Pre-season

STADIO", 12.08.2001

SESTOLA - Gianluca Pagliuca, in the 18th retreat in his career, has so much experience that now he can catch the smallest nuances. He's able to understand how the team is working, noticing details that most observers could never see. So it is logical to go to him to try to understand how this Bologna is doing now and what can be expected from it. -We're glad of how things are going - Pagliuca says - the group is more and more solid, and fortunately everybody is in a good health, except for Cipriani and Falcone. If we keep going on this way, we should be ready at the beginning of the season. We also have the short vacation to thank for this. Last year we stopped for almost two months, and for me it was hard to get back into it. This year only a month passed between the last match and the retreat, and I notice that everybody is already in a good condition. If we are at 100% for the debut against Atalanta, we can start very well. This opinion is confirmed by the friendly matches that we have played till now. The last one against Sassuolo doesn't matter, I'm referring to the tournament in Athens. Next Monday the match against Lecce will give us a good indication of our condition.
- Team is doing fine, but the club is far from calm.
-I can understandb the bitterness of our president due to the opposition by the fans. I'm sure that we can do a lot to soften the tension and to bring back the calmness. We're living in a very particular atmosphere, it reminds me of what it was like two years ago when we started the season playing against Torino. Against Atalanta it will be the match of our life. If we will defeat them, you'll see how quickly everything will calm down. A positive start will bring reconciliation with our President and will make fans and press more tolerant. This is an uncomfortable moment, it's natural, but it will pass. Gazzoni doesn't need to worry, we will do our best, nobody wants to hold back. If a player gives up, he endangers his own future. I've been through this already at Inter, when Moratti resigned. Presidents are men, criticism hurts, sometimes it's intolerable. Knowing that they have worked hard and personal pride can bring an exaggerated reaction even from important people.
- Gazzoni couldn't swallow the 5-4 at Verona and the breakdown in the last part of the season.
-At Verona we threw away a very big chance; we saved a team on the brink of relegation, destroying our last chances to play in a European cup; it was terrible coming back to Bologna, I was so nervous that I took an absurd amount of time to fill the small glass for doping. The rage blocked me physically. Losing badly can happen, but the worst thing was that we gave the impression that between us there were unsolvable conflicts, that our nice group had "exploded". If you win, you always find a «modus vivendi», but if you lose badly, problems and differences emerge. Everyone tries to play on his own, but individualism is useless. It's a story that I've been through several times, at Inter I had even 4 different coaches in one year. If, instead of starting well and having 40 points with 7 matches still to play, we'd had a crisis in the beginning of the season and closed the championship in a great way, it would have been a completely different thing. We would have been considered a phenomenon.
- How to solve this situation and start in the right way?
-This year we won't repeat the same mistakes, the group did understand it. Guidolin talked with everybody, one by one, noting the problems. We talked among ourselves and made everything clear. Even conflicts, if they lead to something positive, can be a good thing. They strenghten you. I remember some retreats that came to fistfights. At first you're down, but then you think about it, and if you overcome that "slip", you become a better player. But it is very important to keep and solve the problems inside the locker-room, not taking them to the newspapers.
- During a crisis the "elders" must take the situation in hand.
-They have to be a point of reference on and off the field, they must be an example. Guidolin gave us many responsibilities, and I like it, it stimulates me. Acting in the right way is important. I don't want to be in command, I don't want to be a leader; experience is essential, but the real hierarchy has to be decided on the field".

Translated by Massimo Magi, edited by Julia Tarasova.