in his first season in Turin.
“I’ll just say that he’s top-class. For his movement and general style of play he reminds me of [Omar] Sivori, which at Juve is some compliment.
“He’s a great player, but Allegri gave him a hand. Not just him, [Alvaro] Morata is growing and [Mario] Mandzukic had a great season.”
Finally, the former Italy CT was asked if Juve should have regrets about their Champions League run, having been eliminated by Bayern Munich in extra time in the Last 16.
“Yes, perhaps the only thing that went wrong from Sassuolo onward was the Sevilla game,” Lippi noted, in reference to the defeat in Spain which handed the group to Manchester City.
“Certain situations, like [Juan] Cuadrado’s last-minute goal in the derby had shown that the wheel was turning in the right direction.
“There are still regrets about Europe though, Juve could have gone far.”