http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/4045525.stm Given the jailing of a Juventus doctor for supplying drugs to Juve players (albeit unknown to the players) how should we judge their success of the mid-late 90's (including 3 consecutive Champions League finals) and would it be safe to assume they may not have been the only club to do this?
It is difficult to know how to take this. As Gary Lineker has said "I don't know of a drug that can make you pass better".
That's a real shame. I remember the Juve teams of that time period fondly because they were the pace setters of Europe at the time and the threadbare for all. Pretty tragic to think they were 'assisted' I'm not sure where I would judge them now. What I would do though is give extra merit to those teams who met and matched or beat them at the time. I've been told by a friend that performance enhancement was rife in Serie A around the time but, I didn't want to believe it. Shame.
But those Juve teams of the time were extremely well known for their work rate and stamina though. It makes a huge difference there. Especially when you have good players with a poor engine being handed a 6.0 v16 instead of a 2.0 with no turbo injection, ya dig
I always wondered that something was happening in Juventus, there were several players that after being in Juventus for a while started to have similarities with the looks of Schwarzeneger and Hulk.
"Prosecutors had alleged that Juventus players were regularly supplied with drugs, including EPO, from 1994-98. Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Baggio and Alessandro Del Piero are among the current and former Juve players who gave evidence at the trial." Del Piero started his career as the golden boy of Italian soccer around 1994. To be exact, he was not there before WC 1994. He started to slowly fade away somewhere after WC 1998. He was never the same again. It basically covered the entire period Riccardo Agricola was around. I am not saying anything. I am just pointing out a coincidence.
A couple of thoughts: a) Though "no drug can make you pass better," some applications can be used to increase a player's physical fitness. Juve's defensive pressure had a lot to do with their success at the time....increased stamina could only help in that regard (DS' point). Am I making a direct link? Is it conclusive? No...on both counts. b) Del Pierro's "decline," relative to our own projections for his career (he continued to be a very good palyer afterall) could be more attributable to the devastating injury he suffered around the same time. This is the real problem with "doping" -- it puts into question players' achievements when there may be other reasons behind them. Sad really.