Allegri fumes at De Laurentiis

By Football Italia staff

Juventus Coach Massimiliano Allegri hits back at Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis for his criticism of referees - “in Italy we never learn”.

The Partenopei owner accused Paolo Mazzoleni of not being impartial toward his team, after the official was appointed for tonight’s Inter game.

Those quotes clearly reached the Bianconeri boss, who was irritable in his interview with Sky after the Atalanta draw. Click here for a match report.

“My patience has run out, but it’s better to talk about the game - I’m not in a good mood,” Allegri warned.

“The team played a good first half, they scored a goal with the one chance they had. We knew this match was difficult, and we could even have doubled our lead at 1-0.

“In the second half we were a man down but we recovered and could even have won, so in the end it’s a good point against a great side.

“We wanted to win this game, now we have the clash with Sampdoria.”

It was then put to Allegri that Luca Banti showed a second yellow to Rodrigo Bentancur under pressure from the Atalanta players.

“I don’t talk about referees, Banti officiated well and these things happen. Outside we hear heavy statements from club owners about referees - speaking and moralising and then doing that.

“We work and we want to win, and we’ll have to work hard to win the league. I’m disappointed, maybe I’m not used to playing at Christmas.

“I’ll leave Banti, who refereed well, aside because it’s not elegant to make these allusions and declarations. I’ll never speak, we need to educate the fans.

“I could make a scene but that would be wrong, in Italy anything and everything goes and we never learn.

“On Saturday we won a game and didn’t say anything, in a game which remained balanced for what reason? You tell me…

“Because we won on Saturday we don’t let things get out of hand. But my patience is running out, in Italy we can’t improve with the example set by certain people.

“Today I apologise to the fourth official and I’m disappointed in myself. But then you hear certain things, crying over incidents…

“I’m sorry for Italian football, there’s no desire to improve Italian football. There was a beautiful setting today, but we always need to talk about other things.

“In my opinion there’s no desire to improve, I’m disappointed for the children and my children. We don’t want to improve this sport.”

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