Zaccheroni bitter over Juve rule

Interim Juventus coach Alberto Zaccheroni, who will leave his post following Saturday night’s final Serie A match of the season away to AC Milan, admitted on Friday that he feels bitter.

Zaccheroni took over Juve at the end of January when rookie Ciro Ferrara was fired, but failed to improve Juve’s position.

In fact his league record with the club was worse than Ferrara’s and Juve dropped to seventh, where they will finish regardless of Saturday’s result, and as a result miss out on the Champions League next season.

“I’m bitter that we didn’t manage to improve our league position. The bad thing about that is that we’re not in the Champions League,” he said.

“I thought we’d have less problems all together. Looking back I may have changed things but I don’t think it would have made a difference,” he said before blaming injuries.

“In fact, the number of injuries was so high that it also affected the players’ recuperation.”

Current Sampdoria coach Luigi Delneri will be announced as Zaccheroni’s successor next week, according to reports in the Italian press on Friday.

The match on Saturday night is unique in that it will also be Milan coach Leonardo’s last in charge as on Friday he announced he will be leaving at the season’s end.