Галлиани:
ON CARLO ANCELOTTI“I want to thank Carlo Ancelotti for these marvellous eight years which we spent together. They were eight important years with regards to the sports aspect during which Milan won five international trophies and three trophies in Italy: Serie A, Coppa Italia and Italian Super Cup. Carlo spent first five years as a Milan player and then eight years as a coach, during this period there has been a fantastic rapport with him. He won two Champions League as a player and two other as a coach, without forgetting that there was also a third final.
“His contract would have expire on June 30, 2001, and two months ago, in common agreement, the club and Carlo Ancelotti started discussing what would have been the best choice for the team and for Carlo, but we promised ourselves that we would have re-spoken at the end of the season.
“We did not lie, we only protected the team. My experience of 23 years taught me that you must protect the team and take her to reach its objective. This year if it wasn’t for Carlo, it would have ended worse. In few clubs a coach resists for eight years. Last season we won the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup, something which does not happen to other Italian teams since they don’t win the Champions League and this year without injuries we could have fought for the Scudetto. We arrived equal points with the second placed. If it wasn’t for Carlo, it would have gone worse.”
Then the Rossoneri’s general manager made his first comment on the future of Carlo Ancelotti, new Chelsea coach: “Seeing Carlo with the Chelsea shirt made an impression on me, I was under shock from yesterday after the game: for his great importance, for the farewell of Maldini and at the end of the game inside the dressing room I saw many players
ing. I think that we never saw a coach who is leaving going for dinner with the new coach like we saw last night with Carlo and Leo, together with Ariedo Braida and myself.”
ON LEONARDO“Leonardo signed a two-year deal. I wish him to make eight like Ancelotti. We chose Leo in the club, not the president nor I. All the decisions are agreed. We think that he has the human and technical characteristics of a certain type. With Leo, Milan wants to go through the path again that Capello did. The scepticism of someone today is less than that of Capello: Leo is luckier. During Capello’s days, they wrote that he was Berlusconi’s butler and Capello won four Scudetti in five years, playing three consecutive Champions League finals. With Berlusconi, we made few mistakes with regards to coaches. Even Sacchi had never coached in Serie A. This is the club’s line.
“We’re sure that Leonardo will do well because he was a great football champion, an intelligent person and knows how to gold the rapport with the players. I wish him the best of luck, he was the only player for whom I cried when he stopped playing.”
ON THE TRANSFER MARKET“With regards to the incoming transfer market, it will open on July 1 until August 31. We shall reason things out calmly according to the tactics we shall decide to play. On the rumours about Kaka I repeat that he is a Milan player. There is no doubt that he is not the object of desire of the two most important European clubs, just like Pato. This means that Milan saw well and we shall try to resist the assault of the European clubs who make more profit than us and who have different economic quotas. I might sound boring, but today no one even dares to think that players like Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo can come to Italy: if we don’t solve these problems, we will not have the Kakas, Patos and Ibrahimovics anymore. If we go forward like this, with these stadiums, we will become a small league. You can find a great player, but then you must give him a great wage to keep other clubs at bay. Otherwise you lose the player.
“About the Kaka issue, from January nothing has changed, the only offer there was arrived in January by Manchester City, but at the moment there are no offers, but only declarations of interest.
“With regards to the transfer rumours of Pirlo and Seedorf, there have been no requests, the two most requested players of Milan are Pato and Kaka.”