Coach Stefano Pioli is preparing his team for the new season and is looking forward to continue his work with the Rossoneri in the new campaign.
The Italian technician spoke to Il Fatto and had these words to say:
"We are Milan and we must not set limits. The league will be very difficult because seven teams will fight for four places. But the obstacles are too high only for those who do not have strong enough ambitions."
On Gazidis:
"All of Milan are cheering for him. His strength is ours. We are proud to be part of his family. He will recover and we can't wait to have him back with us."
On Kjaer rescuing his friend and teammate Eriksen in the Euros:
"I already knew Simon's worth. He is a man of rare intelligence and sensitivity, and he used those qualities to save a friend. He was precise even in such a dramatic event."
Pioli experienced a similar scene in 1998:
"I had a cardiac arrest after a game fight. I don't remember anything and I only had the courage to see them again many months later."
On Ibrahimovic:
"He helped me a lot. Ibra is an example in everything he does. He doesn't want to miss a single pass in training."
On the national team of Italy:
"The key to the triumph are the eyes of the players who looked at Mancini and looked at each other: the same gaze as Berrettini. Everything goes from there. Italy won the European Championships for those eyes: for that team spirit. You don't win with tactics. You win by putting the 'I' aside and putting 'us' before everything. That's how they won. They represented Italy at their best. And we all rejoiced, because we felt involved in a beautiful thing."
On Astori:
"I am a coach who bases all his management on confrontation and dialogue with the players. That tragedy made me understand that the players are above all men. I had to get inside their heads. One by one I had to tell them that the doctor, at 9 in the morning, told me that Davide was gone. I spent all the following months helping them process that disappearance. At certain moments you have to go in depth. The technique counts, the tactics counts, but it is still the mental component is more important."
On Roberto Baggio:
"The Roberto who played with me, in the '89 / '90 season, was equal to Maradona. Our plan, as defenders, was very easy: we recover the ball, we pass it to Dunga who passed it to Roberto and then we all went to hug him after the goal."
On the Heysel Stadium disaster:
"My foot was in plaster, I was in the stands and I saw the first clashes in the stands. At that point they took us to the locker room. I followed the game next to the bench. The news did not arrive. We thought they would stop everything at the end of first half. At the end they told us to do the lap of honor and, when we got back to the hotel, we really thought that the match didn't count. It was a huge tragedy, of which we were not fully aware."
On if he would kneel for the BLM cause if he were a player:
"Yes, I would join the Black Lives Matter cause if I were a player. I would kneel."
What do you want people to think of you at the end of your career as a coach?
"I would like them to think that I have improved many of the players I had at my disposal."
