Rocky Ferrara vows to keep rolling the punches

Under fire Juventus coach Ciro Ferrara vowed to take a leaf out of Rocky Balboa’s book as he bids to ride the storm of his team’s dismal form.

Juve host Napoli in the Italian Cup on Wednesday in a match that has taken on added significance since Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat to AC Milan.

That left them 12 points behind Serie A leaders Inter Milan at the halfway point of the season and having already been knocked out of the Champions League in December, Juventus can realistically only hope to win their domestic cup and the Europa League this season.

But following six defeats in their last eight matches in all competitions, Ferrara admits that he is on the brink.

“I’m like Rocky, I take punches, I’m covered in blood but I keep saying to my opponent: hit me harder because that didn’t hurt,” he said, making an illusion to the character made famous by Sylvester Stallone.

“The defeat to Milan doesn’t change anything, there’s been talk about my job for some time.

“I know what the club thinks and I’m fully aware that the destiny of every coach is tied to results.

“If those aren’t there, the club will take the measures they believe suitable to changing our fortunes.

“If that means I get fired I won’t look upon it as a failure but as part of the learning curve in my career, which has only just begun.

“And, as my mother says, when one door closes, a gate opens up.”

Ferrara is in his first head coaching job having previously been the youth team coach at Juventus and having helped Marcello Lippi in the Italy set-up.

He took over from the sacked Claudio Ranieri two games before the end of last season and began life at the Juventus helm with six straight league wins.

However, things have steadily gone sour since then and Juve are now looking over their shoulders at teams such as Napoli and AS Roma – coached by Ranieri – as they bid to hold onto a top four spot.

The word in Italy is that Ferrara’s days are numbered but it is well known that Juve are hard up given that they are in the process of building a new stadium.

The choice of Ferrara when Ranieri was fired was considered to be partly an economic one, given that he was already on the payroll.

And with rumours from Russia suggesting that Guus Hiddink has been told he can leave the national team job if he wants, Ferrara openly admits that he could soon be sacked, although he says the uncertainty is not unsettling him.

“That’s a difficult question, the club is making its analyses but it’s never a good idea to rush things,” he added.

“Players with strong characters don’t worry about their coach’s position. I think they’re sure that their coach knows what he’s doing and and that we can get out of this situation.”

Ferrara’s pre-match press conference, in which he spoke little about Napoli or the match, was delayed by two hours due to a meeting held by directors Jean-Claude Blanc, Roberto Bettega and Alessio Secco with the squad for just that length of time.

But Ferrara passed that off as nothing more than a confidence exercise.

“It was a demonstration by the club that they want to understand and stay close to the team and the coach,” he explained.

However former Juve general manager Luciano Moggi said Ferrara has little chance of holding onto his job.

And he criticised the team for not signing a world class forward.

“I’ve always said, a big team should do everything to sign a number 10. Either sign someone like Maradona, who can decide games on his own, or you’ll have big problems tactically, especially in midfield and attack.”