Zola: “Italian Football - Lacking Fascination"

Zola now 36 and considered a Chelsea legend amongst most, if not all Chelsea supporters, is now sadly approaching the final season of his career. Talking today, Zola expressed his thoughts on the coming season and his views concerning the lacking imagination of Italian football.

Zola believes that Trapattoni’s team epitomised every undesirable aspect of Italian football. He said: "Observing from England, Italian football has not got the fascination that it had in the eraly 1990s. Our clubs play badly, they don’t want to have fun, and Trapattoni’s squad are the amplified mirror of the problem".

"The big clubs should stop thinking that they are businesses, because football is not an industry. It is a sport and the English clubs have taken advantage of the popularity like nobody else". He states, "They go with it, but they would never jeopardise the principle of the show".

Zola also revealed his admiration of the England captain David Beckham, holding him up as a model for youngsters. He said: "Beckham is not only a sporting personality. There is no athlete more concentrated, meticulous in his preparation or more professional than him".

Zola has also spoken to the official "Chelsea Magazine" regarding his thoughts on winning the Premiership and how he intends to make life difficult for Claudio Ranieri.

He admits that the thought of winning a Premiership medal is what keeps him going in the game. "That's what keeps me focused on the game. I have won other competitions with Chelsea, but not that one. It's probably the most difficult thing to achieve because you have to perform in all the games that you play. That makes it very hard, but we will try".

Chelsea striker Gianfranco Zola has also pledged to make it "very difficult" for Claudio Ranieri to leave him out of the side this season.

"I wouldn't say last season was a bad memory," he said, "but I have gone from being a regular in the team to being on the bench".

"It is something that I wasn't used to, so it took a little bit to settle down. It's okay, now I know, and I think next year I am going to fight back and it's going to very difficult to leave me out because I am going to be at my best".