Marotta: ‘Opponents make excuses’

Juventus general manager Beppe Marotta decries a “culture of excuses” among their opponents.

The Bianconeri have secured the Scudetto for a sixth season a row, and the director discussed the achievement with Tuttosport.

“I don’t agree that we’ve had no opponents,” Marotta said.

Roma and Napoli have always had positive results. I think whoever has come second in these years has lost at most five or six times, and those numbers show how competitive they are.

Juventus general manager Beppe Marotta decries a “culture of excuses” among their opponents.

The Bianconeri have secured the Scudetto for a sixth season a row, and the director discussed the achievement with Tuttosport.

“I don’t agree that we’ve had no opponents,” Marotta said.

“Roma and Napoli have always had positive results. I think whoever has come second in these years has lost at most five or six times, and those numbers show how competitive they are.

“For 10 years I was a director of less important teams and I always saw Juventus as a strong and winning club.

“When you’re strong and you win there’s a culture of envy and then your wins are denigrated or downplayed.

“When you win it’s because you’re stronger in every respect, unfortunately in our football there’s a culture of envy and a bit of a culture of excuses.

“In Italy our opponents have often lost and blamed the referee or something else. That’s the culture of excuses.

“It’s a wrong concept that we need to eradicate, because it takes responsibility away from the players, feeding a losing mindset into them.

“If we’ve taken almost 100 more points than Napoli and Roma over these six years, and I don’t know how many more than Milan, our clear supremacy is not up for discussion.

“Juventus are always under attack because it’s a target which provides a lot of popularity and is therefore up there to be hit.

“There are 14 million Juventini and the rest are against us.”