Marotta: ‘No to Keita and Schick’

By Football Italia staff

General manager Giuseppe Marotta insists Juventus won’t sign Keita Balde or Patrik Schick this summer.

Lazio forward Keita is absent from training as he tries to force through a move to the Bianconeri, who have maintained that they dropped their interest after a bid was rejected.

Schick, meanwhile, was all-set to join from Sampdoria before he failed a medical, but there have been rumours Juve could come back in for him.

“Keita is a closed topic, just as Schick is a closed topic,” Marotta shrugged, speaking to reporters after Blaise Matuidi’s presentation.

“It’s easy for you [the media] to say Milan, Juventus, or Roma, but for us it’s a closed topic.

“We’re good as we are, then maybe there will be some opportunities.

"Ezequiel Garay? He's a top player, but the conditions aren't there."

It was reported yesterday that Claudio Marchisio was of interest to Milan, but Marotta dismissed that.

“It’s a situation which we’ve read or heard about. Symptoms of dissatisfaction absolutely do not exist at all within the club.

“Marchisio is part of this squad which increases its level of quality year-on-year, and also in midfield we’re different to a few years ago because there’s more competition.

“After that it’s up to the Coach to decide who plays. However, it must be noted that we played 57 official matches last year, along with the international ones, so we really need a competitive squad.

“It’s normal that Marchisio can’t always play, and the same goes for [Sami] Khedira or Matuidi. It’s very normal.”

Leonardo Spinazzola looks set to return from his loan spell with Atalanta, is there an update on that?

“It’s well known that he’s our player, our asset,” Marotta noted.

“It’s common knowledge that we need a profile like his within our squad, but it’s also true we entered into a two-year agreement with Atalanta which we want to honour, because there’s mutual respect between us.

“The fact remains though that this young lad knows Juventus have this need. And, being owned by Juventus, knowing full well that this is an important opportunity, it’s normal that he’s putting on pressure to come to us.

“That’s then going up against the scheduling of Atalanta who quite rightly started planning for their season a long time ago.

“If, in the end, it’s decided that the player will stay there it’ll be up to Atalanta to re-motivate him.

“I want to point out that I spoke to [Atalanta President Antonio] Percassi yesterday and the relationship between us is good.

“Right now in football there’s this continuous dynamic of players not turning up to training or who have to handle certain situations.

“In my opinion Spinazzola’s behaviour is the normal, spontaneous reaction of someone who knows he has the chance to wear the Juventus shirt, and that’s not a small thing.

“We’ve spoken to Spinazzola in recent days and made it clear that we have confidence in him.

“Of course it’s clear that everything can change from year to year and nothing is guaranteed for the future…”

Watch Serie A live in the UK on Premier Sports for just £9.99 per month including live LaLiga, Eredivisie, Scottish Cup Football and more. Visit: https://www.premiersports.com/subscribenow